Your phone bill may have helped trigger an interest rate hike — here’s how

Your phone bill may have caused higher interest rates — kind of. 

Americans have seen a 5.9% jump in their wireless bills from July to August alone, according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data. In fact, the bump was the largest single-month jump recorded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in about thirty years.

Experts say this spike may have played a role in the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates by 25 basis points — now sitting at a 3.75%-4% range.

The committee voted unanimously (12–0) to approve the hike on Wednesday, marking the first time in three years the central bank has raised rates.

So, was your wireless bill the reason we saw interest rates increase — maybe.

Wireless service is included in the monthly CPI report and did jump in price, driving overall inflation higher. Analysts estimate it tacked on roughly 0.1 percentage point to August’s core CPI.

This matters to the Federal Reserve because it uses inflation data when deciding whether to increase, decrease or hold interest rates. Because the August core CPI increased 0.3% instead of economists’ expected 0.2% — it may have played a role in the higher interest rate.

Here’s what happened.

Back in July, T-Mobile quietly increased bills by $6 per line after retiring over a thousand of old phone plans — shifting them to the current lineup. Just a month later, AT&T joined in by spiking rates on certain older plans by up to $20, increasing a monthly per-line fee by $1.

Verizon also raised prices on its Unlimited Ultimate plan back in May, by $5 per month. This took a single line from $80 to $85, where the increase applied across line configurations. The company also hiked prices on a few add-on perks, including streaming services like Netflix, Max and Apple One.

While Verizon’s price jump might be frustrating, it’s separate from the 5.9% August CPI increase as it happened two months earlier.

The major network provider increasing its prices can be attributed to a few factors.

Wireless giants are forking over billions to build out its large, 5G networks — and aiming to pass the rising regulatory costs on to its consumers. The companies spent roughly $30 billion last year which got them new sites and expanded network capacity, according to industry trade group CTIA.

But aside from the higher wireless bill, the interest rate spike is a concern for millions of Americans. Economists warn the jump will raise borrowing costs on mortgages, auto loans and credit cards — right at a time when consumers are already struggling with a tight housing market and sky-high gasoline prices.

The effort marks the first move from the new Federal Reserve Chair, Kevin Warsh, who is aiming to tamp down inflation.

“The plain fact is that inflation is too high and has been for too long,” Warsh said at a press conference following the vote. “Today’s action starts to show that we’re serious about this.”