Millions of O2, Three and Virgin Mobile customers to be hit with price hikes of up to 11.7% from April – here's what you need to know
Millions of O2, Three and Virgin Mobile customers will be hit with price hikes of up to 11.7% this spring on the back of a sharp increase in the cost of living. The announcement comes just days after Sky confirmed it would be hiking prices by an average £43 a year (if you're affected, see our Sky-specific help on whether you can beat the hikes).
These hikes come hot on the heels of BT, EE, Plusnet, Shell, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Virgin Media announcing April price hikes for mobile and broadband customers of up to 9.3%.
Here's how much prices will rise by
The table below details when any rises will take place and how much they will increase by for each provider, depending on what product you have and when you signed your contract.
Providers | How much prices will rise by | When hikes come in |
|---|---|---|
O2 | ||
Pay-monthly and Sim-only users with mobiles, tablets and/or smart watches who took out a deal or upgraded from 25 March 2021 (1) | 11.7% | April |
Pay-monthly and Sim-only users with mobiles, tablets and/or smart watches who took out a deal or upgraded before 25 March 2021 (1) | 7.8% | April |
Pay-as-you-go | No change | N/A |
Three | ||
Pay-monthly or Sim-only users with mobiles, tablets, mobile broadband and home broadband who took out a new deal or renewed from 29 October 2020 | 4.5% | April |
Pay-monthly or Sim-only users with mobiles, tablets, mobile broadband and home broadband who took out a new deal or renewed before 29 October 2020 | 7.8% | April |
Pay-as-you-go | No change | N/A |
Virgin Mobile | ||
All pay-monthly and Sim-only customers | 11.7% | April |
Pay-as-you-go | No change | N/A |
(1) Applies to the 'airtime' element of contracts only, so what you pay for calls, data and texts rather than the handset.
If you're out of contract and free to leave, check if you can switch and save
These firms have millions of customers who are out of contract and have been rolled on to often pricier tariffs without signing up for them. But if that's you, you can leave at any point penalty-free – and given the best broadband and mobile deals tend to be for newbies, there's a good chance you're overpaying anyway. Benchmark prices elsewhere and switch if you can get a cheaper deal.
See full help in our How to find cheap broadband deals guide and use our Broadband Unbundled and Cheap Mobile Finder tools to see what other deals are out there.
Alternatively, if you're willing to stay, you can try haggling and see if your provider will match or beat a deal you've found elsewhere. See our Broadband haggling and Mobile haggling guides for more help.
Only Virgin Mobile customers can cancel penalty-free mid-contract
If you're in contract – meaning you actively signed up to a new tariff within the last year or possibly two – the price rise is part of that contract and, sadly, you won't be able to cancel penalty-free.
The only exception is Virgin Mobile, where customers can leave penalty-free as this is a change to contracts. You'll have 30 days to leave on receiving a letter addressing the changes.
Of course, if you're mid-contract and unhappy with the price rise, you should note when your contract's due to end and start looking for new deals nearer the time.
If you're still within your minimum contract term for Sky broadband, mobile or home phone, you can also cancel penalty-free, as long as you do so within 30 days of receiving official notification of the price rise. See our full Sky price hikes MSE News story for more.
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22 April 2025
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