Mid-contract price rises and what you can do

When Ofcom banned inflation-linked price rises, the requirement it put in their place was simple enough to fit on a beer mat. Any new or renewed contract must set out clearly, in pounds and pence, exactly what you will pay throughout the contract period. If the price rises in month 13, the contract has to say so, say by how much and say from when. Formulas are dead. "CPI plus 3.9%" is no longer something a provider can write into a new contract, and neither is any other percentage dressed up as a price.

Two clarifications. First, the rule applies to contracts entered into from 17 January 2025, not from April 2025 as half the internet seems to believe. Second, price rises themselves are not banned. A provider can still schedule an increase mid-contract, and most of the big ones still do, every spring, with great ceremony. What is banned is the mystery. The rise must be a number you can read before you sign, not a formula that resolves into a number a year later.

Under the old system you were agreeing to a price that did not exist yet. Contracts said the bill would rise each April by the consumer prices index plus a markup, usually 3.9%, and the relevant inflation figure would not be published until months after you signed. Nobody could tell you the real cost of the contract. Not the salesperson, not the provider, not the Bank of England. You were signing a direct debit mandate with a blank in it.

The pounds-and-pence rule fixes that at the point of sale. A scheduled rise now appears in the contract as actual money, so you can add up every month of the term and compare the whole-life cost of one deal against another. The £25 deal that climbs to £31 after a year can finally be weighed honestly against the £28 deal that never moves.

The word "renewed" is doing quiet work here too. Re-contract with your existing provider after 17 January 2025 and the new rules apply to you, whatever your old terms said. Every contract that ends is a one-way door out of the inflation-linked era.

The rule is not retrospective. If you signed before 17 January 2025, the inflation-linked clause in your contract stays valid for the life of that contract, and the provider can keep applying it until your term ends. A 24-month deal signed in December 2024 carries its formula all the way to December 2026. Ofcom chose not to tear up existing agreements, which is tidy law and cold comfort.

It also did not cap anything. A provider can schedule a £3 rise or a £4 rise in a new contract, in pounds and pence, with a date next to it, and that is perfectly compliant. The bet Ofcom has made is that visible prices discipline the market better than price controls would. Whether the bet pays off is between providers and their churn figures.

As for how much your own provider plans to charge, that lives in two places: the contract summary you were given before signing and the provider's own annual price change page. The amounts vary by provider and by product, so check yours rather than trusting a number from a year-old forum post. The forum post has not read your contract.

The question everyone actually asks, and the answer in Ofcom's guidance on telecoms price rises splits three ways.

If the rise was specified in pounds and pence when you signed, no. You agreed to it. It is part of the deal, and leaving early triggers the usual early termination charges. The time to object was at sign-up, which is precisely why the rule forces the number to be visible there.

If the rise was not specified in your contract, or is bigger than what was specified, yes. You are free to exit without being penalised. No early termination charge, no fee, no arguing.

And underneath both sits the general rule. A provider must give you at least one month's notice of any change to your contract that is not to your benefit, and that notice comes with a right to exit without penalty. A surprise price rise is the canonical example of a change that is not to your benefit. The notice period is your window, so use it while it is open.

When a qualifying rise lands, the conversation with your provider should be short. Something like this, in chat or on the phone, does the job:

"You've notified me of a price increase that was not set out in my contract in pounds and pence. Under Ofcom's rules on contract changes, I'm exercising my right to cancel without penalty."

Then the housekeeping. Do it in writing where you can, or save the chat transcript. Note the date the notice arrived, because your exit window runs from there. Ask the agent to confirm, in the same conversation, that no early termination charge will apply. If they claim the rise was specified all along, ask them to point to it in your contract summary, the short document they were required to give you before you signed. If it is not there, hold your ground politely and indefinitely.

If the conversation stalls, raise a formal complaint, and if the complaint goes nowhere the dispute can be taken to the ombudsman for free. Frontline retention teams know this, which is why the customer with the right wording rarely needs to go that far.

A rise that was specified at sign-up gives you no exit, but it does not leave you with nothing. Call the retention team and say the new price does not work for you. Retention agents have discounts that the website does not, and a customer who sounds genuinely ready to leave at the end of their term is exactly who those discounts exist for. The worst outcome is a no and a wasted twenty minutes.

Do the homework first, because the conversation goes better with a number in it. Know what the rival deals at your address cost, know your contract end date and know what the rise adds up to over the remaining months. "Provider X will charge me £26 for the same speed" is a negotiating position. "It just feels like a lot" is a sigh.

If you signed before 17 January 2025 and your contract carries a lawful inflation-linked clause, the honest position is that the rise is probably enforceable and your moment arrives later, at the end of the term, so line it up now. Five minutes with a postcode will tell you whether you are overpaying compared with what is available at your address, and the answer is usually a number large enough to deserve a calendar reminder. When the term ends, switching once your contract is up takes a single contact with the new provider, and the old inflation clause dies with the old contract.

And keep half an eye on the rise itself. If it turns out bigger than the formula in your contract allows, or the provider changes any other term against your interests, the penalty-free exit comes back into play whatever the age of your paperwork.

A price rise is only one of the exits from a broadband contract. The full set of ways to leave without paying a fee runs from the 14-day cooling-off period to a broken speed promise, and it is worth knowing before you negotiate anything. If a rise has handed you an exit and you plan to use it, switching while you are still in contract has its own steps, early termination sums included. The wider rules on what broadband providers can charge sit alongside this one.