Why has my broadband bill gone up?

Run through these in order, because the further down the list you go, the more money is usually on the table.

The first is the annual in-contract rise. Most providers raise their prices once a year, in spring, even while you are still inside your minimum term. This is the increase written into the contract, and for deals taken from 2025 onward it is a fixed amount in pounds rather than a vague percentage. It is real, but it is the smallest of the five.

The second, and by far the biggest, is that your contract has ended. Almost every deal is sold at a discounted rate for 12, 18 or 24 months, and when that term is up the discount falls away and the price rolls onto the provider's standard rate. Nobody phones to tell you. This single change is behind most genuine bill shocks, and we come back to it below because it matters more than the other four put together.

The third is an introductory offer expiring inside your term. Some deals layer a short opening discount, say six months half price, on top of the contract rate, so the bill steps up partway through even though your contract has not ended. Check the small print of what you signed; the step is usually written there.

The fourth is a package change you may not have clocked. Adding a TV pack, a sports channel, a call bundle or a faster tier pushes the bill up, and so does a bundle discount quietly dropping off when one part of it ends. If you changed anything recently, that is the likely culprit.

The fifth is a one-off charge rather than a permanent rise: a late-payment fee, a non-direct-debit surcharge, an out-of-bundle call or usage on an old capped plan. These show up as a single bigger bill that then returns to normal, so compare this month against the last two before you assume the worst.

For years the annual in-contract rise was the part of a broadband bill nobody could predict. Providers tied it to inflation, usually the Consumer Price Index plus a few percent, and announced the figure each spring once inflation was known, so when you signed you had no idea what you would actually pay a year later. Plenty of customers did not even know the clause was there.

That changed on 17 January 2025. Ofcom banned inflation-linked, percentage-based price rises in all new contracts. Any increase written into a deal you take now has to be set out up front in pounds and pence and stated clearly at the point of sale, typically somewhere around £2.00 to £4.00 a month. You still get a rise, but at least you can see the number before you commit.

The important catch: the rule does not rewrite older contracts. If you signed before 2025, you may still be on an inflation-linked term, and this spring's rise could be the percentage kind. Either way, an in-contract rise is the smaller problem. The bigger one is below.

If your bill has jumped by a chunk rather than a pound or two, the overwhelming likelihood is that your contract has ended and you have rolled onto the standard rate. This is the increase worth acting on, because it is both the largest and the easiest to undo.

The numbers are stark. Around 40% of UK broadband customers, roughly 8.7 million homes, are out of contract right now, and in 2024 they were paying about a quarter more on average than people on a current deal for the very same line, rising to over a third more for anyone on standalone broadband. Loyalty is not rewarded here; it is quietly charged for.

Finding out where you stand takes a minute. Your provider's app or online account shows your contract end date, or it is on your original order confirmation, and a quick call will confirm it. If the date has passed, you are free to leave with no exit fee, and the higher price you are paying is entirely optional.

The fastest way to see whether that price is a bad one is to check it against the market: thirty seconds comparing what you now pay against the cheapest deal at your address that is at least as fast, with the gap shown in pounds and pence.

Once you know why the bill rose, you have three ways to bring it back down.

The first is to haggle. If you are out of contract, or close to it, call your provider and ask for their retentions or "thinking of leaving" team. Tell them the price has gone up and you are looking at cheaper deals elsewhere, which is true. Providers keep a budget for keeping customers, and a new-customer-style discount or a bumped speed at the same price is a common save. Have a real alternative deal in front of you when you call; it is the difference between a polite no and a genuine offer.

The second is to switch, which is usually where the biggest saving sits, because the keenest prices go to new customers and your own provider rarely matches them in full. Switching is no longer the ordeal it was: since One Touch Switch went live in September 2024 you contact only the new provider, they arrange everything, your old line cancels itself and a like-for-like swap can happen in a single day with no gap in service.

The third, if money is the priority over speed, is to downgrade. If you are paying for an ultrafast tier you do not use, dropping to a sensible 100 to 300 Mbps line can cut the bill without you noticing any difference in daily use.