Why your broadband bill goes up every April

Almost every UK broadband contract allows the provider to raise your monthly price once a year, and almost every provider does it in spring. The rise is not an error, and it is not usually negotiable after the fact. It is a clause you agreed to, sitting in a document most people never opened.

That does not make it unfair — but it does mean the number that matters is not the headline price on the website. It is the total you will pay across the whole minimum term, and that number is knowable before you sign if you know where to look.

Your monthly price rises once a year, usually in March or April, by an amount written into your contract. Over a 24-month term this typically adds £36–£50 to the total cost. Under rules that took effect in January 2025, new contracts must state the rise in pounds and pence rather than linking it to inflation, so the figure is now predictable if you read the contract summary.

The mechanism, in one paragraph

Your contract has two prices in it, not one. The first is the introductory monthly price you were quoted, which applies for a fixed period — typically the first 12 months, sometimes the whole minimum term. The second is the annual increase clause, which lets the provider lift that price once every 12 months by a defined amount. Because minimum terms are usually 18 or 24 months, most customers see the rise at least once before they are free to leave.

What changed in January 2025

The old model linked rises to inflation: prices went up each April by the Consumer Prices Index plus a fixed percentage, commonly 3.9%. The problem was obvious to anyone who tried to budget — nobody can forecast CPI twelve months ahead, so the actual increase was unknowable at the point of sale. The advertised monthly price told you almost nothing about what you would pay in year two.

Ofcom's remedy, in force for new contracts from 12 January 2025, was to require the rise to be expressed as a specific amount in pounds and pence, stated in the contract itself. You should now be able to find a sentence along the lines of your monthly price will increase by £3.00 each April, and plan around it exactly.

Two limits are worth knowing. The rule makes the rise knowable; it does not cap it, so a large rise is lawful if the contract says so. And contracts signed before the rule took effect may still carry the old inflation-linked wording, which is why the calculation sometimes still cannot be pinned down in advance.

Work out your own number

Take the rise from your contract, not from a news article. Multiply the introductory price by the number of months it applies, then multiply the higher price by the number of months remaining. Add the two. Compare that with the headline price multiplied by the full term — the difference is what the rise actually costs you.

Why the headline price is not the price

Comparison sites rank by the advertised monthly figure, because that is the number in the feed. If one package is £25.99 with a £3.50 annual rise and another is £27.99 with no rise at all, the second is cheaper over two years — £671.76 against £683.76 — despite looking worse on the results page. That inversion is common and almost never surfaced.

The practical consequence: when you compare, always extend the number to the full term. A rise-free contract is worth paying a premium for, but only a modest one. Once the premium exceeds the total rise you would otherwise pay, the cheap-looking deal wins on the arithmetic.

What you can do before the rise lands

• Diarise the anniversary. Notice usually arrives about a month before the increase takes effect, which is late to start comparing alternatives but early enough to make one call.
• If you are inside the last three months of your minimum term, ask for the renewal price now rather than waiting for the letter. Retention offers are discretionary and tend to be better before the rise is applied than after.
• Check whether you are paying for add-ons you no longer use — extra TV boxes, speed boosts, a landline you never plug in. Removing those is often a larger saving than arguing about the rise.
• If you are on a pre-2025 contract with an inflation-linked clause, find the exact wording. Some older clauses have narrower definitions than providers apply in practice, and a mismatch is a legitimate complaint.

What you can do after it lands

If you are still inside your minimum term, the honest answer is that there is usually little to do beyond reducing your package or waiting. A rise permitted by the contract is not a breach of it, so it does not create a free exit — that is covered in detail in our guide on leaving a contract early.

If you are out of term, the rise is a useful trigger to renegotiate. Being out of contract is your strongest position: you can leave with notice at any time, so the conversation is about what it would take for you to stay.

When the rise is genuinely wrong

Three situations justify a formal complaint: the increase is larger than the contract permits, it was calculated on a different basis from the one you were told, or the required advance notice never arrived. Ask for the clause in writing and a copy of the notice. If the answer does not match the paperwork, complain formally. Since 8 April 2026 the provider has six weeks to resolve it (down from eight), or you can escalate sooner with a deadlock letter to the provider's dispute resolution scheme, at no cost — Ofcom explains the six-week rule.