Personal finance expert says people can leave penalty free after the mobile giant raised prices ‘more than it told them’ it would
Martin Lewis spoke out on Good Morning Britain about the O2 price hikes(Image: GMB)
Martin Lewis has told O2 customers to ‘leave’ the company after it hiked prices by ‘40 per cent MORE THAN IT TOLD THEM’. The personal finance expert lashed out after it emerged the increases will be brought in from April 2026.
On X he said: “O2 price rise feels like a mockery of Ofcom’s consumer protection! O2 has announced that from April 2026, mobile customers will see their monthly bills rise by MORE THAN IT TOLD THEM, £30 a year – up 40% from the £21.60 annual increase previously written into their contracts. You need act quick.”
His Money Saving Expert site said O2 has announced that in April 2026 those who are mid-contract will face bigger price rises than they had been told about. “The original £1.80 a month rise will now be 40% more at £2.50 a month (so £30 a year). As it’s a flat rise for all contracts, those who are on less expensive plans will be disproportionately impacted. Some will see their costs increase by nearly 30%. Even those on O2’s most expensive calls, texts and data plan, which currently costs £34 a month, will see a rise of 7.4% – far above the current 3.8% Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rate of inflation.”
Content cannot be displayed without consent
Mr Lewis hit out on X and said: “This move feels to me a bit like it makes a mockery of @Ofcom‘s new ‘pounds and pence’ consumer protection regime, which came in at the start of this year. It was the regulator’s solution to hideous above-inflation, mid-contract price hikes was that on sign-up firms should tell you in advance, in pounds and pence, the price hikes you’ll face during the contract period.
“Sky has side-stepped this from the start by saying it wouldn’t tell customers of the rises before they sign up, but instead when it does annual price hikes it will allow them to leave penalty free.
“Now O2 is also dancing away, increasing contracts by more than it said it would when people signed up. And while that means all its impacted mobile customers can leave penalty-free – and many should – we know few will. Most will likely just have to suck up a rise that was more than they were told when they signed up.
“The worry is now O2 has opened the door to this behaviour other mobile firms will feel less worried about following suit. It’s a great regret that when Ofcom consulted on these changes it didn’t listen to the proposal I and others made to simply ban above-inflation, mid-contract price rises (or any mid-contract rises).
“And it’s worth noting the rises O2 had told customers of in advance were already usually far above inflation, but now will typically be at least 7% and up to 30%. And all this adds more inflationary pressure to the economy in its own right.”
A few months ago, BT and EE also announced an increase to £2.50 from April 2026. An O2 spokesperson said: “With demand for mobile data at an all-time high, we’re introducing a 70p per month increase to annual price rises for O2 customers, effective each April.
“An annual rise of £2.50 a month – around 8p a day – continues to represent excellent value for services that customers are using more than ever before. We’ve again frozen prices on handset repayment plans and are investing £700m into our mobile network this year to ensure we meet growing demand and give our customers the fast and reliable connectivity they rely on.
“Customers on our social tariffs continue to be exempt from any price changes as part of our efforts to provide support to those who need it most.”
O2 pointed out that BT and EE increased their annual price rises a few months ago, ‘ahead of April 2026’. It added that the annual rise of £2.50 a month equates to around 8p a day, and ‘continues to represent excellent value for connectivity our customers are using more than ever before’.
O2 said it is investing £700m a year into our mobile network to meet growing demand. It is writing directly to impacted customers and giving them the right to exit without penalty if they wish. O2 also said customers on social tariffs are excluded as part of ‘our commitment to supporting those who need it most. It added that no prices are changing today – it’s effective from April.
