BT to hike mobile, broadband and home phone prices by up to £11.40 year from next month – and how to avoid it

MILLIONS of BT mobile, broadband and landline customers will be hit with price hikes from next month.

The telecoms provider has revealed that users will see bills rise by 1.3 per cent in line with December's consumer prices index (CPI) rate of inflation, as announced in January.

The move will see 60p a month - or £7.20 a year - added to the price of BT's most popular deals, although some customers will pay more depending on their package.

For example, if you have BT's Apple iPhone Pro Max 24-month contract costing £73 a month - you'll pay 95p a month more - or £11.40 a year extra.

But not everyone is affected. The increase only applies to those who took out a new contract or renewed an existing contract between January 11, 2019 and January 16, 2020.

The reason for this, is that this is when BT decided to introduce annual increases in line with CPI, and these users would have been told before signing-up.

Those who joined BT or renewed their contract prior to January 11, 2019 aren't affected.

While those who joined or renewed their contract after January 16, 2020 will see prices rise in line with CPI next year.

Separately, BT is also upping the cost of call features and calls made outside of plans for all customers regardless of when you joined - and these aren't linked to CPI.

For example, calls to UK landlines will rise by 6 per cent from 15p a minute to 15.9p a minute. See for a full list.

The price changes all take force from March 31.

This is the first price rise for BT broadband, mobile and landline customers in 18 months after it froze prices in 2019.

The telecoms giant wouldn't tell us how many customers are affected but it has 26.8million household customers, including those of its sister brand EE.

BT TV and BT Sport customers are unaffected - they saw prices rise by £48 a year last July.

EE also announced 2.2 per cent price hikes for its mobile users earlier this month, although they don't take force until March 30.

BT customers still within their minimum contract period can't cancel as a result without being hit with hefty early exit fees.

Once this period is over - it usually lasts 12 to 24 months - you can leave without incurring any charges.

But those outside of their minimum contract period can leave free of charge.

See the box above for more tips on how to escape the price hike.

BT says affected customers will be told about the increase from February 10, while customers can also log-in to MyBT to check on how the changes affect them.

A BT spokesperson said: “We know price rises are never welcome, but we have now linked price changes to CPI to make our pricing fairer and more predictable for our customers.”