Virgin Media to hike prices by £56 a year for millions of broadband, TV and phone customers

MILLIONS of Virgin Media customers are set to pay £56 a year more from March.

Bills for 2022 are set to rise by almost £5 a month from March 1 - or £56.40 for the year.

The hike will affect millions of Virgin Media broadband, TV and fixed-line phone customers.

However, Universal Credit claimants with Virgin Media's Essential broadband package and those on a Talk Protected landline contract won't see their prices change.

For the rest of Virgin Media's cable customers, however, prices are set to go up 16p per day from March 1.

That means a £4.70 monthly increase - or £56.40 for the entire year.

Affected customers will be able to cancel their contract if they're unhappy about the rise - and they won't have to pay a fee, Virgin Media told us.

The Right to Cancel means all impacted customers can end their deal early within 30 days of the receipt of their letter or email telling them about the price rise.

Otherwise, you'll face an depending on your contract with Virgin Media.

It could be up to £240, depending how long is left on your term.

A Virgin Media spokesperson said: “While we recognise a price change is never welcome, we are reviewing our pricing to fuel further investment in our network and services, both now and in the future.
 
“We’re committed to providing brilliant services and excellent overall value, and consistently give our customers more for their money than anyone else.” 

Virgin Mobile customers will now see the airtime price of their contract rise each April by the January rate of RPI inflation plus 3.9%.

That means the charge for calls, texts and data will rise but the device loan charge will be unchanged.

Virgin Media advertises how much of your contract cost goes to each side of the deal.

For example, if you're on a £40 per month phone contract including £25 for the phone itself and the other £15 on calls, texts and data, your price hike will only apply to the £15 airtime fee.

With RPI inflation set to be around 6% in January, you can therefore expect roughly 10% added onto your airtime bill - or £1.50 a month.

Across the year, your £40 per month contract will now set you back £498 rather than £480.

Last year, Virgin Media increased its average prices by £54 for 2021.

Virgin Media has said each customer will receive a personalised communication on how much their bill will increase by.

The company also pointed to higher usage of its services to explain the price hike.

They said customers were using 40% more data per day in 2021 than in 2019.

O2 customers are not affected by the move.

Oomph customers paying for the bundled service of mobile and cable services are excluded from the mobile price change.

The bad news follows estimates that household bills are set to top £2,000 this year.

But you can still do your best to beat the squeeze with our top money saving tips.