31.25% April 2026 Price Increase from O2

googyflip

Hi all, got an email last week from O2 about their annual price rise, which am sure many of you also had. Great wording (not) "From April 2026, your airtime plan will now be increasing by £2.50 instead of £1.80."

Main point of this isn't about the £2.50 increase, it's the % it represents of 31.25%! Unsure of the fixed amount now is an OFCOM thing vs the previous percentage increase there used to be.

I got a decent offer just in July through USwitch of £8 for 32GB SIM, but balk at this inflation busting increase. Seems these deals look good at the time, but due to O2 deciding to do £2.50 next April, very much less value.

Spent 30 mins contacting someone at O2 cancellations, but they're not budging to offer any incentive to stay despite me genuinely looking at moving my two children's SIM's to O2 to benefit from the multiple SIM discounts you can get. Obvs don't want to do that and be hit with another 2 x £2.50 increase on top of the one for me.

Keen to hear other's thoughts and/or recommendations on options that might be less of a future increase.

oldernonethewiser

The percentage increase from O2 is why I left.  Went for one of the MSE Lebara deals.

Exodi

I think this fits the phrase "the path to hell is paved with good intentions".

This is a direct consequence of Martin Lewis's (and others) campaign to clamp down on providers automatically increasing prices by inflation+X%.

In theory, it is right to challenge this, increases shouldn't always be more than inflation, penalising those who forget to switch and/or who don't necessarily comprehend the impact of "Annual increase of CPI+3.9%", particularly over the longer term.

The regulator insisted that they had to put their increase in 'pounds and pence' so the consumer could easily understand the cost impact in advance when comparing packages.

The problem is, as you have pointed out, that there are no limits on this and many providers are happily taking the opportunity to raise their prices by far more than they would have had before the change was enacted. The change is particularly notable on low value contracts.

In Martin Lewis's defence, it's likely he suggested much more rigid regulation, but the actual policy ended up being light on detail and too woolly.

Plenty of other deals, I'd save your breath expecting O2 to waive their increase:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/sim-only/

Isthisforreal99

You can, in part, blame Martin for these flat rate increases - he campaigned against the % + RPI increases. In retrospect, now that inflation isn't anywhere near the 10% it hit, we are now worse off with these flat rate increases.

flaneurs_lobster

The increase doesn't happen until next April.

Don't sweat it, you've 5 months on your current deal. Diarise something in mid March '26 and see what deals are available (from O2, O2's resellers, O2's MVNOs or another network altogether). 

It's what I do with my O2 PAYM, on the same deal you have via USwitch - been good for the past 3 years, never been more than £8, just make sure it's an UPGRADE rather than a new deal.

JSmithy45AD

oldernonethewiser said:

The percentage increase from O2 is why I left.  Went for one of the MSE Lebara deals.

I'm the same, it went from the MSE £5 deal to £5.44(8.8% rise) after 12 months and then jumped to £7.24(33% rise) at the next period (45% rise from when I first took it out). For my limited use it just wasn't worth it to me. I jumped on the Lebara £1 for 6 months and then £4.90 a month on a rolling monthly deal. Everything went smoothly (including a small refund from O2) and around here there's no difference in the signal. Not a squeak from O2 besides the "we're sorry you're leaving" text.

Oddly enough I'm on VM 350Mbps BB and they boosted it to 500 (570/580 at a wired PC) which is still active 4 months later.

Neil49

flaneurs_lobster said:

The increase doesn't happen until next April.

Don't sweat it, you've 5 months on your current deal. Diarise something in mid March '26 and see what deals are available (from O2, O2's resellers, O2's MVNOs or another network altogether). 

It's what I do with my O2 PAYM, on the same deal you have via USwitch - been good for the past 3 years, never been more than £8, just make sure it's an UPGRADE rather than a new deal.

I'll be doing the same. One thing is certain, I won't be paying the extra £2.50 in April. 

googyflip

flaneurs_lobster said:

The increase doesn't happen until next April.

Don't sweat it, you've 5 months on your current deal. Diarise something in mid March '26 and see what deals are available (from O2, O2's resellers, O2's MVNOs or another network altogether). 

It's what I do with my O2 PAYM, on the same deal you have via USwitch - been good for the past 3 years, never been more than £8, just make sure it's an UPGRADE rather than a new deal.

Thanks, that's exactly what I've done as nothing to act on now, if I did, likely more out of pocket given the decent current cost. Reminder set for March and will keep an eye on things. SMARTY 'looks' a possibility, but will check best option closer to the time.

born_again

flaneurs_lobster said:

The increase doesn't happen until next April.

Don't sweat it, you've 5 months on your current deal. Diarise something in mid March '26 and see what deals are available (from O2, O2's resellers, O2's MVNOs or another network altogether). 

It's what I do with my O2 PAYM, on the same deal you have via USwitch - been good for the past 3 years, never been more than £8, just make sure it's an UPGRADE rather than a new deal.

We have black friday too come & other offers as well over christmas/new year.
Keep a eye out then for good deals.

Sadly as I have virgin & get double data for all in house with02, switching is not really a option

Mckenna

Just checking the email says you can cancel the airtime plan within 30 days without charge
whats peoples expierence of doing this? 

I got my phone through affordable mobiles (AO). So it’s not a split plan between device and handset 

So it’s unclear how cancelling my contract would work 

flaneurs_lobster

Mckenna said:

Just checking the email says you can cancel the airtime plan within 30 days without charge
whats peoples expierence of doing this? 

I presume the device plan continues as normal and you can just move to a sim only? 

That's how it should work. Be careful, there were reports last year of people having grief trying to cancel one half of their contracts - whole thing being cancelled and demands for remaining balance for phones being demanded, and CS not knowing that cancelling airtime was allowed without penalty.  Hopefully this year their CS agents will know the drill.

I've done it in-store, trying to persuade their online system to only cancel airtime was beyond me and their CS support by phone/chat is not the finest.