31.25% April 2026 Price Increase from O2

Johnnyab

Had this text from O2 yesterday. I am paying the £10.80 now. Hope they stick to it. 

Hello. We're getting in touch to let you know that your monthly rolling Airtime Plan, is £10.80, this excludes any current discounts you may have. This is separate to your Device Plan. 

You can choose to stay on the same airtime tariff or move to another eligible airtime tariff. 

For more information and some airtime tariffs to consider

* Monthly price of your Airtime Plan will increase every year from your April bill by £1.80, except data only and watch plans which will increase by 75p. Out of bundle charges will increase each year by 5% from 1st April.

googyflip

Well! Seems this post is a a little famous as it's the one linked on the weekly MSE email for the O2 Price Hike article at the bottom, who'd have thought!

Anyways, thanks for the responses all and despite me originally planning on waiting until March to move away from O2, the more I've seen how O2 are treating it's customers makes me not want to have anything to do with them.

I'm lucky enough to live in an area where I can consider other network providers, so have requested my PAC and gone with Smarty Mobile (will test the benefit of the Three + Vodafone network signals from that merger), £10 pm for 80GB (which also let's me have more than twice the data than with O2 and save money further as will use this instead of the Tesla Premium Connectivity £9.99 pm by hotspotting)

stuchop

Most impressive when I contacted O2 was their agent told me the price rise being fixed on them by Ofcom, they repeated that twice and then refused to tell me how to cancel

bjorn_toby_wilde

Mike_from_Croydon said:

I agree with the original poster, it's absurd to have a flat rate increase regardless of the amount currently paid.  I was on a deal which follows on from one I got with Virgin (via MSE) paying £7.16 per month (10G and unlimited minutes, with roaming in Europe).  So my increase would have been 35%!  Whether or not this is a consequence of Martin Lewis' "good intentions gone bad", it has had the good effect of prompting me to transfer to another provider (Lebara on a comparable deal, obtainable until 7 Nov via MSE) which will be £1.99 to start - and even when it increases it will be £5.90, less than I was paying even before O2's planned increase!

Make sure your email (especially webmail) security is the very best and your bank accounts and credit cards protected by 2FA and passkeys if you’re moving to Lebara.

jcb208

I have just got my PAC from o2 and not even bothered to get a new deal,my £7 sim only deal after two years would of gone up to over £11,voted with my feet and signed up with Smarty 10GB at £6,00 per month rolling

oldernonethewiser

bjorn_toby_wilde said:

Mike_from_Croydon said:

I agree with the original poster, it's absurd to have a flat rate increase regardless of the amount currently paid.  I was on a deal which follows on from one I got with Virgin (via MSE) paying £7.16 per month (10G and unlimited minutes, with roaming in Europe).  So my increase would have been 35%!  Whether or not this is a consequence of Martin Lewis' "good intentions gone bad", it has had the good effect of prompting me to transfer to another provider (Lebara on a comparable deal, obtainable until 7 Nov via MSE) which will be £1.99 to start - and even when it increases it will be £5.90, less than I was paying even before O2's planned increase!

Make sure your email (especially webmail) security is the very best and your bank accounts and credit cards protected by 2FA and passkeys if you’re moving to Lebara.

Not bad advice in general but is there an known issue with Lebara?

JDJB_Jimbo22

I recently upgraded my O2 contract at the beginning of August, so to have this thrown in only 3 months in, is honestly quite trust destroying. I have been a customer for 5 years now, switched from EE I felt like they didn't reward loyalty. and feels like the same thing happening again.

The problem I have is, yes, you can cancel your contract without a penalty fee, but my understanding is you still have to pay your contract balance which for me is another 2 years. So yes i could cancel but I would still have to pay £500 to get out of my contract which kind of defeats the whole object of it all, and for many forces people to stay on.

Is there a way to cancel your contract and not pay the balance if the provider issues an increase to monthly contracts without warning?

mmel

rdajackson said:

mmel said:

mmel said:

I recently purchased a Samsung phone via their website and opted for the O2 2 year contract. The phone was provided by Samsung / Mobileshop Affordable Mobiles Limited.

The email from when I ordered with Samsung stated the device "is supplied by Mobileshop and not by O2. "

So if I cancel the O2 Airtime contract, will the device be "left alone" i.e. it won't get blocked??

Update: I've just noticed the thread about this stated "We've asked O2 how this will work if you took out a bundled contract through a third-party reseller and we'll update this story when we get an answer."

I assume I'll be in that group then?

Edit: I have paid an amount to Samsung for the device and no further payments are due, but it was a rather low amount - presumably they were reliant on their "referral" amount of me taking out an O2 Airtime agreement.

I am in the same boat. Just cancelled the contract, haven't even made my first payment. Have had text confirmation and MyO2 no longer shows the account.

Super cheap 25 Ultra! Gone from being very annoyed with the increase to being absolutely chuffed.

I've just been reading the T&C's (I know I'm sad!!) but it looks as though they may be able to take action, (if they wish to do so) - a summary below:

Discounted Device Linked to Network Contract

If you paid a reduced one-off fee for the handset because you agreed to a Network Contract, then:

You’re contractually bound to:

• Maintain the Network Contract for the full Minimum Term (usually 12, 24, or 36 months).
• Pay the Tariff (monthly airtime charges) to the network provider as agreed.

What happens if you don’t?

• Samsung may remotely disable your device 14 days after a missed payment.
• You may be liable for:
• Outstanding Tariff payments to the network provider.
• Legal action from Samsung to recover the handset.
• You could lose access to:

• Promotional benefits (e.g. cashback, free gifts, line rental refunds).
• Future purchases — Samsung may refuse further orders from you.

Key Clauses

• Clause 7–8 under “Contract Phones Only” outlines that the discount is conditional on maintaining the Network Contract.
• Clause 4 under “Risk and Title” confirms Samsung retains rights to disable the device if the contract terms aren’t met.

I won't invoke my PAC code just yet.

flaneurs_lobster

JDJB_Jimbo22 said:

Is there a way to cancel your contract and not pay the balance if the provider issues an increase to monthly contracts without warning?

Go and read your email from O2 again. The ones quoted here have said that the airtime bit of the contract can be cancelled (if it's being increased by 30%) without penalty while the device bit of the contract  can continue to be repaid monthly as now OR you can choose to repay the whole thing now.

Does your email say different?

paddyposh

I just rang o2 about my phones airtime and tried to change it. They basically said the early exit without penalty only applies if I cancel it and leave. I wanted to stay with them due to volt benefits etc but reduce the cost and get a SIM only tariff but apparently not possible to do. I’d have to just straight up cancel and move away. The chap was mega pushy too about just upgrading because I have switch up