Millions of Virgin Media customers will see £56 a year price hike in 2022

Millions of Virgin Media customers could see £56 a year price hike as cost of broadband, TV, landline AND mobile contracts increase

  • Many Virgin Media customers will see large price hikes to their bills this year 
  • Millions will see their bills rise by £5 a month – equivalent to £56.40 a year  


Virgin Media customers could see bills rise by as much as £56 a year from March 2022.

Broadband, TV and landline consumers could see their bills rise by just under £5 a month, equivalent to £56.40 for the year.

On average, cable customers will receive a price increase of £4.70 per month, equivalent to just under 16p per day, which will come into effect on 1 March this year. 

Meanwhile, Virgin Mobile customers will see their prices increase by January’s rate of RPI plus 3.9 per cent, effective in April.

Millions of Virgin Media customers will see large price increases in the coming months

However, what this rate is will not be revealed until the inflation figure is released by the Office for National Statistics in February.

Virgin said for those on Virgin Mobile Freestyle contracts, which the significant majority of its Pay Monthly customers are on, it only applies RPI plus 3.9 per cent to the airtime element of its customers’ bills, as it splits a customer’s bill into two parts (airtime and handset).

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

This is compared with those who sell combined airtime and device mobile tariffs and apply price rise to both charges.

Meanwhile, Virgin Media Oomph customers (a bundled service of Virgin Media’s mobile and Cable services) are excluded from this mobile price change. 

Vulnerable customers, including those on Virgin’s Essential broadband package for people receiving Universal Credit, as well as Talk Protected landline customers, will not see their prices change.

All customers will be contacted by Virgin Media within the coming days to let them know of the upcoming changes with  personalised communication on how much their bill will increase by.

It comes at a time when household bills are expected to rise substantially in the coming months with energy prices rocketing and food costs also increasing to their highest in a decade. 

A Virgin Media spokesperson said: ‘While we recognise a price change is never welcome, with rising costs and our customers using their services more than ever, 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.’

Many Virgin Media customers have expressed frustration at the upcoming price hikes

Many Virgin Media customers have expressed frustration at the upcoming price hikes

Whilst bills often increase, many consumers do not expect to see changes whilst mid-contract.  

However, Virgin said it is seeing rising customer usage and the price changes are necessary to help it meet that demand.

It added, at the end of last year, its customers were, on average, using 40 per cent more data than they were in 2019 and downloading 19 per cent more broadband data per day than 2020.

O2 customers will not be affected by the changes.  

Many customers have taken to social media to show their frustration with the latest price hike with some threatening to leave.

This Virgin Media customer said they had been informed their bill was going up over 10%

This Virgin Media customer said they had been informed their bill was going up over 10%

Another customer said they had received another price hike after getting one last year

Another customer said they had received another price hike after getting one last year

This Twitter user suggested he would be looking to find another provider after the hike

This Twitter user suggested he would be looking to find another provider after the hike

Customers looking to avoid these extra charges can leave their service without paying an exit fee, Virgin has confirmed.  

To see if you could save money on your broadband, TV, landline or mobile services, use price comparison sites to see if you could benefit by switching supplier or tariff.

However, if you find a cheaper deal, it is always worth bringing this to the attention of Virgin, who may come back with a more attractive offer.