Martin Lewis gives Sky Mobile customers 30-day deadline to avoid price rise | Personal Finance | Finance
Martin Lewis has given Sky customers 30 days to miss its price hike (Image: ITVX)
Sky Mobile customers are set to be hit by a price rise from February even if they are mid-contract. But Money Saving Expert Founder Martin Lewis has reminded customers of a 30-day loophole that will allow them to cancel.
Last year, regulator Ofcom introduced new rules on mid-contract price rises which set out that mobile and broadband firms could no longer use inflation based percentage price hikes and must set out in pounds and pence figures at the outset of a contract what your price rise will be, and when.
Martin has explained to customers that there is a get-out clause for customers to enable them to cancel mid-contract when price hikes are announced.
Sky Mobile customers have been told that prices are increasing by £1.50 a month from February 14, 2026, and it made this announcement on January 6. That gives customers until Thursday, Febuary 5 to act, assuming they were notified on that day.
Once you receive the notification from Sky, it triggers a 30-day countdown to allow you to cancel on Sky, penalty free, and switch to another network to avoid the price rise.
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Martin said: “The most important thing to understand here is if you get a price hike notification and you’re in contract, you have a right to leave your contract within 30 days. Yet it’s 30 days of you receiving notification, not of the price going up (which means many people leave it too late) – so be on watch for that.
“Everyone who gets a notification should then be checking ‘can I get a cheaper deal?’ and is it worth leaving? If it is, get on with it, and even if you’ve a year left on your contract, you’ve a month to ditch and switch with no penalty, no consequences.”
Customers have several options. You could swap to a cheap SIM-only deal, some of which start at just £3 a month.
It’s worth noting that Sky uses O2’s signal, so swapping to Giffgaff or Tesco (or, indeed, O2) will ensure you have the exact same network coverage as you did on Sky.
Martin’s MoneySavingExpert website says it’s still worth contacting Sky to haggle, though, with almost three quarters of customers who negotiated managing to get money off.
MSE reported: “If you’d rather stay with Sky but still want to save, haggling is worth a try – a MoneySavingExpert.com poll conducted last year found that 72% of mobile customers who haggled with Sky were successful in negotiating a better deal.”
Devesh Raj, Chief Operating Officer at Sky, said: “We’ve announced some changes to the prices of our Sky Mobile tariffs. I want to explain what this means for our customers, why it’s needed, and how we’re keeping Sky Mobile among the best value providers in the market.
“Our customers are at the heart of everything we do at Sky. That’s why we combine reliable connectivity, flexible data options, and award-winning service – making it easy to stay connected with choice and confidence.
“To keep improving Sky Mobile and invest in the best and most reliable service, we need to adjust our pricing. These ongoing improvements, combined with rising wholesale and operating costs, mean that most Sky Mobile customers will see a change to their tariff price this year.”
Sky added: “From February 14, the majority of Sky Mobile customers will see their monthly bill increase by £1.50.
“This represents an annual increase of £18, or less than 5p per day.
“We’ve worked hard to keep this increase as low as possible while continuing to deliver the quality, service and value you expect from us – and it is lower than similar changes announced by other major mobile providers.
“This is also the first time we have implemented a price rise for in-contract customers in over seven years. During this time, we’ve continued to enhance network access and expand trade-in offers, ensuring we’re delivering added value.
“We are committed to keeping our customers connected and supporting those who need it most. For the past four years, and continuing this year, we’ve kept our social tariff prices frozen to help protect our most vulnerable customers and ensure they continue to access essential services. There will also be no changes to out-of-tariff costs such as international calls or MMS.”
