Virgin Media announces new broadband price rise that’s bad news for your bills

Virgin Media price rise (Image: VIRGIN MEDIA) ‌ Virgin Media has just begun emailing customers to confirm how their bills will be affected by upcoming price hikes. In the past, Virgin has worked out its increases based on numerous factors such as market conditions but that will all change in 2024. From next year, Virgin says it will push things up by the Retail Price Index (RPI) rate of inflation plus an additional 3.9%. RPI currently stands at around 6 percent meaning Virgin users face bill increases of almost 10 percent when things go up next year. That will add £4 per month to a current £40 plan or £6 if you are now paying £60. Of course, if RPI falls or rises it will change what is added to monthly bills so we won’t know the full impact of what’s to come until Virgin’s November 2023 deadline. That’s the date when the official hikes will be announced with it then hitting bills from April 1st 2024. In the email seen by Express.co.uk, Virgin said: ‘We usually change our prices each year – writing to let you know how much they’re going up and giving you the chance to cancel. From April 2024, we’re doing things differently, so any price rise to your package will be made at the same time every year. This’ll be linked to the Retail Price Index (RPI) rate of inflation plus an additional 3.9% – which means the amount of any increase will be clearer, sooner.’ Virgin is not only the broadband supplier using the RPI method to set pricing. BT, TalkTalk and Vodafone also increase bills using the rate of inflation to work out how much extra customers will pay. Virgin says that anyone unhappy with anything in its latest email can cancel their package, any time before 31/10/2023 without paying any early cancellation fees. That means now could be a good time to shop around as the lower your broadband price is now, the less it will go up when the hikes come into force.