Leaving broadband early: exit fees and free exits

• The fee must be in your contract summary. Since June 2022, providers have had to give you a short contract summary before you sign, and its "Duration, renewal and termination" section must state the contract length and the fees due if you end it early. The summary then becomes part of your contract and can't be changed unless you both expressly agree.
• Leaving must not be made off-putting. Ofcom's General Conditions, the rules every provider must follow, say the conditions and procedures for ending a contract must not act as a disincentive to changing provider (condition C1.8 today; GC 9.3 in the 2015 rules).
• The fee should reflect costs saved. Ofcom's guidance on unfair terms, as described in a 2020 Competition Appeal Tribunal judgment, lets providers base exit fees on the part of the minimum term outstanding, but expects a reasonable pre-estimate of the costs they save, the losses they can avoid and the benefit of being paid early. Ofcom is likely to regard terms that charge more as unfair.

In November 2018 Ofcom fined EE £6.3m and Virgin Media £7m for overcharging customers on discounted deals who left early, and for not making exit charges clear enough. EE had worked out the fees of around 400,000 mobile customers from the full, undiscounted monthly price rather than the discounted price they paid; almost 82,000 Virgin Media broadband customers were overcharged in a similar way.

These are the methods providers describe in their help pages or terms. We've left out amounts, which depend on your package, price and time left.

Some methods deduct costs saved and some, as described, don't, so the same months left can mean quite different fees. BT works its fee out per service contract, so if you added TV or another service partway through, check each end date. Providers can change methods for newer contracts, so your own contract summary always wins.

• Is it based on what you actually pay? On a discounted monthly price, the fee should start from that, not the full price: the point at the heart of the 2018 EE and Virgin Media cases.
• Has anything come off for costs saved and early payment, if your terms say it should?
• Is the end date right? No fee is due for months after your minimum term.
• Are bundled services counted correctly, each with its own end date?
• Does a free exit apply? Check the next section before accepting any fee.

If the fee looks wrong, complain to your provider and keep a record of every contact. If it isn't resolved, you can take it to your provider's alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme, an independent, free service that looks at both sides and decides. For complaints first raised on or after 8 April 2026 you can go to ADR six weeks after you first told your provider (eight weeks for complaints first raised before that date), or straight away if the provider sends you a deadlock letter saying it can't do any more. See our guides to disputing a broadband bill and complaining about your broadband provider.

If you signed up by phone or online, the Consumer Contracts Regulations let you cancel without giving a reason within 14 days after the day you entered the contract. You'll probably pay for anything already used, and there's no legal cooling-off right if you signed up in person, though Citizens Advice says it's worth asking. If you cancel by letter or email, the contract is cancelled from the date you send it, so keep a copy. Our guide to the broadband cooling-off period has the detail.

Since 17 June 2022, providers must give you at least a month's notice in a lasting form, such as an email or letter, of any contract change unless it's solely to your benefit, purely administrative or required by law. The notice must tell you that you can end the contract without an early termination charge, and you have one month from the notice to do so. The right covers contracts bundled with it too.

The old "material detriment" test has gone, so this covers almost any change that isn't to your benefit, such as a rise in the paper-bill charge (ISPreview's example). If you leave this way, the provider can charge only for service up to your leaving date, plus a fee for any bundled equipment you choose to keep. Our guide to contract changes and your rights explains which changes count.

This is where people most often assume they can leave free when they can't. If your contract already says the price will go up each year, the rise is part of what you agreed. Contracts started on or after 17 January 2025 must say exactly how much, in pounds and pence; older ones may use a percentage or inflation. Virgin Media, for example, says that because its annual price adjustment is in its terms, it doesn't give a right to cancel during the minimum period without an early disconnection fee. Citizens Advice adds that you can't leave free over a rise you were told about at the start, such as after some discounted months.

If your terms don't allow the rise and your provider raises the price anyway, that is a contract change that isn't to your benefit, so the section above applies: at least a month's written notice, then one month from the notice to leave without an early termination charge. Citizens Advice describes it as 30 days' notice and 30 days to cancel. Contact your provider within that window, say you're cancelling because of the price rise, and keep a copy. Our guide to mid-contract price rises explains the 2025 rule.

For contracts that started on or after 1 March 2019, ask your provider for your Minimum Guaranteed Access Line Speed (MGALS), the lowest speed it guaranteed for your line, and check on Ofcom's website whether it has signed Ofcom's voluntary codes of practice on broadband speeds. If it has and your speed is below the MGALS, give it your test results: it then has one month to fix the problem. If it can't, you can cancel without a fee, and switch any TV, mobile or home phone in the same deal without a fee too.

Some providers' own guarantees set their own rules. Sky broadband and NOW broadband say that if the download speed to your Sky Hub drops below your guaranteed minimum for three consecutive days or more, you can leave your broadband and Talk (calls) contracts without early termination charges, either then or within 30 days of them confirming the problem can't be resolved. Total loss of service and major outages don't count towards the three days, and speed checks must be done with Sky's service checker, the My Sky app or a service adviser. EE broadband says you can leave without exit fees if speeds fall below your plan's guarantee and it can't fix them.

If your provider hasn't signed the codes, Citizens Advice says it doesn't have to act, but you can ask for a discount or for the fee to be waived. Either way, ask which speed tests your provider accepts, test on several days and at different times, and save each result. Our broadband speed test helps you keep your own record. See our guide to the broadband minimum speed guarantee for more.

Once the fixed minimum term has passed, there's no early termination charge; you just give the notice your contract asks for, or switch and let the new provider handle it. Citizens Advice is clear about the flip side: if none of its four situations (cooling-off, a price rise, slow internet, an ended contract) applies, you probably can't cancel without a fee. The contract-change right above is the other main exception. If you'd like to be able to leave at short notice next time, see our guide to rolling monthly broadband contracts.

First check whether your provider offers the same service at your new address; if it does, Citizens Advice says you might pay a small fee to move it. If it doesn't, or you're renting somewhere that already includes broadband, you might face a cancellation fee, but explaining your situation may get it reduced or removed.

Some terms are more generous. Sky's broadband terms (from April 2025) say that if a product you take isn't available at your new address, you can end the contract without an early termination charge or pick another product available there. Voneus's terms waive its exit charge if you give 30 days' written notice and move somewhere it doesn't serve. Check what's available at your new address with our broadband deals by area pages, and see our guide to broadband when moving home.

On 27 March 2017 the government announced that, under the Armed Forces Covenant, BT, Sky, EE, Plusnet, TalkTalk and Virgin Media had committed not to charge Armed Forces personnel cancellation fees for broadband and media packages when posted overseas or to a part of the UK their provider doesn't cover. That announcement is several years old, so confirm the current terms with your provider before relying on it.

Citizens Advice says that if your provider has a social tariff, a lower-priced plan for eligible customers, you can move to it at any time without paying, as long as you're the main account holder. Providers that have signed the Telecoms Consumer Charter, published on GOV.UK, commit to let customers in financial difficulty move to cheaper packages without charge or penalty. See our guides to broadband social tariffs and struggling to pay your broadband bill.

A few providers offer help with leaving your old contract, but the offers work differently.

• Hey!Broadband has a Contract Buyout Team. Its buyout offers come as free months or bill credits, depending on the promotion running, and you need to send proof of your current contract to claim.
• YouFibre offers a contract buy-out contribution towards your old provider's exit fee if you join it for 24 months. You need a final bill that shows the early termination charge as a separate item, in the same name and for the same address as your new service, and it pays you back after you've paid your first YouFibre bill.

Before relying on either, check how much is covered, the evidence needed and any deadline to claim.

Being moved to a new provider without your consent is known as slamming, and under One Touch Switch the provider you're switching to must take reasonable steps to prevent it. We haven't found a general rule giving every slammed customer a fee-free exit, but Ofcom has acted where it happened: in November 2021 it fined two small providers £35,000 in total over at least 110 customers switched without consent in 2019, and made them release those customers without charge and refund exit fees paid. Complain to the provider that switched you, and use ADR if it isn't put right. See our guide to broadband switching problems.