How to check when your broadband contract ends

Broadband is the classic set-and-forget bill: the deal that looked good 18 months ago quietly rolls onto a higher standard rate, and nobody notices because the connection still works. This guide shows you where the end date is, what your provider is legally required to tell you, and the rights that make switching or haggling easy.

The key facts

Four places to find your end date

1. 1
   The provider’s app or online accountUsually under “My package”, “Plan details” or “Contract”. Most show the end date and what you’ll pay after it.
2. 2
   Your original order confirmationSearch your email for the provider’s name around the time you signed up. The minimum term (12, 18 or 24 months) is in the contract summary.
3. 3
   The end-of-contract notificationBy law it arrives 10–40 days before the end date, by text, email or letter — search your inbox for “end of contract” or “minimum term”.
4. 4
   AskProvider chat or phone. They must tell you your end date and whether you’re currently in or out of contract.

What your provider must tell you

Since 15 February 2020, Ofcom’s rules require every broadband, landline, mobile and pay-TV provider to send an end-of-contract notification between 10 and 40 days before your minimum contract period ends. It must set out:

• the date your minimum term ends;
• the services you currently get and the price you pay;
• what changes — to the service and the price — once the minimum term ends;
• the notice period needed to leave;
• the best tariffs the provider can offer you, including deals available to new customers.

If you’re already out of contract, the provider must send you an annual best-tariff notification reminding you that you’re out of contract and showing their best deals.

Why the date matters: the out-of-contract premium

The introductory price ends on the day your minimum term does. From then you pay the provider’s standard rate for the same connection — and any price-rise clause in the contract still applies each year. Ofcom introduced the notifications precisely because customers who stayed out of contract were paying more than new customers for identical services, without knowing they had a choice.

Three things you can do once the end date arrives (or from the notification onwards):

1. Switch — via One Touch Switch (below). New-customer prices are usually the lowest available.
2. Haggle — ring your provider, quote the best new-customer price you can find for the same speed, and ask them to match it. Retention teams have offers that aren’t on the website. Our haggling guide applies almost word for word.
3. Re-contract on the same provider’s best deal — the notification must show you these; sometimes the re-contract price is close to the switch price with no engineer visit.

Price rises: what changed in 2025

For years, most big providers wrote inflation-linked rises into contracts (“CPI + 3.9% every April”) — Ofcom found that only around one in six broadband customers on such contracts both knew about the rise and understood it was inflation-linked. From 17 January 2025:

• New contracts can’t contain inflation- or percentage-linked price-rise terms. Any rise must be stated in pounds and pence, prominently, at the point of sale, with the date it applies.
• Contracts signed before that date can still carry the old CPI-linked clause until you re-contract — one more reason to check what your notification says you’ll pay.
• If a provider raises the price in a way that wasn’t clearly set out in your contract, you can leave without an early termination charge, normally within 30 days of being notified.

Switching: One Touch Switch

Since September 2024, moving broadband between providers works like this:

• You contact only the new provider. They notify the old one and arrange the switch.
• The old provider must send you a summary of any early termination charges and the impact on bundled services (e.g. TV) before you confirm.
• The switch can happen in as little as a day where the technology allows; you don’t pay the old provider past the switch date.
• You have a 14-calendar-day cooling-off period to cancel the switch.
• If the switch goes wrong and you’re without service for more than one working day, you’re entitled to compensation.

This applies across networks — Openreach to Virgin Media, CityFibre to Openreach and so on.

Timing the switch

In short

Find the end date in the app, your order email or the provider’s end-of-contract notification (10–40 days before). Out of contract you pay more for the same connection, so use the notice as your prompt: switch through the new provider (One Touch Switch), or ring and ask for the best-tariff price they’re required to show you. And note the same three dates — end, notice period, price-rise day — for your mobile contract, which follows exactly the same rules.