Virgin Media hits millions of customers with yet another broadband price hike

Virgin Media is set to hit five million broadband, TV and home phone customers with yet another annual price hike. This price bump will see costs rise by up to 5% for both existing and new UK customers from November.

The telecoms giant began sending letters to Virgin Media customers yesterday (1 August), with some customers possibly seeing the changes in their bills as early as October. The company noted that the majority of customers will see an increase of between £1.99 and £3.99 per month.

The biggest increases will hit those with packages that provide fast broadband speeds, especially those on the provider's 300Mb-speed deal and "Full House" customers that offer more TV channels and home phone deals.

Virgin Media has confirmed that those customers with monthly discounts will still receive their perks, with any potential percentage discount directly applied to the additional fee.

"We do everything we can to balance keeping our prices competitive while investing to meet the ever-increasing appetite for broadband and content," a Virgin Media spokesperson told Money Saving Expert.

"Online usage increased by more than 35% in the last year and streaming now accounts for nearly 60% of the total traffic on Virgin Media's network.

"We're investing more in our ultrafast network to continue offering the UK's fastest widely available speeds. This all comes on top of must-see TV programming – from Virgin TV exclusives to the only place where you can watch all of the live football action from both Sky and BT Sport in a single package."

Virgin Media hit the headlines in June for a bug that left two of its 'Super Hub' routers devices open to hacking. It later urged 800,000 customers to change their network and router passwords as a safety precaution.