Martin Lewis issues urgent warning to anyone with Sky, Virgin Media or TalkTalk broadband

Money saving pro Martin Lewis has issued a stark warning to broadband customers, including those with major providers such as Sky, Virgin Media and TalkTalk, following recent price hikes.

In the past month, all the big-name broadband providers have upped their prices. TalkTalk, for instance, increased bills for customers mid-contract by 7.7% in April.

Virgin Media also hiked its prices by 8.8%, which is made up of a 4.9% increase from the RPI inflation rate plus an additional 3.9%. Sky followed suit, raising its broadband and TV prices by an average of 6.7% from April.

However, Martin Lewis reassured his fans that they don't have to accept these price increases lying down, and there are ways to reduce your monthly internet expenses, reports the Express.

Unless you're still within your contract period - typically the first 12 to 18 months of your current deal - you're actually free to switch providers with just 30 days' notice. This is because once your initial contract period has ended, you'll be on a rolling month-to-month payment plan.

This opens up the possibility of taking advantage of new customer deals from other suppliers using price comparison websites. As well as this, if you cancel your current plan to swap, you might find that your existing broadband provider offers you a better deal to stay - meaning you won't even need to switch.

Martin Lewis shared a story from one listener of his BBC Sounds The Martin Lewis Podcast who managed to save £144 a year on his broadband simply by switching providers.

The fan revealed: "I managed to get my phone bill down from £52 a month to SIM-only for £9. Plus my fibre broadband from £32 a month to £20."

Martin responded by saying: "This is a no-brainer for those 20 million people but if you sit on your mobile and broadband you are likely paying far more than you need and frankly you are being ripped off and you will not be getting enough data and you will not be getting fast enough speeds."

He continued: "So you will not only be paying too much but you will be getting sub-service level products. That is something you need to check out. There will be some out there who are all sorted. For you? Wonderful. But for tens of millions of people in the UK, you're paying too much for your broadband and it's not fast enough, you're paying too much on your mobile and you're not getting enough data. That's what I want to sort today."

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