How mobile exit fees are calculated
Every UK network publishes a charging methodology for leaving early, because Ofcom’s guidance on unfair contract terms requires exit fees to reflect what the network actually loses. The usual shape is the payments left on your minimum term, minus a small discount of 2 to 4 percent for costs the network saves and for getting its money early. Tesco Mobile goes further and removes VAT before its discount, which is why its fees come out roughly 20 percent lighter than the headline sum.
Phone contracts add a wrinkle. On EE’s classic plans and everything from Three and iD Mobile, the phone and airtime sit in one agreement, so one formula covers the lot. On O2, Vodafone, Sky Mobile, Tesco Mobile and EE’s Flex Pay, the phone sits on its own interest-free credit agreement: that balance is owed in full whatever happens to the airtime, which is why the calculator asks for it separately. The quiet upside of the split model is O2’s: its Refresh airtime plans carry no exit fee at all, so leaving O2 mid-contract usually just means settling the phone.
And before you pay anything, check you actually owe anything. Rolling plans from the likes of SMARTY, VOXI and giffgaff have no exit fees, out-of-contract plans anywhere have none either, and a mid-contract price rise that was not clearly agreed up front gives you a fee-free exit under Ofcom’s rules. Our guide to mid-contract price rises covers that exit right, and our switching guide covers the PAC process once you have decided. For the full picture, network by network, our guide to what leaving a mobile contract early costs pairs with this calculator.
Five ways to avoid the fee entirely
Before paying anything, check whether one of these applies. First, your minimum term may already be over; text INFO to 85075 and your network must reply with your contract status and any fee. Second, a mid-contract price rise or a change to your terms that was not clearly agreed up front gives you 30 days to leave fee-free under Ofcom’s rules. Third, most networks let you move to a cheaper plan instead of cancelling, which shrinks any future fee and often solves the actual problem. Fourth, cooling-off windows of 14 to 31 days apply to new contracts, with a full exit. And fifth, if the fee stands, time it: every month you wait, it shrinks by one month’s worth.
One warning in the other direction. Requesting a PAC costs nothing and commits you to nothing, but the moment your new network uses it, your old contract ends and any exit fee bills that day. Get the fee figure first, decide second.
Bought your phone through a retailer?
It makes no difference to the fee. When a retailer sells you a Three, EE or iD Mobile contract, the retailer is the shop, not the network: the agreement you signed is with the network, on the network’s standard terms, so the formulas above apply exactly as if you had bought direct. That also settles who to contact when you leave. You cancel with the network, never with the shop that sold the deal.
The one retailer-specific cost to check is cashback. Many retailer deals pay cashback in instalments across the contract, claimed at set months, and those terms usually require the contract to still be live. Cancel early and the remaining instalments are typically forfeited, which is a real cost the exit-fee formula never shows. Dig out the cashback terms before you decide; on a big cashback deal, the unclaimed instalments can outweigh the exit fee itself.
What happens after you cancel
The fee lands on your final bill. Vodafone says it bills within 22 days of leaving, Sky charges the card on your account, and most networks fold it into one last statement alongside any normal charges up to your end date. Which leads to the most common self-inflicted wound in switching: cancelling the Direct Debit too soon. iD Mobile puts it plainly in its own help pages, because a failed final payment can mean chasing letters and a mark on your credit file over a bill you always owed. Leave the Direct Debit alone until the final bill has gone out.
Your number, meanwhile, is safe as long as you move it deliberately. A PAC lasts 30 days and porting completes within one working day; if you cancel outright without porting, the number is eventually lost, and on some networks an inactive account closes after a few months. And if the phone itself was the reason you are leaving, remember it may still be locked: handsets sold before December 2021 can carry a network lock, which your old network must remove free of charge.
Finally, keep the paperwork honest on both sides. Your network must confirm the exit fee in writing when it issues a PAC, and the final bill should match that figure. If it does not, or a fee appears after a price-rise exit that should have been free, complain to the network first and escalate to the ombudsman after eight weeks. Fees that ignore the published methodology are exactly what those schemes exist for.
