Leaving a mobile contract early almost never costs the full amount left on it. Every UK network publishes a formula for the fee, most of them knock a discount off the remaining payments, and on a few the honest answer is nothing at all. O2 charges no exit fee on the airtime side of its phone contracts. Rolling plans carry no fee anywhere. And Ofcom's rules open several fee-free exits that most people never use. This guide puts each network's formula into plain words and walks through every route out that costs nothing; for a figure based on your own plan, our mobile exit fee calculator does the arithmetic in seconds.
How networks work out the fee
The starting point is your monthly price times the months left on your minimum term. A £20 plan with six months to run leaves £120 on the table. But your network cannot simply bill you all of it. Ofcom's guidance on unfair contract terms says an early termination charge, the official name for an exit fee, should reflect what the network actually loses. In practice that means passing on the costs it saves by no longer serving you, and Ofcom's rules add that the charge must never work as a barrier to switching.
That is why the discounts exist. Most networks take 2 to 4 percent off the remaining total, worth £2.40 to £4.80 on that £120 example. Tesco Mobile goes much further and removes VAT before its discount, turning £120 into £97. The differences look small on a cheap SIM, and they are. On a £40 phone contract with a year left, though, the gap between the gentlest published formula and the harshest is more than £90.
What each network charges
The table puts every published method into plain words, with what a £20 a month plan with six months left would cost on each network. Every formula was checked against the network's own terms, price guides and help pages on 28 August 2026, and each source is linked on the calculator page.
| Network | How the fee is worked out | £20 a month, six months left |
|---|---|---|
| EE | 96 percent of the remaining payments. | £115.20 |
| O2 | 96 percent of remaining airtime; phone contracts pay no airtime fee. | £115.20 (SIM only) |
| Vodafone | 98 percent of the remaining payments. | £117.60 |
| Three | 97 percent, phone and airtime in one agreement. | £116.40 |
| Sky Mobile | Per-plan fee table; around 85 percent in Sky's own examples. | around £102 |
| Tesco Mobile | VAT removed, then 97 percent. | £97.00 |
| iD Mobile | Up to the full remaining amount. | up to £120 |
| Lyca Mobile | 96 percent of the remaining payments. | £115.20 |
| Lebara | VAT removed, then reduced further for saved costs. | roughly £100 |
| Talkmobile | 98 percent of the remaining payments. | £117.60 |
| Asda Mobile | 97 percent of the remaining payments. | £116.40 |
Source: each network's published terms, price guides and help pages, checked 28 August 2026. SMARTY, VOXI, giffgaff, spusu and Ecotalk sell only rolling plans, so they publish no formula and charge no exit fee.
Three rows carry small print worth a second look. Sky Mobile's SIM plans now come with a 12-month minimum term, so the old idea of Sky as a rolling network you can leave any month is out of date. Sky also publishes exact fees per plan rather than a single percentage, and our 85 percent figure is an estimate drawn from its own examples. Lebara sells a plan named 12 Month No Contract, yet its terms commit you for twelve months and charge a fee if you leave sooner. And Asda Mobile's terms describe a VAT deduction that its own worked example skips; we follow the example, the higher figure, so if anything your final bill comes in lower.
Phone contracts: one agreement or two?
SIM only is the simple case: one plan, one formula. Phone contracts split into two camps, and the camp decides most of your fee. On EE's classic plans and everything from Three and iD Mobile, the phone and airtime are bundled into a single agreement, so the one formula in the table covers the lot. On O2, Vodafone, Sky Mobile, Tesco Mobile and EE's newer Flex Pay deals, the phone sits on its own interest-free credit agreement. That device balance is a loan, and it is owed in full however you leave; the discount only ever touches the airtime side.
The split model hides one generous quirk and two useful options. The quirk is O2's: its Refresh airtime plans carry no early termination charge at all, so leaving O2 mid-contract usually just means settling the phone loan. The first option is Sky's, which will take the device back and offset what is left on its credit agreement. The second is Vodafone's, which lets the device plan run on as normal monthly instalments after the airtime ends, so leaving does not mean finding the whole balance at once.
Numbers make the difference plain. Take a phone contract costing £50 a month with ten months left, split as £25 airtime and £25 device. On O2 that exit costs £250, the device balance alone. On a bundled network charging 97 percent, the same £500 of remaining payments costs £485. The saving is O2's no-airtime-fee rule rather than the split itself: the same leave on Vodafone, where the airtime formula still applies, costs £495 once the device balance is added.
Does getting a PAC code trigger the fee?
No, and this is the misunderstanding that keeps people paying for plans they want to leave. Requesting a PAC, by texting PAC to 65075 or through your account, costs nothing and starts nothing. The reply must state any early termination charge alongside the code, which makes it the easiest way to get your exact figure in writing. The fee only becomes real when your new network uses the code. At that moment your old contract ends, and the charge lands on your final bill.
Ofcom closed the old double-billing trap here too. Under its switching rules, notice periods cannot run past the day your number moves, so your old network cannot add 30 days of notice charges on top of the exit fee. iD Mobile goes further and waives notice charges entirely once a PAC port completes. When you are ready to move, our guide to switching and keeping your number walks through the PAC process step by step.
Four ways to leave without paying
- Wait out the minimum term. Text INFO to 85075 (86075 on iD Mobile) and the reply shows your contract end date and any fee, pulled from your network's own systems. If the end date is close, a short wait may wipe the fee entirely; the figure drops with every month that passes.
- Use a price rise. A mid-contract rise, or any change to your terms that leaves you worse off, gives you 30 days to leave fee-free if it was not clearly set out when you signed. Our guide to mid-contract price rises covers exactly when that right applies.
- Check the cooling-off window. A contract bought online or over the phone comes with at least 14 days to cancel under consumer law, and some networks allow longer. If you signed recently, check your network's returns policy before assuming the clock has run out.
- Downgrade instead of cancelling. Most networks let you move to a cheaper plan mid-contract, and because the fee is built from your monthly price, a downgrade shrinks any future exit fee too. If the problem is the bill rather than the network, this usually solves it without paying anything.
Bought your phone through a retailer?
Your exit fee is still the network's. Fonehouse, Currys and Mobile Phones Direct arrange the deal, but the contract you signed belongs to the network, so the table above already covers you. Retailer deals also tend to be the bundled kind, phone and airtime in one agreement, which means one formula and no separate device loan to settle. When it is time to go, speak to the network; the shop has no contract to cancel.
Two things do sit with the retailer. Faults and returns on the handset itself are the seller's responsibility, so a broken phone goes back to the shop, not the network. And cashback is the trap to check: redemption deals pay out claim by claim while the contract stays live, so ending it early wipes whatever you have not yet claimed. That lost cashback can cost more than the fee you were trying to escape.