BT customers are starting 2018 facing much higher bills.

The telecoms giant is putting up prices for millions of users from today with many facing an increase of around £2 per month.

BT states that these extra costs are being used to help invest in the future of its services with a spokesperson saying: “We are investing more than ever in broadband, including boosting the speed, data and cloud storage of millions of customers.

"And answering 85 per cent of our customers' calls in the UK and Ireland by creating an extra 2,200 jobs here.

"We know that no one likes price changes, but this allows us to upgrade our services and give you more. Every customer will see improvements to their products and services alongside these changes."

So how much extra is today’s price rise going to cost you?

Every customer who is seeing an increase should have received confirmation from BT but here’s how the extra costs breakdown.

Standard BT broadband • This will increase by £2 per month.

Fibre BT broadband • This will increase by £2.50 per month.

Along with broadband prices going up there are also increases to the cost of BT calls the BT Sport service.

Calls to landlines and mobiles are rising by 1p per minute and packages such as Unlimited anytime landline calls are also going up by around 50p per month.

BT has confirmed that there are still plenty of good deals with the company saying: “There are great personalised offers for our broadband customers.

“They can stay on the same broadband deal for the same price as they were paying before this change, if they sign a new contract. Or they can choose to upgrade to a better product, usually offering more speed or more data, for their new price, which will be frozen for 18 months.”

So if you are with BT it’s certainly worth calling them (0800 085 7346) to check the deal you are on and see if you can get a better offer.

If you are not locked into a contract it might also be worth looking at other providers as many will offer good deals to new customers.

Virgin Media currently has a deal which gives users fibre broadband for £27 per month for 12 months - saving over £60.

Sky is also offering a bargain deal with new customers able to get their Unlimited Broadband for £18.99 per month for 12 months.

This saves £10 per month on the usual price plus Sky is throwing in a £50 prepaid MasterCard to anyone who takes out a contract.

Another supplier that is trying to tempt consumers is TalkTalk.

The broadband firm is currently offering 25 per cent off its Fibre service with prices starting from £19.95 per month.

So, the advice is simple.

If you're affected by the BT price rise make sure you shop around for a better deal as it could end up saving you a large amount of money over the course of the year.