Why is my current BT deal so high?

[wickham]

Why is my current BT deal so high for broadband 30Mb/sec and landline? I'm paying £51/m less £8 discount but a check on current deals for broadband 30Mb/sec and landline they are all about £23/m for new customers including BT's new customer deal.

My BT contract for 18 months has run out and the cheaper deals are usually for 24 months, about £300/year compared with my current £550/year, a huge difference. Am I missing something. How did I manage to get into this situation? The deals don't say what the charge will be at the end of the contract, so is this the catch?

The only difference that I can see is that I now have mainly free landline calls but the offers are pay as you go. I don't make many calls so it seems to be worth changing supplier.

[MaraMan]

I pay £40 for 75mbps with BT. I think you need to bargain hard with them when your contract is up for renewal and certainly switching to PAYG for the landline will save you money if you don't use it. We have done exactly that.

MM

[ReformedCharacter]

Why is my current BT deal so high for broadband 30Mb/sec and landline? I'm paying £51/m less £8 discount but a check on current deals for broadband 30Mb/sec and landline they are all about £23/m for new customers including BT's new customer deal.

My BT contract for 18 months has run out and the cheaper deals are usually for 24 months, about £300/year compared with my current £550/year, a huge difference. Am I missing something. How did I manage to get into this situation? The deals don't say what the charge will be at the end of the contract, so is this the catch?

The only difference that I can see is that I now have mainly free landline calls but the offers are pay as you go. I don't make many calls so it seems to be worth changing supplier.

I went through a similar exercise last year. I called BT and asked for a new contract as my old one had expired, the operative offered me a deal (broadband and payg calls) which was considerably higher than the price quoted for a new customer. I pointed out that this was more expensive than the prices they were advertising for new customers and the operative asked me if I had seen the price on a price comparison website. I said that it was on their own site. 'I'll have to check that with my supervisor', he said. Eventually I got the price I wanted, £31 per month for payg calls and 74Mbps download FTTP, rising by inflation (cant remember if rpi or cpi). Then about a couple of months later I got an email offer from BT for a new deal, I thought I'd look and it was another £5 a month cheaper. So I took the new offer. Good for me but not so good for BT. Poor way to run a business IMO.

My advice for anyone dealing with BT is not to log into your account to see 'your deals' but to see what is on offer for a new customer, using a browser private window if need be.

RC

[Infrasonic]

Most of the telcos play the same game - at contract renewal time just say you're leaving and quote the cheaper price and supplier. Miraculously most of the time they suddenly find an 'extra special deal' for existing customers which isn't on their website (via their retentions dept...).

I have two mobiles on different networks and go through this same procedure every year with both of them. It's a charade but can be fun...

[BobbyD]

Because most people never check to see if their payments went up when their offer price ended.

Play them back at their own game. Find the best new customer offer available elsewhere, sign up through a cashback site and make a note in your diary to remind you to switch out in 18 months time. It's probably quicker than negotiating with the retention department these days since you can order a MAC online, you get cashback rather than just having the price met and you get a new hub...

Currently on Sky superfast with anytime calls (not that I use the landline but it was 'free') for £27 a month, and pocketed £85 cashback from tcb for swapping. Not sure what's available atm but there are a number of broadband comparison sites which will point you in the right direction, or keep an eye on sites like HUKD: https://www.hotukdeals.com/search?q=broadband

[GeoffF100]

It's probably quicker than negotiating with the retention department these days since you can order a MAC online, you get cashback rather than just having the price met and you get a new hub...

You do not need a MAC nowadays. You just sign up with your new provider. The exception is where your provider does not use the BT network (e.g. Virgin), but that is about to change. My copper wire broadband with Plusnet expires in just over a month's time. Is it even worth ringing them? I guess it would save me a little trouble if they matched the cheapest competitive quote.

[MrFoolish]

I'd love to know if these call centre staff really "ask their supervisor" or do they just twiddle their thumbs for a minute before following the script?

[AF62]

Notionally I am paying BT £23 a month for 80MB broadband with a phone line but no calls (£4.44 a month broadband plus £18.32 line rental), but over the last three years I have actually only paid them the equivalent of £14.50 a month once you take account of the cashback I received.

If you want the cheapest deals then it depends how far you want to go with your brinkmanship.
1. Pay what they offer you at the end of your contract - not cheap.
2. Phone and ask if they can do anything better - slightly cheaper.
3. Phone and ask what the process is to transfer your number and line to another company, and when they ask why, then tell them that X, Y, or Z is charging less and give them exact details you already prepared - often they will price match. If not then,
4. Sign up to X, Y, or Z at the cheaper price, but it is highly likely BT will call you before your number and line are transferred to 'see what they can do'.

Also worth looking at sites such as Quidco and Topcashback to see what cashback deals are on offer, and also uswitch which has referral links for cheaper deals - for example BT 80MB broadband is currently advertised on the BT website as £32.99, and on uswitch it is also £32.99 but with a £100 giftcard, but if you called them and told them you were leaving and switching to Vodafone at £22 I doubt they would let you walk.

[xeny]

The exception is where your provider does not use the BT network (e.g. Virgin), but that is about to change.

Do you by any chance have any more information about that? I'm very reluctant to change provider when I need it 6 days a week for the OH's work, but once they return to the office.....

[Watis]

It's probably quicker than negotiating with the retention department these days since you can order a MAC online, you get cashback rather than just having the price met and you get a new hub...

You do not need a MAC nowadays. You just sign up with your new provider. The exception is where your provider does not use the BT network (e.g. Virgin), but that is about to change. My copper wire broadband with Plusnet expires in just over a month's time. Is it even worth ringing them? I guess it would save me a little trouble if they matched the cheapest competitive quote.

One benefit of changing broadband supplier is that you're likely to get a new router for free, or a trivial sum. It's a very inexpensive way to get an up to date router with the latest WiFi standard. That's worked for me three times now.

Watis

[AF62]

One benefit of changing broadband supplier is that you're likely to get a new router for free, or a trivial sum. It's a very inexpensive way to get an up to date router with the latest WiFi standard. That's worked for me three times now.

If you are at the end of your contract and told your current supplier you would leave unless they sent you a new router there is no chance that they wouldn't send you the latest one for free if you agreed to stay. Don't ask, don't get.

[BobbyD]

You do not need a MAC nowadays. You just sign up with your new provider. The exception is where your provider does not use the BT network (e.g. Virgin), but that is about to change. My copper wire broadband with Plusnet expires in just over a month's time. Is it even worth ringing them? I guess it would save me a little trouble if they matched the cheapest competitive quote.

Good point I was conflating it with swapping mobile provider where a PAC is still needed to keep your number, although you no longer need to sit through a half hour sales pitch to get one which makes it a far better system.

Recent experience of customer service departments would suggest this might be the best year not to try and phone them ...but I'd take the cheaper deal, the cashback, the new hub, and the chance to avoid speaking to a human anyway. If they want to play a high churn game I'm quite happy to earn £50 - £85 for 15 minutes work.

[Infrasonic]

I'd do some extensive research first with any 'free' ISP modem/router to make sure it gets regular firmware updates from the ISP.

It's essentially the front door to your entire network so is the last thing you want to prioritise based on cost (which is what the ISP's do...). Get something that can do the job properly and securely with the capability to be firmware updated for a long time.

https://routersecurity.org/

[Stompa]

A couple of years or so ago the best renewal deal BT could offer me was very poor, so I instigated a switch to another provider. BT then came back to me with a much better deal (£19.99pm for 50Mbps and 'free' anytime calls), so I ended up staying with them.

When I came to renew again I was very surprised to find that under 'Your offers' the deal was to continue at the same price (though with the usual inflation increases). If only it were that easy every time.

[swill453]

The exception is where your provider does not use the BT network (e.g. Virgin), but that is about to change.

What's about to change with Virgin? It's always going to be far more difficult to change providers to/from Virgin cable as it uses entirely different cabling to the house.

We don't even have BT-style sockets or cabling.

Scott.

[GeoffF100]

The exception is where your provider does not use the BT network (e.g. Virgin), but that is about to change.

Do you by any chance have any more information about that? I'm very reluctant to change provider when I need it 6 days a week for the OH's work, but once they return to the office.....

I found this:

However, new legislation coming into place will mean that even those providers on separate networks –– like Virgin Media and Hyperoptic –– will now have to adhere to the gainer-led process, just like all the other providers.

https://www.uswitch.com/broadband/guides/switch/

[Bminusrob]

I would just like to add a note about landlines. Most people have mobile phones these days, so landlines are almost completely unnecessary. Even when people have landlines, they usually make calls from their mobile because it is in their pocket, and call charges are nearly always included in the package.

Bearing this in mind, if you want the comfort of having a landline number, you don't need to pay through the nose for line rental. You can use SIP, which provides you with a landline number for free (or you can move your current landline number for a nominal one-off charge). You can have calls to this landline number then come to your mobile, and/or you can buy a box to attach to your broadband router to connect your legacy "BT" phone to. There are a number of suppliers of this type of service. I use Sipgate (www.sipgate.com). This has the added convenience that I can receive calls to my landline (using the mobile app) when I an away from home.

In my case, because the Openreach lines are so poor where I live (broadband at 1.5Mb/s if you are lucky), I use mobile broadband (£22 per month unlimited, 25Mb/s approx) then use SIP for my "landline". For a wired landline, BT wanted £18 per month.

[wickham]

I thought I was a long way into my contract, but as BT asked if they could upgrade me to fibre essential free last year a new contract started and has 18 months to run.

I rang BT to ask for a reduction from £51/m to about £24/m as advertised for new contracts and the operator said my cancellation fee would be £400 which would be more than the saving by having a reduction or moving to another provider. As expected she said she would talk to her supervisor about a reduction and I was put on hold. After about five minutes the call timed out.

I may try again later.

[Bminusrob]

I thought I was a long way into my contract, but as BT asked if they could upgrade me to fibre essential free last year a new contract started and has 18 months to run.

I rang BT to ask for a reduction from £51/m to about £24/m as advertised for new contracts and the operator said my cancellation fee would be £400 which would be more than the saving by having a reduction or moving to another provider. As expected she said she would talk to her supervisor about a reduction and I was put on hold. After about five minutes the call timed out.

I may try again later.

Ask them to show you the contract you signed. If they didn't make this clear at the time, they are guilty of, at the very least, sharp practice, and it probably falls under the unfair contract terms laws. You may want to remind them of this when discussing the termination fee and cheaper contract.

[XFool]

My advice for anyone dealing with BT is...

My advice for anyone dealing with BT is: "Stop that. Immediately."