broadband without contract?

littlejaffa

i'm looking for broadband (not cable) access for 6months, everywhere seems to do a 12mth contract appart for virgin who charge £50 cancellation instead of line rental to the end of the 12 months.
is there anyone out there reasonably priced that hold you to max 6mth contract or none atall?

i'm with bt and don't want any phone/tv package added to the broadband

NigeWick

littlejaffa wrote:

i'm looking for broadband (not cable) access for 6months, everywhere seems to do a 12mth contract appart for virgin who charge £50 cancellation instead of line rental to the end of the 12 months.
is there anyone out there reasonably priced that hold you to max 6mth contract or none atall?

I suspect not. I am a Distributor with Utility Warehouse Discount Club (Telecom Plus) and they would want their sent gear back plus the £50.

Nigel.

Patr100

Almost all -if not all - the seeemingly non or minmum contract ISPs penalise you with cancellation charges if you leave early eg the first year so they get your money that way if they lose your business.

Toxteth_OGrady

Patr100 wrote:

Almost all -if not all - the seeemingly non or minmum contract ISPs penalise you with cancellation charges if you leave early eg the first year so they get your money that way if they lose your business.

Totally disagree. The vast majority of UK ISPs now provide 1 month contracts. Go to the ADSLGuide website, click on the 'ADVANCED SEARCH' link and you can filter a search for providers based on contract length. Select equal to 1 month and you will see there are 87 ISPs.

Usually the only time you get charged for leaving inside 12 months is if you have been suckered into a free modem deal. Go 'wires only' and buy your hardware cheaper online.

:cool:

TOG

mrJ_5

i disagree with the above post

if you get your line activated, it costs the provider £47, from BT to enable broadband on your line - which they pass onto you the user, either in the form of a 12 month contract, or a 1 month contract but if you leave within 12 months you need to pay the cancellation charge - just like Virgin.net do

a 12 month contract ties you in completely, so if you want to leave after month 6, the ISP has the right to charge you 6* your monthly subscription, or the activation fee of £47, normally it will be the greatest one. the one month contract is more in your favour, if you may have to switch after a couple of months, but not in 9/10 months time

just because 87 providers offer 1 month contracts, does not mean that they will not charge a cancellation fee if you leave within the first 12 months.


on the other hand, if you were to migrate in, then it would cost the ISP £11.75 to move you onto their service, and AOL, for example, waiver the 12 month contract, and place you onto a monthly one where no cancellation fee is required

- my advice is to read all of the small print carefully, so you do not get caught up in any of the confusion!

More so if you join PlusNet - they offer free activation (and modem if required), on a monthly contract, but they expect you to stay with them for 5 years to get that all for free, for each year you've been a customer they proportionantly take some money off the total that you will owe - modem taken or not!

again, always read the small print - as there is no such thing as a free lunch!


you will either;
- pay in advanced for this activation charge
- pay over the course of a 12 month period, as per the minimum contract, via no extra charge
- or pay if you leave within the 1st 12 months

littlejaffa

mrJ wrote:

i disagree with the above post

if you get your line activated, it costs the provider £47, from BT to enable broadband on your line - which they pass onto you the user, either in the form of a 12 month contract, or a 1 month contract but if you leave within 12 months you need to pay the cancellation charge - just like Virgin.net do

you will either;
- pay in advanced for this activation charge
- pay over the course of a 12 month period, as per the minimum contract, via no extra charge
- or pay if you leave within the 1st 12 months

that's what I'd found, but hoped there was better out there - re the £47 bt charge, virgin told me it was £150, and they're good for only passing £50 onto me in cancellation charges.

Patr100

Toxteth_OGrady wrote:

Totally disagree. The vast majority of UK ISPs now provide 1 month contracts. Go to the ADSLGuide website, click on the 'ADVANCED SEARCH' link and you can filter a search for providers based on contract length. Select equal to 1 month and you will see there are 87 ISPs.

Usually the only time you get charged for leaving inside 12 months is if you have been suckered into a free modem deal. Go 'wires only' and buy your hardware cheaper online.

:cool:

TOG

You're wrong. Look at what I actually wrote - "seemingly non or minimum contract" . Whether it's through "set up" charges or "cancellation" charges they are not going to let you go early eg after just one month - without recovering something from you for getting you started with them, in addition to the monthly subscription fee. Call it an admin fee, call it a fine, call it a penalty. You have to look at the small print of each individual product detail and check the actual conditions on the ISPs website before you sign up - eg the very first one in the 87 ISP product list -
Low Start - 512K - 1GB from C2 Internet Ltd - activation charge £40 if applicable - minimum contract 3 months

mrJ_5

littlejaffa wrote:

virgin told me it was £150, and they're good for only passing £50 onto me in cancellation charges.

i think their telling you porkies here... if anything your £3 worse off! Unless you took a modem with them, but it would be an expensive modem at that, at £103.....