Renewing annual contract for broadband and line rental

animalambulanceman

Hi all,

I'm looking for advice about the cheapest way to keep a broadband connection and prepared to pay the years line rental up front.Currently I'm with TalkTalk and have been since last April but due to their inefficiency and poor customer services was thinking of swapping if I can get it cheaper elsewhere.I suffered an intermittent internet connection for the first 8 months of my contract because it took this long for them to find some corroded terminals in a roadside box here in Central London which caused my internet to drop out many times each day and they only gave me a fiver credit on my bill as compensation for 8 months suffering so I do not feel loyal towards them in any way.TalkTalk want £126.00 for my next year of line rental -due on 14th of April-and will give me broadband for another £2.50 a month so I have a month to try and find a better deal or will have to stick with them as I really need my internet connection.Does anybody know of any good deals available?THANKS in advance for any suggestions!!

Quentin

See this MSE article:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/cheap-broadband

jbuchanangb

As you can see TalkTalk is a best buy at £13pm, which is what you are paying (£10.50pm VLR + £2.50 Simply Broadband) If they have now fixed the line fault, and it is working fine, stick with them.

Switching to another provider is fraught with risk.

animalambulanceman

Thanks for the suggestions!!
I can see that TalkTalk are still offering the cheapest deal at the moment for the basic package which I need and as my internet is working fine now will probably stick with them.Just in case another company manages to come up with a better deal in the next 4 weeks I will not renew my line rental for a few weeks as once I've done this I'm committed to staying there for another year.Also I may as well have the funds sitting in my own bank account ready to pay over instead of paying in advance if there is no discount to be gained.TalkTalk have been sending me reminders about my line rental for the last 4 months now -it's handy as it stops me forgetting but why chase up money that is not due for ages unless they are in financial difficulties and really need the funds.I always pay my bills on time and never wait for a reminder to come before settling any of my debts so they can just wait a little longer and have payment when it is due.

boatman

I was in a similar position and am about to move to plusnet who are doing a similar 12 month deal to talktalk, its £131.88(12month line rental) + £2.99 internet a month. You don't get caller ID free or any free calls. As has been said 50/50 as to whether its going to be better....
http://www.plus.net/home-broadband/

jbuchanangb

Hello animalambulanceman
Renewing VLR with TT doesn't commit you a new 12 month deal. I have just heard that they are about to increase the VLR from £126 (£10.50 per month) to £141 (£11.75 per month) so now would be a good time to cough up the £126, and get a whole year at today's price.
They are also about to increase Simply Broadband to £3.50 per month.
http://help2.talktalk.co.uk/price-increase

MataNui

I have had a bad experience with TT thats put me off them completely. In addition to that though i have always found the equipment they supply (the talk talk router) to be the biggest pile of crap available. I know 4 people on TT (2 family) and they are always asking me to fix the broadband. Normally this is just restarting the router but its something i never need to to on mine (BT) and my daughter never needs to do on hers (sky).

I also found something very interesting about TT broadband speed yesterday. My mum is on TT and lives less than 1K from the exchange (which i know has TT LLU) but she barely gets 3 MB download during the day and a ping of 127. Daughter is with Sky (dont know if the exchange is Sky LLU) and she lives a bit further from the exchange (about 700 m further) yet gets 13Mb and a ping of 33.

Dont know if anyone here can explain why that might be..

jbuchanangb

Hello MataNui.
I have TT's Medium Fibre, Simply Broadband and Anytime Calls. I have a Netgear router (I agree with your comments about TT's routers), and a solid 38Mb/s service for just £28.50 pm. (Including monthly line rental paid in advance until Jan 2015) Will shortly increase to £29. Hard to beat.