Haggle with BT - our new guide

cherry76

I am on fibre essential paying £1.19 a month and I pay my line rental in advance. Been quoted an extra 81p on my offers as bb expires in august. I think am going to take as am actually on a good deal if paying £2 extra for bb.Fibre essential suits my needs fine.

RASBES13

Took MSE ands Martins advice as BT Broadband and TV contract up for renewal in January. Was paying £80 per month previously but was doing a joint Plusnet Chat and BT Chat at same time and shared some of the screen chat. Plusnet deal far better than they could offer so confirmed I wanted to leave. Transferred me to customer leaving team. Did me a deal for 24 months for Phone line, Full Fibre, TV, BT Sport and Netflix for just over £46 the original amount I was paying giving me a whopping £800 saving over 24 months. Happy days. 

johnbhoy70

RASBES13 said:

Took MSE ands Martins advice as BT Broadband and TV contract up for renewal in January. Was paying £80 per month previously but was doing a joint Plusnet Chat and BT Chat at same time and shared some of the screen chat. Plusnet deal far better than they could offer so confirmed I wanted to leave. Transferred me to customer leaving team. Did me a deal for 24 months for Phone line, Full Fibre, TV, BT Sport and Netflix for just over £46 the original amount I was paying giving me a whopping £800 saving over 24 months. Happy days. 

That's a good price. I'm £32 for full fibre 100 and PAYG landline. Stick another £5 or so come April with price rise. For further comparison I'm £10.99 for 2 screens with Netflix and mulling over NOW TV entertainment with boost(6+2) offer of £8 for 6 months. So possibly approx £56 going forward. I've got IPTV which covers all my sport too which is actually up for renewal next month.

You're a fair bit cheaper but I've got 2 and 3 screens for Netflix and NOW TV which I need really plus I've got the flexibility of chucking them if I want and not tied. BT just weren't competitive enough for me on the TV side of it 

Middle_Sister

I rang yesterday because my broadband and 700 min calling plan is going up by £5.07 taking it to £41.36 a month.  That seems very expensive. I did ring and try to haggle but am in contract until Jan 24. If I cancelled mid contract they would charge me over £90. Any advice?  

ladruid

Middle_Sister said:

I rang yesterday because my broadband and 700 min calling plan is going up by £5.07 taking it to £41.36 a month.  That seems very expensive. I did ring and try to haggle but am in contract until Jan 24. If I cancelled mid contract they would charge me over £90. Any advice?  

You have two main options:-
Accept the increase and next December look around for a better deal, with a view to switching in January.
Pay the £90 and leave BT to another provider. New deal needs to be cheaper than £32.36 per month or it isn't worth it.

bristolleedsfan

Just in case useful to anyone currently on Fibre 1 paying £25.16 renewal due 17th March


Phoned BT today best price offered Fibre 2 @ £25.99 per month ( lose phone service) 


Re-contracts from today onwards no price increase until 31 March 2025


Someone on X said last week she phoned 3 times within short space of time each time price offered increased. I thought best to take offer. particularly as last month I was told minimum price £26.99.

Edit, few days after Fibre 2 activation I was offered Full Fibre 100 at no extra cost.

dougie-b

Tried to haggle but got talked into going full fibre as the sales assistant said everybody will eventually have to change to full fibre, at a higher price! Not happy with the installation method so I cancelled the order and a couple of weeks later found my phone and Internet had been cut off, complained to BT who said it was my fault as I had cancelled the order, more like BT getting their own back! Now trying to get re connected which has been a nightmare as they have given us a new phone number when re connecting the phone & were still waiting for the Internet to be connected again!!! 

JSmithy45AD

dougie-b said:

Tried to haggle but got talked into going full fibre as the sales assistant said everybody will eventually have to change to full fibre, at a higher price! Not happy with the installation method so I cancelled the order and a couple of weeks later found my phone and Internet had been cut off, complained to BT who said it was my fault as I had cancelled the order, more like BT getting their own back! Now trying to get re connected which has been a nightmare as they have given us a new phone number when re connecting the phone & were still waiting for the Internet to be connected again!!! 

Nope, that was entirely your fault for starting a switch to FTP and then cancelling, that's why you lost your number as well. What do you mean, you weren't happy with the installation method?

incesticde

Contract re-negotiation time for me.

BT is offering 900 Mb to new customers for 36.99 (plus £150 gift card and £97 quidco).... For me as a loyal; customer it's £46.22

Gonna haggle over the phone with then as per the guide but just wanna check in are I need a plan B : 
Is it still possible to cancel and sign up my wife as a new Customere if BT won't give me the deal I want? 

autumnbreeze47

My BT contract for broadband and home phone ends in early January. I always check in with MSE and found the updated Haggle with BT guide really helpful -- so I wanted to share my experience with re-negotiating this week (w/c 1 December 2025).

Headline (TLDR): if an existing customer, don't bother with Sales (call or online chat, at least at time of posting). Go through customer retention ('thinking of cancelling?') to access decent discounts and avoid unnecessary upselling.

At the end of my contract, I'm paying £67.70 for Full Fibre 150 with Complete Wi-Fi and Pay As You for home phone usage. For the past year, I work from home and rely on Zoom so I'm happy with the Full Fibre 150 and need the Complete Wi-Fi set-up due to age and layout of property. The home phone is a non-negotiable for my elderly mum and that's usually been a sticking point with moving providers. I've gone freelance this year and can no longer afford £68+ per month for just broadband and access to home phone.

Predictably, all my 'VIP offers' were upselling and I wanted to chat with someone about getting my current package for less. I spoke to two different Sales guides (nice name change): both immediately offered TV and Netflix packages. I said I was interested if the packages were cheaper than my current subscriptions and with no ads (£33 pm). Both offered £30 but with ads which is a non-negotiable for my family (quirky bunch). I politely declined. Then they offered SIM cards -- if anyone is looking for a new SIM only contract, these are actually pretty good deals. I'm not as already sorted family out in summer and I'll need a new handset; again, declined. After this, the negotiation deteriorated pretty rapidly; they weren't interested in any information I offered and seemed surprised that I'd comparative figures to hand. This surprised me, as I've found BT sales reps to be pretty sparky and helpful in the past.

Sky's Black Friday deals for new customers seemed my best bet and I found a package inc TV/streaming that worked out cheaper than my current subscriptions. I fully intended to go with Sky: it was only when I realised that the 'switch' date would likely fall over Christmas that I decided to return later, within the 30 day cancellation window for BT. Due to giving Sky permission to contact BT (part of a pre-check out accessibility check for my area and existing number), this activated BT's customer retention department. 

Within minutes, I had an email for an 'exclusive' (cough) offer that was much cheaper -- and a different phone number to contact. The following day, I had three missed calls by midday and all from a number linked to BT customer retention. I finally had time to answer (and have my figures back in front of me!) and had a proper, friendly, informed re-negotiation. As I predicted, the email offer was too good to be true: there were just enough details missing that made me think it was a lure. Nonetheless, I did end up with the outcome I had in mind as acceptable: £41.00pm with my Holy Grail of an additional Complete Wi-Fi disc 😁 

I know I could've probably gone even cheaper but I'm pretty pleased with the outcome. Whilst I was prepared to switch, personally, it's not a great time for me to do it so I've saved myself a lot of hassle. Plus I've been after an extra disc since last year!! I'm saving just under £400 with this 24 month contract: I'm happy with that.

My guess is that BT have lost a lot of experienced Sales people. Perhaps those that remain have been moved over to customer retention. If you're also looking to re-negotiate with BT, perhaps head straight to customer retention. And remember that Sky, Virgin etc contacting BT appears to automatically engage customer retention.