Stuck with BT? Can't afford to cancel

claire_cc75

Hi - hope you can help...
I've recently had a messy relationship breakdown and have now moved to a new address. The BT broadband and phone contract was in my name at the old house and was the superfast infinity unlimited option my other half needed for his work. The account is still in operation at the house which he is using and paying for solely now I have left the joint account.
I need a phone and broadband ( and was hoping for a cheap tv deal too) at my new address.
I called BT who advised I had two choices
1/ cancel my contract at the old address pay the remainder of the contract approx £360 - it ends July next year
2/ Move the contract to my new address and continue to pay £45 a month.

They have given me the option to reduce the contract to around £35 a month but I am really trying to keep my budget down. I don't need unlimited - I surf a little and stream an hours fitness workout 5 days a week. Any idea how many GB?? I'm clueless.
I could manage with just broadband and not the TV deals and wanted to take advantage of some of the offers around for new customers.

Do I move the account and get tied into a new deal with BT paying more than I can afford or do I risk it with a new account in the new house and hope that the ex doesn't ring them to change the name on the account. BT have discussed this with me and said that's a risk I'll have to decide but they would contact me in any event if he does this and I would then have to pay the remainder of the contract.

Unfortunately negotiating with the ex isn't an option.

Any ideas???

JJ_Egan

£360 is a lot to lose over twelve months if you want a new ISP hardly likely to be absorbed in price reduction..

Bit confused as to BT Infinity in whose name is it ??

Cancel your contract and pay off BT means your X will lose the services .

Maelwys

claire_cc75 wrote: »

Unfortunately negotiating with the ex isn't an option.

Any ideas???

If you decide to risk setting up a new account then bear in mind that BT might not be the way to go. Plug your postcode into http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/ and see what's available to you in the new place.

You're always going to have to pay line rental of around £17 no matter where you go if using a standard phone line instead of cable. A basic broadband package of "up to 17MB speed" will set you back anything between £5 and £20 a month on top of this line rental. Most places now no longer offer a "limited" usage broadband, or if they do then there's hardly any price difference between it and "unlimited".

If you took out a new contract with Plusnet (for example) then you might be able to get away with just paying the line rental for the first 12 months so it'd set you back just £17 a month; plus £50 cashback .

Paying £154 (with Plusnet) for your next 12 months worth of broadband instead of £540 (£45x12 with your old BT contract) would mean that even if the worst happened and you ended up having to pay £360 to buy your way out of the old contract, you'd still end up £26 ahead. You don't need Fiber download speed, and there's always Freeview or Online Streaming (even at 17 megs!) for the TV.

claire_cc75

Thanks - I'll have a look at that Broadband website. I've just remembered the house I'm moving to doesn't have a TV aerial. I had Sky when I lived there before ( I've rented it out for the last 18 months) and the tenants currently use Virgin for tv, broadband phone. ARRRRRGGGGGHH

So this means I'll either have to sort a TV aerial or go with Virgin or Sky?
If I end up staying with BT I can let my ex know that I have had to move the account and he can just set up his own with BT. They said there would be no issue with that. I don;t see why BT can't just change the name on the account - nothing else is changing.

Will I have to install a TV aerial for BT TV services?
Sorry I feel totally clueless.......

mgfvvc

claire_cc75 wrote: »

Do I move the account and get tied into a new deal with BT paying more than I can afford or do I risk it with a new account in the new house and hope that the ex doesn't ring them to change the name on the account. BT have discussed this with me and said that's a risk I'll have to decide but they would contact me in any event if he does this and I would then have to pay the remainder of the contract.

Unfortunately negotiating with the ex isn't an option.

Any ideas???

Zen do a 1 month contract. This will allow you to take a reasonably priced phone/internet package at the new house. If you then have to transfer the BT contract to the new house you don't have to take a big hit on the Zen contract.

For cheap TV, it depends exactly what you are looking for. Is there enough on FreeSat? Would some of the channels on a Roku stick fill in any gaps?

mgfvvc

claire_cc75 wrote: »

Will I have to install a TV aerial for BT TV services?

The BT website hides it very well, but the main terrestrial TV services are delivered by Freeview, so you need a Freeview aerial to get BT TV. The £5 BT TV package is essentially Freeview only, unless it's changed since I looked at it.

If you are in an area with a decent signal, you might be able to get away with an indoor aerial.

As they don't have a current BT phone line either you would have to pay installation or reconnection.

JJ_Egan

claire_cc75 wrote: »

Thanks - I'll have a look at that Broadband website. I've just remembered the house I'm moving to doesn't have a TV aerial. I had Sky when I lived there before ( I've rented it out for the last 18 months) and the tenants currently use Virgin for tv, broadband phone. ARRRRRGGGGGHH

So this means I'll either have to sort a TV aerial or go with Virgin or Sky?
If I end up staying with BT I can let my ex know that I have had to move the account and he can just set up his own with BT. They said there would be no issue with that. I don;t see why BT can't just change the name on the account - nothing else is changing.

Will I have to install a TV aerial for BT TV services?
Sorry I feel totally clueless.......

Will your ex agree ??

claire_cc75

"Will your ex agree?"

Well he doesn't lose out either way. ... His account either continues as is then in July he can put it in his name or he can start a new contract. BT said they'd not charge him anything as the services are up and running already.

I'm sure he'd be totally agreeable to just changing the name on the contract but unfortunately BT won't allow it.

I'm thinking not to bother now with the tv option. My tv has some freeview channels. Just don't know if I'll be able to get a signal.

Maelwys

claire_cc75 wrote: »

I'm thinking not to bother now with the tv option. My tv has some freeview channels. Just don't know if I'll be able to get a signal.

If you had sky in the past in the house, does it still have the old dish fitted?

When I moved into my current house 4 years ago, it had an old sky dish with the cable through into the front living room. I linked up a FreeSat HD box to it (outlying cost of £40 or so off amazon) and made do with that for about 6 months before getting a TV with a built-in Freeview tuner.

As others have pointed out though, you could get lucky and get decent reception with an internal aerial (even the old "bent coathanger" ones!) if the house isn't too far from a mast. Getting someone out to fit a brand new external aerial will set you back somewhere between £50 and £150.

Maelwys

claire_cc75 wrote: »

Thanks - I'll have a look at that Broadband website.

One more point -

If you notice a deal that suits you on any of the comparison website(s), make sure you plug the company's name into Quidco or TopCashback instead of just visiting their website directly. New Broadband subscriptions are mainstream enough that you can probably save another good chunk on them by going through a cashback website.

Example:
http://www.topcashback.co.uk/search/merchants/?s=plusnet
http://www.quidco.com/search/?search=plusnet