What broadband speed do you need - save money!

biscuit-monster_2

I was with Virgin for a bundle (TV, Broadband and Phone @ £50.00 a month and I was a minimal user of all services). We'd been with them for 13 years and periodically we call them to reduce the tariff.

I called them in mid May to reduce the monthly fee and the only offer they made was for £42.00 a month. If that was the best they could do I said I'd have to leave. I called them several times and was perfectly open and polite.

I told them what they needed to do to keep me. At £32.00 a month I'd be happy to stay (this is what they'd do for a new customer, I didn't think that was unreasonable). They called my bluff and I am very glad they did!

While talking things over with Virgin they tried to scare me that slower internet speeds (i.e. non-fiber providers) would impact what I wanted to do (some TV streaming, films, music etc in addition to regular browsing). However, having looked at advice from netflix the prospective speeds available from low cost suppliers (i.e. non-fiber) are suitable for their service.

With Virgin I had a connection speed of between 50 and 150 Mbps. This was stonking but pointless for me. I now have 7 Mbps and, having followed MSE advice, I have this at a monthly cost of £9.95 from Sky (this includes line rental, broadband and a phone line). This was a limited offer available to MSE readers (apologies but it's no longer available).

Over the next twelve months we will save £384.60 which is stonking (excluding other fees which were applied such as a £25.00 delivery charge for the router).

If you have many parallel users of your broadband then slower speeds will cause you problems but if you want to reduce your costs consider what speed you actually need.

Our new service has been running for a few days and we've been using both Virgin and Sky connection speeds to see what the issues may be. We've yet to identify an issue.

Thank you MSE, you've saved me £s again! :j

Updated: Having given notice to Virgin they called me to offer me £32.00 a month for the same deal. They obviously didn't think we'd go.

Neil_Jones

Slower internet speed can be an issue if you want to watch things in HD (if your speed drops below about 5Mbps it can't cope with HD) but for regular non-HD it's usually fine.

But yes its easy to reduce broadband/internet costs, I just jumped on the new PlusNet option which is fibre internet effectively for £21.50 a month with £50 cashback. I'm only moving because TalkTalk couldn't (or wouldn't) do me a retention deal so its ultimately their loss - you just have to be prepared to shift your custom around the providers every 12/18 months.

molerat

My download speed is generally 5.8 - 5.9 and I can happily run 2 streaming hd channels.