Implications of switching to Virgin Business Broadband?

nym.sudo

I've recently phoned Virgin media about cancelling my rolling contract, which has crept up over the years and is now £35. The broadband is in my dad's name, and I was thinking to cancel and re-sign in my name as I am the primary user and I believe this would allow me to get the new customer deals. Otherwise, I'd just move to Vodafone or something.

When we phoned up, the representative suggested that we could actually switch to Virgin Business Broadband, which currently offer 50MB for 24 months, with £50 setup fee which might be waived, but even with this it works out as ~£24/mth, an £11/mth saving. The reason he mentioned it is because I sometimes work from home. However, this is actually because I'm a PhD student, I don't run a business.

Anyway, I was wondering what the implications of business broadband were? It seems strange to me that I could simply sign up to the business version and get £11/mth off without any catch. Are there any conditions/assumptions/obligations with business broadband that are not true for consumer broadband?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

onomatopoeia99

Check if those prices include VAT, they don't include when talking to me about our contract at work.

nym.sudo

Thanks onomatopeia! Just checked and they don't include VAT in the price, which brings them right in line with other Virgin offers. I think I'll just go ahead and cancel.

Neil_Jones

The only other real advantage to business broadband from any provider is that you get priority (in theory) if something goes wrong, however a lot depends on why the fault has occurred - if you were on a BT line and somebody knocks the telegraph pole down with their car, then that isn't the provider's fault and like everybody else they'd have to wait for Openreach to replace the pole.

Also note cooling off periods don't exist, contracts cost a fortune in exit fees if they can be broken at all and of course they usually cost more money.

Re: pricing, don't forget business can claim VAT back so ultimately it doesn't cost them any more money (in the long term anyway) - not an option for home users who have to pay it anyway with no redress.