Broadband cancellation

rmhayward

Hello,

I'm looking at setting up new internet in our new home, but not very attracted by the leap in price once the common 18/24 months is over. (Looking at a deal of £25 for 18months, then £44 thereafter). Is it common and/or simple to cancel at those 18 months and try a different provider, or haggle the price down to something more reasonable? 

Thanks. 

rjmachin

I am at the end of my contract and have just started a switch to another provider.

Assuming the same type of provider using the Openreach network, I have not contacted my old provider, I just placed an order with the new provider, giving the phone number and details and they have already contacted my old provider on my behalf.

This is different if you are moving from or to Virgin Media.

rmhayward

So you're simply cancelling the contract before they increase the price on you? That's smart.

What makes it different? It is actually Virgin Media that I'm looking at, although I did have a bad experience with them once before, they are giving the best deals at the moment. 

Neil_Jones

rmhayward said:

Hello,

I'm looking at setting up new internet in our new home, but not very attracted by the leap in price once the common 18/24 months is over. (Looking at a deal of £25 for 18months, then £44 thereafter). Is it common and/or simple to cancel at those 18 months and try a different provider, or haggle the price down to something more reasonable? 

Thanks. 

The leap in prices is normal as its the expiry of an introductory deal.  Keep an eye on it and move/rehaggle when your deal runs out.  Search the comparison websites at about two weeks before your deal runs out to see what's available and then decide whether you want to up sticks and move, or stick around.  For the former, just pick somebody and they'll do all the work, for the latter jump on the blower.

JJ_Egan

Be careful actually cancelling as this may involve fees .

wongataa

rmhayward said:

So you're simply cancelling the contract before they increase the price on you? That's smart.

What makes it different? It is actually Virgin Media that I'm looking at, although I did have a bad experience with them once before, they are giving the best deals at the moment. 

Virgin don't use the Openreach network, they use their own infrastructure.  This means you can't switch to another provider using the same infrastructure as you can do with all the other ISPs using the Openreach infrastructure.  At the moment if you want to switch to Virgin you have to sign up with them and cancel your current ISP yourself.  If you want to switch from Virgin to another ISP you need to sign up with the other ISP and cancel Virgin yourself.

There are plans to change it to how it is switching between ISPs using Openreach infrastructure but they are not in place yet.

rmhayward

JJ_Egan said:

Be careful actually cancelling as this may involve fees .

Good to be aware of, thanks. 

wongataa said:

rmhayward said:

So you're simply cancelling the contract before they increase the price on you? That's smart.

What makes it different? It is actually Virgin Media that I'm looking at, although I did have a bad experience with them once before, they are giving the best deals at the moment. 

Virgin don't use the Openreach network, they use their own infrastructure.  This means you can't switch to another provider using the same infrastructure as you can do with all the other ISPs using the Openreach infrastructure.  At the moment if you want to switch to Virgin you have to sign up with them and cancel your current ISP yourself.  If you want to switch from Virgin to another ISP you need to sign up with the other ISP and cancel Virgin yourself.

There are plans to change it to how it is switching between ISPs using Openreach infrastructure but they are not in place yet.

I can't remember what the previous owner used but something tells me they were with Virgin as well. 

Isn't a benefit of Virgin that they use their own infrastructure so it's a bit more secure against internet outages? 

JJ_Egan

No its not more secure as they still connect to the main servers for internet content , it is after all a world wide web of servers .