Reasonable price? 15 March 2022 at 10:09PM in Broadband & internet access 13 replies 411 views

StinkerPinker

Sky intend to put my unlimited broadband (copper wire) up to £26.01 per month from April.   I was migrated to Sky when they took over BE and still use the Thompson BeBox ("g" wi-fi) BE gave me, so that cost Sky nothing.  I'm out of contract.    £7.50 of the charge is for NOT having telephone services and TV from them - I get my telephone from BT -  and that charge has persisted since they took over BE.   Do you think the Sky charges are reasonable for what I get?     The actual service is reliable and speed is as advertised.
Thanks.

Cornucopia

What BB speed are you contracted for?  

Is there a particular reason why you have split Phone & BB contracts?

Overall, your price looks high compared to generally available offers for combined BB & Landline, and presumably you will be paying BT, too?

StinkerPinker

Hi Cornucopia,

When I joined BE many moons ago, it was my first time subscribing to a broadband service and I wanted to keep my BT phone service and number, which BE allowed without financial penalty.    I took the 16meg copper wire service using the BT landline infrastructure - there was no fibre option at that time.  If I use ethernet connection to the BeBox I get about 11meg, and if I use wi-fi I get about 8megs.  Quite adequate for my needs.

Some years later, Sky took BE over and although Sky didn't normally allow broadband and telephone services to be split, for BE legacy customers an exception was made albeit with a penalty charge.  

I have allowed the situation to persist because I wanted above all to keep my BT number so my only option would be to take a BT package  (or so I thought - I don't know how true that is these days).    And yes, I pay BT for my landline rental and calls package too.  Currently just under £40 a month and also just about to go up a bit!

MalMonroe

Hi, I think you're paying too much for your split services.

I'm paying BT just under £50 for my landline, broadband and television. They don't do packages like they used to do as they offer more flexibility now with their different services, which seems to work better. My prices are set to rise shortly too but BT assures me that they won't be extortionate. We'll see!

Why don't you try phoning them, it's a free call and you're under no obligation. Just outline your situation and tell them that you feel you're paying too much right now and would like to see what they could offer you. Even if you would rather carry on splitting the services as you have been doing, just under £40 for your BT landline rental and calls package is too much - you could ask them if they can give you a better price.

In my experience, contacting companies when your contract is coming to an end is well worth it. When I moved into my current property a few years ago, I was obliviously paying £69 a month to BT for landline and broadband only. When I came to my senses and realised that was a lot of money just for two services, I phoned and asked what they could do to help lower my costs. I ended up with a package that cost £35 a month, including TV, which I hadn't had before. If I hadn't phoned them, who knows how long I'd have carried on overpaying. Obviously prices have increased over the years but I don't think it's bad. Now I make sure to phone towards the end of a contract. I've even phoned half way through a contract sometimes and renegotiated, without penalty.

Even if you want to stay with Sky, I'd definitely phone BT and ask them to give you a better price for your landline and calls. It will cost you nothing and hopefully will be beneficial.

Cornucopia

The best value offer for Fibre BB + Landline at the moment is £18pm, which is with Vodafone.   All of the "Openreach" providers are good VFM, generally offering BB + Landline below £25pm.    Some of the providers are now offering Fibre as standard, but will fall back to non-Fibre, if Fibre is not available.

(I'm with Vodafone home BB, on their best offer from 2 years ago - £23pm for 70Mbps fibre BB.   Apart from one outage, I've found it very reliable, and I've never had to call their call centre).

I'd start by moving one of your products to the supplier of the other in order to have them together in one place.   That should (a) put you on a standard product, (b) reduce your price immediately, and (c) put you in a better position to move around in future.

You have always been able to move your phone number with your service and this is now a normal and reliable process.   

iniltous

TBH , whatever you do , you probably want to consolidate your two bills into one, either take broadband from BT to go with your telephone or telephone from a broadband supplier ( Sky or someone else ) , least risky would be broadband from BT ( safeguards the phone number ) you could upgrade the broadband to fibre to the cabinet at the same time , a quick look at the website it’s £34 a month , possibly better with negotiation…obviously you should be able to take your phone number to another provider and get phone and broadband for less than that, but unfortunately some do end up with a different phone number even if the ISP initially says you will keep your current phone number, but at the moment you are paying unnecessarily, especially the ‘fine’ of £7.50 for not having both services with Sky.

BUFF

StinkerPinker said:

I have allowed the situation to persist because I wanted above all to keep my BT number so my only option would be to take a BT package  (or so I thought - I don't know how true that is these days).    

It's not. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/features-and-news/new-protections-stamp-out-switching-frustrations
You could e.g. look at Plusnet (a BT-owned offshoot).

It sounds like you could be paying several times what you could be for similar service.
Have you read https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/broadband-and-tv/cheap-broadband/ ?

matelodave

I swapped from BT(phone & broadband) to Vodaphone in January.

Saved £30 a month, kept my phone number and got a faster speed.

The transfer happened on the day of my choosing and took less than five minutes to just pull the plugs out of the BT router and shove them into the Vodaphone unit. I'd already set up the VF router with same wifi SSID and password as the old BT router so everything in the house came straight back on line.

StinkerPinker

Cornucopia, MalMunroe, iniltous, BUFF, matelotdave - thank you all so much for your thoughtful posts.
I will inwardly digest them and act, soon.

Thanks again!

HaroldWren5

StinkerPinker said:

Cornucopia, MalMunroe, iniltous, BUFF, matelotdave - thank you all so much for your thoughtful posts.
I will inwardly digest them and act, soon.

Thanks again!

I would recommend that if you need a landline, then the best bet is probably Vodafone who were doing the offer from £18 a month which is Broadband and a Landline. An Anytime calls package is usually something like £8 a month more whether you sign up with BT, Sky, Vodafone, or anyone on top of the regular price.

Most FTTC broadband packages from BT, Sky, Vodafone etc include a landline. If you can get FTTP via Openreach, you can either opt for Broadband only, or have a landline number as well with something called "Digital Voice" via the aforementioned three providers. 

StinkerPinker

HaroldWren5 - thanks for that.