Broadband that rolls onto/renews a reasonable price?

asc1991

I was about to sign up with PlusNet but it turns out that they hike the bill up by >£20pm after the contract ends. The point being you'll negotiate onto another fixed term with them.

I don't want that. I don't want to have to negotiate insurance, broadband, utility, prices etc. every year. I'm at a good place with my car insurance and mobile where I have renewals/rolling contracts that are +/- 5% off the best I can find on comparison websites. I'm after the same for broadband:

I'm looking for a broadband provider that will offer a reasonable price and, when the contract ends, keep to a similar(ish) price. I don't care if it works out a bit more expensive than renewing frequently. I'd rather pay £30pm for eternity than negotiate every year/18m to get £20-25pm.

Thanks!

QrizB

Last time I checked Andrews and Arnold don't offer discounts for new customers and hadn't had a price rise in years.

asc1991

QrizB said:

Last time I checked Andrews and Arnold don't offer discounts for new customers and hadn't had a price rise in years.

Interesting, never heard of them, thank you.

Looks reasonable from my initial glance. Though there are monthly download limits of 500GB which I'm a tad unsure of.

Neil_Jones

500Gb a month is enough to watch SD Netflix content every waking hour, so 16hrs a day, assuming you do nothing else with your day - so don't go to work, let autoplay do all the filling and don't stop to go toilet/eat/answer the phone.

You'll have to do a heck of a lot of downloading to get through 500Gb.  Or do some serious online gaming.  For a very long time.

With regards to the original post, not uncommon for Plusnet to jack the price up after your contract is out.  Phone them up and jack it back down.  A&A may not have had a price rise in years but that's usually because it was far more expensive in the first place but you tend to get better customer service/support/dibs on faults.  A lot of which you don't get at the cheaper end of the market.

Marvel1

I don't negotiate with providers, contract due to end, new deal found with cashback, sign up and my new provider does the rest.

asc1991

Marvel1 said:

I don't negotiate with providers, contract due to end, new deal found with cashback, sign up and my new provider does the rest.

Ideally, I don't want to do either. I just want a price that's fair for me, fair for them, and to stick to it.

I just hate this annual routine of changing everything to get a reasonable price... hate it so much.

asc1991

Neil_Jones said:

500Gb a month is enough to watch SD Netflix content every waking hour, so 16hrs a day, assuming you do nothing else with your day - so don't go to work, let autoplay do all the filling and don't stop to go toilet/eat/answer the phone.

You'll have to do a heck of a lot of downloading to get through 500Gb.  Or do some serious online gaming.  For a very long time.

With regards to the original post, not uncommon for Plusnet to jack the price up after your contract is out.  Phone them up and jack it back down.  A&A may not have had a price rise in years but that's usually because it was far more expensive in the first place but you tend to get better customer service/support/dibs on faults.  A lot of which you don't get at the cheaper end of the market.

I'm a tad tentative with the 500gb as if I'm working from home, occasionally I can be downloading 10-100GB in a single day. But I'm likely being overly-cautious. £35pm for them is okay. 

Yeah plus net would be £25pm for 18m and then up to £50pm. I'm sure they'd lower it back down if I agreed to another 18m or so.

Neil_Jones

asc1991 said:

Marvel1 said:

I don't negotiate with providers, contract due to end, new deal found with cashback, sign up and my new provider does the rest.

Ideally, I don't want to do either. I just want a price that's fair for me, fair for them, and to stick to it.

I just hate this annual routine of changing everything to get a reasonable price... hate it so much.

Well it would appear that you want to have your cake and eat it too.  Which is not possible.

You want a "reasonable" price, that doesn't change (which automatically makes it more expensive from the off) but you don't want to stay in the cheap end of the market where there are out of contract price rises and annual CPI increases built-in.  But also you don't want to keep swapping providers either, you want the decent deals but you don't want to do the whole "phone up and haggle" thing either.

That doesn't give you a lot of options.  So either pick somebody (such as A&A) and stay there in the knowledge that your price probably won't go up (but you know there are cheaper deals available), pick a new provider every 12/18/24 months, or pick up the phone.  Take your pick.

This market works by poaching customers from each other with new customer deals, offers, and cheap prices.  If you don't want to be a party to that, but you want a "fair" price, then something's going to have to give I'm afraid.  Either swallow your pride in any of these areas, or pay over the odds for apathy.

asc1991

Neil_Jones said:

asc1991 said:

Marvel1 said:

I don't negotiate with providers, contract due to end, new deal found with cashback, sign up and my new provider does the rest.

Ideally, I don't want to do either. I just want a price that's fair for me, fair for them, and to stick to it.

I just hate this annual routine of changing everything to get a reasonable price... hate it so much.

Well it would appear that you want to have your cake and eat it too.  Which is not possible.

You want a "reasonable" price, that doesn't change (which automatically makes it more expensive from the off) but you don't want to stay in the cheap end of the market where there are out of contract price rises and annual CPI increases built-in.  But also you don't want to keep swapping providers either, you want the decent deals but you don't want to do the whole "phone up and haggle" thing either.

That doesn't give you a lot of options.  So either pick somebody (such as A&A) and stay there in the knowledge that your price probably won't go up (but you know there are cheaper deals available), pick a new provider every 12/18/24 months, or pick up the phone.  Take your pick.

This market works by poaching customers from each other with new customer deals, offers, and cheap prices.  If you don't want to be a party to that, but you want a "fair" price, then something's going to have to give I'm afraid.  Either swallow your pride in any of these areas, or pay over the odds for apathy.

I think you're misinterpreting somewhat.

But thanks for the A&A pointer.

onomatopoeia99

QrizB said:

Last time I checked Andrews and Arnold don't offer discounts for new customers and hadn't had a price rise in years.

Remains the case.  My price hasn't changed since I moved from ADSL to FTTC.  When I was on ADSL it only ever went down.

I use about 10% of my 5TB/mo allowance WFH + Netflix / Prime in HD etc. 

kb1979

Pulse8 (pulse8broadband.co.uk/) offer 1 month contracts and is currently £30.00 p/m. The price has only recently increased after been the same price for many years, You will probably need a new router or you can be provided by them,which ou can purchase separately or from pulse8.

There is also cuckoo broadband (www.cuckoo.co/) who  offer both a 12 month and 1 month contract options, There is however a connection charge on the 1 month option.