BT Contract

ccdorset

Hello,

This is a bit of a long shot, but I was just wondering if anyone has managed to get a new deal from BT, when they are still in contract?

I still have 17 months left on my contract with them, but I'm conscious I can get a much cheaper deal elsewhere.

I currently pay £38.59 per month for Fibre 2, plus £20 per month for TV Entertainment.

If I leave BT now and get out of my contract they will charge me £433.10, so I'm unlikely to make any savings that way.

I'm just wondering what the chances are of getting a new deal mid-contract if I agreed to start a new contract from now?

Thanks

Neil49

From what I recall I think you can check upgrade offers if you log in to your account. Obviously they won't be very generous but at least you can see if it's possible to get a revised offer mid contract. I doubt that anything you find would allow a downgrade. 

If there are any deals then it will mean a haggling phone call to see what you can get out of them. 

judijam

I have just tried to get a new deal without success as we have 1 year left on the contract.
Why is it that BT can offer the same service at HALF the price to new subscribers but not existing? They say that there will be better deals on renewal, but that was not the case last year when we renewed. You are always in some sort of contract with them, even at the end of the fixed period.
Car insurers were stopped from offering better deals to new customers rather than existing, isn't it time telecoms were made to do the same? How about a new campaign Martin?

judijam

Update - I have made a complaint to OFCOM about this, if more people did so they might take it seriously.

southsidergs

Out of contract or renewing customers do get the same deals as new customers on renewal.

You're not going to get it on a contract which you agreed to & still has time to run so if you're happy wasting your time complaining to Ofcom feel free

iniltous

If you are inside a minimum term then you agreed to the price and contract length , presumably the price was acceptable at the time , otherwise why did you take the deal on ….BT F2 is around £30/month currently, that’s without a phone , £35 with a phone service on a PAYG basis , (you don’t say if you have phone or not ) so yes it’s cheaper , but much cheaper ?, I suppose  ‘much’  relative term 

ccdorset

iniltous said:

If you are inside a minimum term then you agreed to the price and contract length , presumably the price was acceptable at the time , otherwise why did you take the deal on ….BT F2 is around £30/month currently, that’s without a phone , £35 with a phone service on a PAYG basis , (you don’t say if you have phone or not ) so yes it’s cheaper , but much cheaper ?, I suppose  ‘much’  relative term 

Thanks for your reply. I do have Digital Voice PAYG with Fibre 2.

I went with BT for the reliability of the service and was happy with the price at the time I joined. 

Now I'm reviewing everything money-wise, I'm just conscious that, for example, Now Broadband is £22 per month, with PAYG calls, plus £70 cashback on Quidco. 

Whilst I realise I am not entitled to any offer at all from BT, as I'm within contract, I was curious as to whether it may be possible to renegotiate, as when I was with Sky I managed to move to cheaper offers with them whilst in contract, if I agreed to a new minimum term.

Part of the reason I'm also reviewing options is that I have autism and ADHD, and am struggling with the BT TV user interface. Not in terms of navigation, but I find it difficult to keep track of what I am watching and what I'd like to watch across the different streaming services. Multiple watchlists within the apps are difficult for me to keep track of.

I understand with the Playlist on Sky Stream/Glass, I will be able to add programmes from all my subscribed streaming services to the Playlist and then they are all in one place. So that is one of the options I'm looking at, though of course I would have to buy out of my BT contract if I go down that route. They have sent me a WinBack offer of £20 per month for Stream.

HaroldWhistler

judijam said:

Update - I have made a complaint to OFCOM about this, if more people did so they might take it seriously.

Indeed. For a long time, the marketplace has been like a cartel who all implement this policy of contracts with in built price rises. Usually businesses interacting with each other and signing contracts do so to ensure costs are baked in and known in advance by mutual agreement. Here, it is a one sided policy where one party gets to increase the price and since most of them did it, you have no choice if you need the service. The arrival of 4G Mobile Broadband (via an Unlimited Data SIM) where there was more competition at a faster rate, newer FTTP providers coming on stream, fixed price providers (e.g. Cuckoo) coming into the Broadband market will probably end this sooner than later. The regulators have been useless for the most part. It looks like market forces (achieved by FTTP primarily which seems to have far more competition than FTTC) may deliver the blow to price rises long before the regulator has done anything. They let the Broadband providers this entire time market "Fibre to a Cabinet" as "Superfast Fibre" for years. It's come back to bite the companies now when the same ISPs are trying to sell ACTUAL Fibre products now (which should always have been defined as Fibre all the way to the property in the first place) and face customer pushback claiming they already have it. Fibre to a Cabinet (so called Superfast Fibre) meant many many people on the same cabinet (especially for those outside of cities) do not get anywhere near the same speed nor reliability yet are all charged the same price irrespective of the service they got.   

I remember BT used to offer 12 month contracts for Broadband which were much more palatable because you know what you'll pay and you could effectively time it to start after and end just before any price changes/rise and re-contract. Then you renew and they offer a deal as a loyal customer at least matching, or beating the new customer price. Thus both parties win. Now it's absurd. (It's not just BT though, some of the others are equally bad, or worse).

ccdorset said:

Hello,

This is a bit of a long shot, but I was just wondering if anyone has managed to get a new deal from BT, when they are still in contract?

I still have 17 months left on my contract with them, but I'm conscious I can get a much cheaper deal elsewhere.

I currently pay £38.59 per month for Fibre 2, plus £20 per month for TV Entertainment.

If I leave BT now and get out of my contract they will charge me £433.10, so I'm unlikely to make any savings that way.

I'm just wondering what the chances are of getting a new deal mid-contract if I agreed to start a new contract from now?

Thanks

As for your question, if FTTP (Full Fibre) comes to the area, BT might usually allow an upgrade (thus a new contract), and if you're lucky an introductory offer as they want people to go onto the newer network. I agree the way they get to benefit from wholesale prices (from Openreach) coming down over time whilst increasing the price to the customer doesn't make much sense. As an example the top "Full Fibre 900" product from BT was something like £75-80 several years ago. Last time I checked their website it is roughly £55-59 today, has been on offer to £52 and other providers sometimes offer it for £45-49. Someone who entered a contract 2 years ago at the old price would be paying even more than £80 today with the inbuilt CPI + 3.9% increases. If you're able to one day get FTTP from Openreach, check out Cuckoo. They do exactly the same FTTP 900 product as BT for a lower price on a 12 month contract with fixed prices and the price after the contract is automatically the new customer 30 day rolling price. Some of the alternative networks (CityFibre, B4RN etc) also seem to do fixed prices for symmetrical broadband. And there are 4G Unlimited Data SIMs with fixed prices and shorter contracts that may have far higher speeds than "Superfast Fibre FTTC" and for a lower price. 

As for being within a contract where they increase the price, there is not much one can generally do within contract with them. Afterwards however, the best policy is usually to vote with your feet at the end and move to a fixed price provider. That is ultimately what will end this. When customers (are able to) move to another provider/providers who maintain fixed prices and the others have to change if only to survive the creative destruction that will ensue.