Plusnet price increase

JoeWebber

My current 2 year Unlimited Fibre contract costs £26.54 a month.
When it ends in January 2025 it goes up to £51.54 a month!
Has anyone queried this and is it a) true and b) general?
If this is real and Plusnet-only, any suggestions on where else to go?

MattMattMattUK

JoeWebber said:

My current 2 year Unlimited Fibre contract costs £26.54 a month.
When it ends in January 2025 it goes up to £51.54 a month!
Has anyone queried this and is it a) true and b) general?

Slightly odd wording there, I am not sure by what do you mean is it "true", it is happening. You are coming to the end of your discounted contract you go onto their much higher non-discounted rolling contract. You have the choice to sign a new contract with a new discount or go elsewhere. What do you my by "general"?

JoeWebber said:

If this is real and Plusnet-only, any suggestions on where else to go?

Show around to see what your best option is, there is a broadband comparison tool on this site. 

brewerdave

That's normal with PN. But you normally get a much better offer a couple of months before your current deal ends.
For instance ,in my case, the standard price after June 24 was showing as £48.xx per month - I actually recently renewed for another 18 months @ £26.99 pm.

Neil_Jones

JoeWebber said:

My current 2 year Unlimited Fibre contract costs £26.54 a month.
When it ends in January 2025 it goes up to £51.54 a month!
Has anyone queried this and is it a) true and b) general?
If this is real and Plusnet-only, any suggestions on where else to go?

Yes that's normal.

When your deal is due to end phone them up and either get a new deal or find somebody else.

The real savings in this segment of the market are being in contract with somebody.

Rob5342

Its pretty standard practice for everything , offer a cheap price to hook people in and then put the price up and hope that people keep paying it. Another trick would be to put it up from £26.14 to £51.54 and then offer it to you for £28.20 when you phone about it. That makes you perceive a price increase as a reduction so you dont look anywhere else. You just need to keep on top of it and look for the best deal when your contract ends. 

JoeWebber

Many thanks for your feedback. Very helpful.

Imnoexpert_2

Just to add that each year (probably for the last 10 years) I have had a large increase proposed, and after much hassle with 'retentions' and 'cancellations' come out with a reasonable deal.

I am currently just starting the process again. I'm paying around £29 for a package including call plan, and the renewal in 6 weeks is being quoted as £39. This is a huge increas especially given that they have implemented an rrp + increase in contract.

So far I've been told to take it or leave it, even though I can get better from vodaphone for £31 or the same for £30. And Ive spent an hour trying to get a better deal.

I'm wondering wether its worth my time and blood pressure continuing to try and get a better deal.

400ixl

As per your contract, the price is 51.54 now, you just entered into a minimum term for which they will discount the price to £26.54 which will be coming to an end.

Pretty much every ISP works the same way. The discount is there to retain you for a certain period.

Usually they will offer you another discount if you commit to another lock in period. Usually a month or so before the current discount period ends.

The thing to consider with Plusnet is that they currently have no plans to offer digital voice services (landline for the new world) when you move to FTTP or the analogue service ends (was end of 2025 but has been pushed back). So if a landline type service is important to you, then it may be that the next minimum period you commit to is longer than the hard stop of the current service. Plusnet's current answer to that is to allow people to leave with no penalty, but only to join either BT or EE which are part of the same group. Choosing to go elsewhere with still mean early exit fees.

So just something to think about when you do come to decide (it could of course all have changed by the end of the year).

As for swapping Plusnet for Vodafone, you couldn't pay me to do that. Just look at the number of failed migrations and their customer services ratings. Fed up of supporting family and friends who thought it would be good to chase the lowest price with Vodafone, TalkTalk, Shell etc. Not saying stick with Plusnet if there are better offers, but make sure those better offers do not mean compromises for cost.

Pete99

A good idea to regularly log in to your account and click on "Offers & Upgrades" top of the screen, Plusnet won't contact you, it's up to you to check what's on offer, just renewed mine for a pound less per month, only a couple of months into my new contract.

Supatramp

EE are currently advertising at £29.99.

tghe-retford

Imnoexpert_2 said:

Just to add that each year (probably for the last 10 years) I have had a large increase proposed, and after much hassle with 'retentions' and 'cancellations' come out with a reasonable deal.

I am currently just starting the process again. I'm paying around £29 for a package including call plan, and the renewal in 6 weeks is being quoted as £39. This is a huge increas especially given that they have implemented an rrp + increase in contract.

So far I've been told to take it or leave it, even though I can get better from vodaphone for £31 or the same for £30. And Ive spent an hour trying to get a better deal.

I'm wondering wether its worth my time and blood pressure continuing to try and get a better deal.

That was my experience with Plusnet when I last haggled with them. They and other ISPs now have a minimum average revenue per user (ARPU) that you have to meet in order for them to keep you as a customer. And that at the moment appears to be around £30 a month and no less while that increases every year with the annual fixed/percentage plus CPI increases they now implement. ISPs are no longer afraid to have you leave because as far as they are concerned, they are happy to have you leave and make another ISP lose money.

Three did this a decade ago, removed the "dead wood" from their numbers who were not making enough money for them and told them to pay double or leave. Their profits rose as a result and other mobile networks followed suit. Now the ISPs are doing the same thing. Haggling is now a thing of the past in the mobile phone networks and it will soon be the case with ISPs.

I suspect when my current contract is up with another ISP in a couple of years time, the best I'll do is £34 a month (currently paying £28 a month for 900mbps for the whole contract period) or I'll be told to leave and that they don't want my custom.