Moving house but may have a gap - broadband due to renew very soon - help!

Miri_J

I'm trying to move house. (It's a bit of a saga). I'm not sure if I will be able to move straight from my home to another or whether I may end up moving in with a friend for a while. 
My broadband contract runs out at the end of the month, so I now have about a week to make up my mind what to do. I seem to have very limited choices of providers in my current location (Plusnet, Vodafone, Sky, TalkTalk, BT, Now, V4 & Zen)
I understand that some providers do have no contract broadband, but when I do a search for that on compare the market, none come up for my address.
I wondered about having a 12 month contract, but I have made an offer on a house, which may be accepted, so could move in 3-6 months. My current provider told me some time ago that if I moved that was fine, I would just need to stay with them for 12 months after the move. (Of course, not mentioning that the monthly price of the contract doubles as soon as the contract ends!)
I seem to be caught between a rock and a hard place!
Can anyone help me with suggestions please? 

Ayr_Rage

At the end of a fixed term discount you'll just move on to a rolling 31 day contract at full price with your current ISP.

Until you know where you are moving to and availability there that is probably your best option.

400ixl

Problem is the rolling contract will likely be very expensive so even for 6 months that could be a high cost.

OP, who is your current ISP and what product are you on?

One option could be to temporarily switch to a 4G service with a PayG sim. What is your 4G/5G service like in your current location?

Another option is to shift to a monthly contract with an ISP. Will be more than your current contract, but likely less than their rolling monthly contracts. These seem to have most disappeared recently for OpenReach ISP's.

housebuyer143

5G router and monthly SIM? Hotspot your phone in the interim?

iniltous

You could renew with whoever you are with , or  join a new ISP ( at your current address ) and if the same ISP is available at the new address , you just use their home mover scheme ( regardless of you renewing  with or joining a new ISP )  ….obviously the bigger the company the more likely a home mover service will be available.

large providers on Openreach ( BT , Sky etc ) allow home movers to take service at the new address without incurring termination fees at the old address , you just continue with the deal you already had , providers that have a smaller footprint and not available ‘nationwide’ may not be as flexible, it should be easy to find out who is available at the new address .

If that doesn’t work , the chances are the out of contract price with the ISP you are with will probably be £5-£10 a month more than the recontract price , so 3 , 4 or even 6 months of paying and extra £10 a month for a rolling 30 day notice contract is hardly worth worrying about , it will be peanuts in comparison to the other costs of moving home .

Miri_J

400ixl said:

Problem is the rolling contract will likely be very expensive so even for 6 months that could be a high cost.

OP, who is your current ISP and what product are you on?

One option could be to temporarily switch to a 4G service with a PayG sim. What is your 4G/5G service like in your current location?

Another option is to shift to a monthly contract with an ISP. Will be more than your current contract, but likely less than their rolling monthly contracts. These seem to have most disappeared recently for OpenReach ISP's.

Letting my current contract just roll on will cost £54 per month, just fibre broadband (about 38MB) and landline. 
Reception here is not great.  I struggle to receive phone calls sometimes.

Miri_J

I'm with Plusnet at the moment - Unlimited fibre. 38-40MB. But they quote me speeds of 42-48 MB for the next package up, so they obviously don't think they can provide much more at my current location. My phone has 1 bar of signal most of the time, maybe 2 bars if I go upstairs - not much help for working downstairs on my computer.

iniltous

Plusnet do home movers ( on the Openreach network ) , the Openreach  network is nationwide and available almost everywhere, so you could renew at the current address , then use the home mover process to take Plusnet to your new address ….plus , in the extremely unlikely scenario that PN can’t provide service at the new address , they don’t apply   early termination charges if they can’t deliver at the new address ….that seems the logical thing to do , the only proviso, if you want telephony PN will probably not be able to offer it ( they are getting out of that market ) , but even then they offer a ‘free’ migration to BT or EE for customers that want to keep a telephone service .

Miri_J

housebuyer143 said:

5G router and monthly SIM? Hotspot your phone in the interim?

Is this going to work if my phone reception is very poor?

flaneurs_lobster

Miri_J said:

housebuyer143 said:

5G router and monthly SIM? Hotspot your phone in the interim?

Is this going to work if my phone reception is very poor?

Is your phone reception very poor for all networks? 

Miri_J

flaneurs_lobster said:

Miri_J said:

housebuyer143 said:

5G router and monthly SIM? Hotspot your phone in the interim?

Is this going to work if my phone reception is very poor?

Is your phone reception very poor for all networks? 

Not entirely sure. We've had Vodafone and Tesco Mobile, neither have been good. We're in a valley so quite possibly poor for everyone.