Same provider, different occupant switch

Smiffy87

Hi everyone,

Searched this in the forum, but had no luck.

I'm currently in the rolling 30 day period of my broadband contract. By far the best deal I have found is actually with my existing provider, but it seems to be a new customer deal.

Is there no reason why I can't cancel the contract, and another occupant in this property then uses the new customer deal? It's possible to select the contract start date, so we could do this with no gap or overlap in service.

The other occupant is named in the tenancy agreement, so there is no dishonesty on our part, they have every right to open a residential broadband contract at the given address because they live there too.

Cheers.

flaneurs_lobster

No problem with the contractual issues but there may be practical considerations around cancelling the current contract and applying for a new one as opposed to renewing or swapping to a new provider.

The latter would give you a seamless (-ish) transition to the new contract. 

Cancelling might well mean that all equipment (routers, boosters, TV boxes) would need to be returned, and there would be a break until the new service/contract could be started. 

You'd have to check with your current supplier exactly what cancellation requires, and get your other occupant to make enquiries about lead times on a new contract.

JSmithy45AD

flaneurs_lobster said:

No problem with the contractual issues but there may be practical considerations around cancelling the current contract and applying for a new one as opposed to renewing or swapping to a new provider.

The latter would give you a seamless (-ish) transition to the new contract. 

Cancelling might well mean that all equipment (routers, boosters, TV boxes) would need to be returned, and there would be a break until the new service/contract could be started. 

You'd have to check with your current supplier exactly what cancellation requires, and get your other occupant to make enquiries about lead times on a new contract.

100% this I'd think. The OP would be better of calling the existing supplier and trying to get the new customer deal and if no success then arranging a swap to a new supplier.

Smiffy87

Hi guys,

Thank you very much for your quick replies, I was expecting I'd get e-mail notifications of them, but apparently not, nor in my spam either.

When we moved into this flat, the router was already in place and the internet was still up - the previous tenant must have left very abruptly. I phoned the provider to ask if I could set up a new contract, knowing that the router was already there and that a colleague of mine had previously recommended this provider. They said yes and we were good to go without ever having to wait for the equipment in the post. With this in mind I can't see any reason why the next changeover wouldn't be just as seamless.

I reached out to them to see if a better deal could be arranged, but the best they could do was still £6 more expensive than the deal I found on Uswitch...they claimed Uswitch is cheaper because it is a discount on their tariff being offered by Uswitch itself.