Switching broadband

mazjohn108

Previously with BT for years then forced to EE a couple of years ago. Contract is expiring very soon and I am thinking of switching as EE is expensive. I have full fibre 150 speed which is ok for me as I am elderly widow not using loads of gadgets. Spoke to EE who offered me £1 per month cheaper than I pay now but I could go to Plusnet, Vodafone etc for about £10 pm less. Even BT is less than I am paying now. I am just scared I won't be able to set it up or things will go wrong. Any advice to convince me to bite the bullet please.

flaneurs_lobster

I doubt very much if you were "forced" to change from BT to EE.

Do you have/need a landline service?

Presumably you have used a comparison site to see what other providers are offering deals at your location.

Simple choice, either you continue with EE with your existing setup which all works but it costs £x a month.

Swap to a cheaper supplier, deal with any installation or changes that are required, either by yourself or with friend/family or maybe the supplier has a service available (possibly with a cost).

Most people have little or no problem moving to the cheaper suppliers - the issues are when it doesn't work.

mazjohn108

Thanks for your reply. When BT renewal came up 2 years ago, unless I went to a totally difference provider, I could not stay with BT but had to go to EE keeping the same BT hub so it was simple. That was their policy at the time as BT was proposing to forcus on Business Customers. They have reversed that decision now. I don't have a landline anymore and I don't have any family locally to help me hence my fear of things going wrong.

flaneurs_lobster

Think you have answered your own question.

I attempted a swap from BT to a cheaper supplier a few years back, purely on the grounds of cost.

Didn't work, customer service was of no use, cancelled the attempt after 10 days of no service. My technical abilities are worth nothing if there is no connection.

Went back to BT where I am still, paying a not inconsiderable premium similar to the one you mention.

pseudodox

I was also "pushed" onto EE from BT before they reversed that policy. I agree EE are expensive, but I do think when you are less technically minded & wary of change then such services are worth it for peace of mind. Have had no issues with EE (apart from their pants site for managing my account) but hope that if anything did go wrong they would offer the same service I had with BT for decades which always seemed to justify the cost. Friends tell me to go somewhere cheaper, then in the next breath tell me about the problems they have had with their cheapo supplier! "But hey ho" they say "we are saving £££". If you can afford the EE price then perhaps better to stay put. Just this morning I got a stupendous "loyal customer" offer from EE to take out a mobile with them at just £11 per month. WHAT! I currently have Lebara for £1.38, rising to £4.40 after 6 months. No brainer!

flaneurs_lobster

It's not all sweetness & light with BT/EE, I recently renewed my contract and at the same time cancelled TV/Sport and Landline. Billing went to utter rodentpoop - next bill shown was twice the previous month rather than the less than half it should have been.

Was sorted with one 20 minute phone call, answered straight away, with an offer to call me back in 2 days to make sure everything was showing correctly.

Worth the extra £5/month over Vodafone?

oldernonethewiser

If you have full fibre then you can easily switch to a new provider. They will send you a router, you disconnect EE/BT one and connect the new one.

Send the old one back.

Your Wifi will now have a different name and password so anything that uses the Wifi at home will need to be changed to connect to the new router.

JSmithy45AD

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81991251#Comment_81991251

Unless they have someone capable of just changing the SSID & password combination on the new router to the existing setup.

pseudodox

OP - do you use a BT email address? My understanding is that if you move away from BT/EE you can lose it unless you pay to access such emails via the web. Perhaps someone else could clarify this as I am not 100% certain. If it is the case it is one more thing to be sorted - letting friends/family/contacts/subscriptions/websites know if you set up a new email account. And what happens to any existing landline number you may use?

oldernonethewiser

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81991263#Comment_81991263

Very true. Log into the router and change the settings.

oldernonethewiser

Having an email tied to an ISP can be a real nuisance.