Broadband advice please

PunkRoquefort

I am approaching the end of my BT/EE broadband contract, paying £55 per month for broadband only. 150mbs and no phone/television. I live alone.

My mobile phone is with Tesco.

I use the internet for general browsing/surfing/paying bills/banking/shopping and Youtube.. I also listen to an internet radio occasionally. Nothing heavy and I am not a gamer.

I called EE today and chatted with the retentions dept. threatening to leave unless they sustantially reduce the price and they have given me the same speed for £42.66 per month, on a 24 month contract.

I was advised that the next cheapest deal was about 70mb for only about £3 a month less.

The email I later received explained that due to annual price increases, on month 25 onwards, I will be paying over £50 a month again. I also notice, like with all broadband suppliers, the same speed is about half the price for new customers only.

Do I really need 150mb of speed for my uses?

Also, if I cancel my new contract and go for Sky, Plusnet or another competitor, for their cheaper prices, I understand that I would need to pay EE £7.99 per month to access my BT emails on my Gmail app on my mobile phone. The BT email app for Android is rubbish.

Am I best of leaving EE and going for another provider and lower speed, then paying EE the £7.99 a month for email access?

Thank you.

MikeJXE

I have quit broadband completely I live alone too

I use the internet much like you, browsing, news sites, banking and YouTube although I haven't tried YouTube yet

My emails are Apple mail and Gmail with no charges to access

I've just joined Asda unlimited data calls and texts for £22 a month instead of broadband £25 with Sky and phone £5 with Asda who I have been with for about 4 years

Asda mobile is on the Vodafone network

It's not a 12 or 24 month contract either it rolls on month by month and can cancel anytime

I don't notice any speed difference from what I was on with Sky broadband 150mb

I'm not a gamer either

I use my laptop mostly with my iPhone as a hotspot

I can get the internet anywhere there is a phone signal not just at home

flaneurs_lobster

Just considering email, is there no way that you could migrate your email to one of the free services such as Gmail, maybe over - say - a year?

£8/mth just for email is outrageous, and being tied to your broadband supplier is making your choices more difficult.

brewerdave

Re email - I spent a couple of hours one morning, listing all my recent, important contacts on the ISP email address ,as I was thinking of leaving their b/band service.

I then spent a few hours over the next few weeks ,switching them all over to one of my public email addys (.I have 4 set up with Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail.)

Well worth doing because, altho' I haven't yet switched away , the ISP concerned are moving their email service to a paid provider. I still look at the original email address , just to check I haven't missed any - and so far ,nothing has landed there other than a few from unused online shops..

oldernonethewiser

Get a new email provider, change addresses and then ditch BT/EE and move to something much cheaper.

Keeping your email with an ISP is always a bad idea, there are many free providers.

JSmithy45AD

"I also notice, like with all broadband suppliers, the same speed is about half the price for new customers only."

You've answered your own question there. Sort out the email quickly and let them know you're leaving in the cooling off period as it reads as if you've accepted the offer already.

Flugelhorn

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82134708#Comment_82134708

goodness me yes - they really have people tied in there - definitely worth starting to change to a free email

iniltous

if you get 150Mb broadband are you on FTTP or Gfast , if you don’t know , if you are on FTTP you will have an ONT (search Openreach ONT for images of what they look like ) , a clue if you have a mains powered box that your router is connected to with PON light you are FTTP , if it’s a standard telephone socket with a Gfast faceplate its Gfast , Gfast can’t be considered like other services and the price is not easily comparable as not many will supply it anymore.

If you have FTTP and are out of contract , you need to negotiate harder , even to the point of leaving , when I relatively recently was out of contract I was fairly easily able to get a deal that was pretty close to the new customer price , and very recently was offered 150Mb FTTP (was on FTTC 80Mb) for no price increase , so deals are available, when you say you only have broadband, your price of £55 then reduced to £43 seems way too much unless you are on Gfast .

You can’t really worry about the annual increases applied in March/Aoril each year and use the price after April 2028 as the comparison price , the vast majority of providers increase prices annually so it’s the price you could get today compared to the price today of competitors, bearing in mind if the email access is worth keeping, a £ or couple of £’s may be worth paying to keep that .

If you can’t get an offer pretty close to the new customer price after threatening to leave (have a competitor price ready to quote ) , leave (not necessarily following through ) you almost certainly will get a call from retentions offering you a better deal and can always cancel leaving if you don’t get a better offer , although personally if £43 is the best , I wouldn’t stay .

FYI , a target price is £25 to £30, but both will be £6 to £8 more by the end of the 24 months . , the email (if you do leave) probably is still accessible (if it’s a @btinternet.com email) via a web browser it’s just email clients that are not usable.

This only applies applies if you are on FTTP and not Gfast , if on Gfast and FTTP isn’t available then I’d consider going back to FTTC 80Mb to get a better pricing even if it sacrifices some speed .

sheenas

£23.99 per month for 1gb, All you have to do I search for the cheapest deal that is available for your property and phone you current provider, the odds are they will match the deal. If not change provider.

Cornucopia

It's almost certainly the case that 150Mbps is well above what you need.

Prices are such that even if you continued with the EE email at the outrageous cost of £7pm, you will still save money by moving elsewhere. The only thing to note about moving is whether a new provider can/will support whatever connection(s) you have (they will tell you if not, though).

As a general rule, it's a bad idea to use your ISP's email service, and it's totally unnecessary.

EssexExile

It's a minefield isn't it? I was paying EE about £50 a month and coming to the end of my contract. I kept ignoring their attempts to lure me into a new contract until it got down to £33.99, then I accepted. I had to phone them though because their website and emails didn't agree on the price or service.

For a communications company EE/BT are pretty useless at communicating.