We reveal how you can avoid a £113 price hike on your broadband once your initial deal ends
The new report from citizen's advice found that a third of broadband customers have no idea that they will have to pay more for the same contract after the year ends
FAMILIES on cheap basic broadband deals face an average price hike of £113 a year once their deal ends, a new probe has found.
And more than a third of broadband customers have no idea they will suffer price increases by staying on the same contract, a new report from charity Citizens Advice reveals.
Citizens Advice wants broadband providers to help customers avoid loyalty penalties by being much clearer about how much their services will cost after the initial fixed deal ends.
Analysis of the cheapest basic broadband deals from the five largest suppliers found prices go up by an average of 43 per cent, or £9.45 a month, at the end of the fixed period.
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Ways to cut broadband costs
MAKE sure you know when your broadband contract ends so you are ready to negotiate a better deal before being hit by increased charges.
If you are still under contract but want to switch provider, check for exit penalties, as these could wipe out any savings.
Haggling is easy. Simply call up your existing provider and threaten to leave. It will soon offer you a better deal.
Before you make the call, find out what rival providers are offering so you can drive down the price further.
If you are already out of contract, check your broadband and line rental cost now to work out how much you can save.
People on standard deals typically pay BT £492 a year, TalkTalk £306 a year, Sky £348 a year and Virgin £480 a year.
Also check your broadband speeds to make sure you are getting what you pay for.
Check on Ookla’s and Ofcom’s mobile and broadband testing tool .
There is no point signing up for faster broadband if you can’t actually get it at your address.
If you are still in contract and getting less than advertised, ring up your provider and ask for a better package, such as fibre, a discount or another concession.
When negotiating a new deal, always look at the upfront costs as well as the monthly ones.
These initial charges can be high to offset the cheap broadband. Aim for an unlimited data package if you use the internet for streaming catch-up television and movies.
Just one episode of Game of Thrones is 1GB, so a 10GB limit won’t be sufficient and you could end up paying penalties for using too much data.
Unless you have Virgin cable, you will need a landline for broadband at home – and line rental can be costly.
If you don’t use your landline, make sure you aren’t paying for pricey “anytime call” bundles.
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This adds £113 a year to a customer’s bill.
Citizens Advice wants providers to include up-front information in their ads and when people take out the contract, rather than hiding details in the small print of terms and conditions. They also want firms to send prompts such as texts when a fixed deal comes to an end.
The charity is calling for extra protections for “vulnerable” people, such as older and poorer customers, who are more likely to face a loyalty tax because they tend to stay with the same supplier for longer.
A survey of 3,000 consumers found that broadband customers aged 65 or over are more than twice as likely to have been on the same contract for more than ten years.
Likewise, those on low incomes are almost three times as likely as high earners to be on their contract for a decade or more.
Citizens Advice thinks a price cap would be one option that might work for these customers.
Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: “Loyal broadband customers are being stung by big price rises once their fixed deal ends.
“With people staying with their supplier for an average of four years, these extra costs can run into hundreds of pounds.
“Older customers and those who have less money are more likely to stay with their supplier for longer, meaning their loyalty penalty could reach over £1,000.
Constant rises forced me to switch
LOYAL Lorna Callaghan, 67, from Scunthorpe, was a BT broadband customer for more than ten years. For the past 18 months she paid £55 a month for phone and broadband – but recently learned it would rise to £72. The retired NHS admin worker, left, says:
The cost has just gone up and up.
When they notified me of price rises in the past, I rang them up and complained and they offered me another deal.
But they never lasted for very long.
When they notified me it was going to go up to £72 a month, by chance on the very same day I had an email from First Utility offering me a broadband deal.
I had already switched to them for gas and electric.
After a lot of deliberation I went with them and I now pay on average £28 to £29 a month for landline, unlimited broadband and anytime calls.
I also have Call Minder in with this deal, which I didn’t have on BT.
The other thing that annoyed me was that BT owed me £200 when I cancelled with them, which they sent back quickly enough, but how could they justify putting my bill up when they owed me?
It goes to show loyalty doesn’t pay.
“The Government has rightly put energy firms on warning for how they treat loyal customers - and the actions of broadband firms warrant similar scrutiny. Extra protections for vulnerable consumers are also a must.”
The extra amount people are charged once their initial contract period ends has increased over the past six years.
In 2011, research found that consumers were paying £1.58 or £1.84 a month extra a month, depending on their broadband connection.
Citizens Advice now finds the average price hike is £9.45 a month — five times what it was back in 2011.
Feeling satisfied
VIRGIN Media, BT and Tesco Mobile have emerged as the winners of an Ofcom customer service comparison – regardless of their prices.
For broadband, customers of Virgin were happiest, with 91 per cent satisfaction.
BT customers were most satisfied with their landline (92 per cent) and Tesco Mobile topped the table for mobile service (96 per cent).
Ofcom compared providers for answering customer calls, handling complaints and service reliability.
It also looked at 19 broadband deals from seven providers.
Virgin’s “up to 200 Mbit/s” package got the fastest download speeds, averaging 173.1 megabits per second over 24 hours.