Cancellation charges whilst in contract

Hi everyone, quick sanity check please....

I'm currently in-contract for FTTC service until December 2022. Since Plusnet no longer do Line Rental Saver, I'm paying £8-odd for broadband and £21-odd for line rental each month.

CityFibre has recently become available in my area and I'm rather tempted to jump, so this would mean completely cancelling the Plusnet service (broadband and voice line). Looking at the Plusnet Ts & Cs, I understand that I'd have to pay the charges for the remainder of the contracted period - does this only relate to the broadband charge, or does it include the line rental as well? 10 months x £8 isn't too bad, but 10 months x £29 is a bit more painful!

Also, I've read that in the past there used to be a charge made for BT's work to disconnect the broadband service at the exchange, but Plusnet no longer enforce that. Is that correct?

I just want to make sure I know how much it's going to cost me in total to break the contract early


Thanks in advance for all advice,

Kippy

If I were you, I would ring the retentions team and talk it through with them. If they are sure you are seriously considering leaving they may find a way to accomodate you

Can't quite understand your charges. I'm with Plusnet for years and pay £21.22 for line rental, 73p for broadband. Of course I had to ask for it at renewal time. I pay an extra £8 for anytime calls on the landline.

As suggested, give them a call. There will certainly be cancellation charges but not for the full amount due under the contract.

It isn't as simple as 10 times your current rental. Their termination charges can be found here.

It includes both the line rental and broadband part however it is cheaper than £29 x 10 months.

Providers must now discount early termination fees by the savings they make on their wholesale costs from you no longer taking their services.

If you call them up they can immediately calculate your early termination charge.

Plusnet do not pass on the BT Wholesale cease fee when you migrate to another Openreach provider. I don't know for definite if that's still the case when you cease the line/move to an alternative network.
It was previously a £30 charge. I believe they don't charge it at all but not certain.

In reply to a post by Malwaremike:

Can't quite understand your charges. I'm with Plusnet for years and pay £21.22 for line rental, 73p for broadband. Of course I had to ask for it at renewal time. I pay an extra £8 for anytime calls on the landline.

As suggested, give them a call. There will certainly be cancellation charges but not for the full amount due under the contract.

My parents offer deal are very good from Plusnet. FTTC 40/10 at £24.00p per month (line rental £23.19p) and (fibre unlimited broadband £0.81p) Unlimited calls plan £0.00 (free) for 2 years contract.

Plusnet used to, I expect still do, show their (in minimum term contract) cancellation charges in their Price Guide. Accessed in the Legal section at the bottom of their web pages.

Probably dependent on the contract start date.

A couple of thoughts:

1. Get them to quote your early termination fee: if it's almost as high as keeping the service running, then you may prefer to keep it running as a backup (and you also don't have to pay it all up-front).

2. Do you want to keep your phone number? If so, this is a good opportunity to transfer it to a VOIP provider. When the number port completes, it will automatically cease the phone line and the attached broadband. If this is what you decide to do, *don't* tell Plusnet that you want to cease the line, let the number port handle it for you. You'll still have to pay the early termination.

Of course, there are some ISPs on the Cityfibre network who can also take over your phone number - Vodafone is one. So bear in mind that if you tell them to do so, it will force a cease of the Plusnet line on the day the Vodafone services goes live - so you won't have the parallel running between fibre and copper. But you could ask them to provision your fibre with a new phone number, and leave your old line alone.

Thanks everyone, some useful nuggets of info as always on this forum!

I don't know how I missed the Plusnet pages detailing the cancellation charges. I'll have a read through and get a rough idea of what the costs might be. I think a call to customer retentions is in order too, just to make sure. By the sound of it, the costs may be rather more than I was anticipating so I might have to sit tight for a few months longer and save some cash I see that Giganet are offering 3 months free on their CityFibre deal so I may be able to justify that to myself as an additional saving

Interesting that several of you have managed to get the broadband price down to pennies on top of the line rental... unfortunately it's a bit late for me to do anything about that now.

Good general point too about the voice line and phone number; luckily for me I never used the voice line (nothing but nuisance calls from those nice people at "Windows Support"), so nothing to worry about.


Much appreciated,

Kippy

In reply to a post by kippy:

Good general point too about the voice line and phone number; luckily for me I never used the voice line (nothing but nuisance calls from those nice people at "Windows Support"), so nothing to worry about.

Your domestic appliance insurance must be well overdue by now, then.