Contract expires in October - cancel or renew?

I currently have BT Unlimted Broadband (up to 17Mb) which started out in April 2013 as £16/month but was increased to £17.03/month with the January price hikes.

The current contract ends on October 11th (I have checked) and, hopefully, BT will inform/email about this and not just automatically renew.

At the moment the offer for the same package is £16/month with the first 6 months half price (£8/month) and the offer of a £75 Sainsburys voucher.

What is the best course of action? Cancel the existing contract and take our a new one- if this is possible - or phone someone(?) to negotiate prices.

I objected when the original price was increased by £1.03/month when the deal offered to new customers was still at what I contracted for at £16/month - it was a complete waste of time not to mention frustrating

Edited by fernandez (Sat 02-Aug-14 10:18:23)

I think if you check your T & Cs you will find it is not a (renewing) fixed term contract for 12 months. On broadband the "contract" period is normally a minimum term, at the end of which it becomes a normal monthly contract.

Cancelling that monthly contract other than by migrating out or changing package, (which you would not be doing), would generate a broadband cease charge and a loss of broadband until the new service commences - several days if not a couple of weeks later.

Phone retentions close to the date and see what you can negotiate, letting them know you are unhappy and will migrate away if they can't make a decent offer. You don't have to migrate even if you say you will. Just do not use the word Cancel at any stage.

Thanks.
I intend to wait until nearer the date and I've taken note of your use of the wording to use with retentions.

basically when the minimum term is over or close (ie 3 weeks away) see what others new customers get, and if you like the look of that see if they will let you have that offer. The downside will be that you are in another 18 month contract if you take it and the gift cards are normally not part of retention deals.

The only way to get the best price all the time is to keep switching providers with all the attendant leg work that involves.

I rang up retentions a couple of days ago as my contract expires in Oct. I got unlimited plus weekend calls for £10 a month. I was paying £13.65 so I agreed another 12 month contract. Not having received any email confirmation I rang today. They said the order had gone through and would send a confirmation today. By 6pm and without this mail I wrote a query via the web site. I got an immediate reply that they had received the query and 5 mins later a call from India. The guy confirmed the order and said he'd email me. Within another 5 mins I had the message. I'm still waiting for the one from the Uk dept! Shows that the Indian support isn't all bad.

Ring them near to renewal. They will offer a deal I am sure, one thing BT is good at is offering a retention deal. It may not be as cheap as £8 a month but it will be cheaper than £16.

DO NOT cancel it will cause a cease as has been suggested. This could easily be weeks of downtime with no broadband. Also most providers have conditions to be a 'new customer.' E.g. if you cancel Sky and resubscribe within 1 year you are not classed as a new customer, so do not get the new customer deals anyway. You would get the same deals as if you had stayed with Sky. It's very likely cancelling will get you no better deal, just take a month of your time up and perhaps even cause you to pay for a line reconnection.

In my experience BT are good at giving retention deals.

Best way usually is to ring through to cancellations / retentions, make it clear that you are looking for a better deal rather than wanting to cancel. They usually have the best deals I find.

I reiterate what has been said. NEVER CANCEL. A cancellation means they cease your line, it takes weeks before ANY broadband can be re-activated on the line then. You either get a MAC code to MIGRATE or you negotiate a better deal. You do not cancel your services entirely

Edited by ukhardy07 (Thu 11-Sep-14 00:52:40)

I rang offering to buy a HH5 (£50 or so for existing customers) and was given a free one plus £4 per month off my broadband. Had to sign up for another 18 months but as I have no intention of leaving, why not? BT are fine if you are polite to the call centre staff and are prepared to negotiate the menus. And their web chat helpline was superb when I had a problem.

Similar position but with BT infinity 2 unlimited. Out of contract.
I phoned for my MAC as plusnet are doing a great deal and was offered around £5 per month discount.
Plusnets normal price is £20/m, BT at the min is £28/m, There's also an offer for six months with £11/m off on plusnet.
There is also an offer for £5/m free calls at anytime (landlines) which by my last bill i would have saved £11.
The (nice) Lady said she couldn't match the plus net offer so I'm awaiting my code.
She tried to persuade me with btsport, never used, cloud storage, never used and computer protection, never used.
So for six months i'll be saving £19/m after that £8/m.
Bt have a good service but the price difference is too great.

Can anyone tell me the best deal that I am likely to get for retention on Unlimited infinity Option 2. At present I have HH3.

Keith

The only way to find out is to phone up and ask!