Renew contract or wait for FTTP

My normal broadband contract just ended and I have been put to the higher standard out of contract rate (Plusnet) from 17.99 a month to £29.99

I have been told that FTTP will come soon and while it has been like that for a year on Openreach website, I had some note through the postbox that Openreach engineer was working in my cabinet and my phone line was out of service for a day. I was repeatedly told it will come very soon.

Should I stay out of contract in case I can order fibre at a more competitive rate or shall I lock myself in an ISP and save the montly cost now, then upgrade with the same ISP at the risk not them having any good offers for fibre when it comes live. This does avoid the exit fees.

Are there any ISP with low monthly cost but not a high exit fee?

Working in cabinet and phone line being out of service will have nothing to do with FTTP

Two thoughts.

I�m not sure what you mean by �exit fee�. If you are in a minimum term contract and migrate away, then you have to pay off an amount equivalent to what profit they lose. Note! Not the full amount of the outstanding term.

If you cease you connection completely instead of migrating then that often incurs a fairly small �Cease fee� that the ISP is charged by Openreach. Some pass it on, and some don�t. That would be on top of any early termination charge.

What to do about Plusnet here and now is more difficult. The people on the help lines or in forums, Twitter, chat and so on can�t help. You have to ask to speak to the �Retentions� department.

If you say you are going to leave because if this new price, they can nearly always offer you a deal that might even be lower than you were paying before. There are some problems with that as well though.

It will always be accompanied by a new minimum term, of 12, 18 or 24 months. But you are in the driving seat so can just say the term, if over 12 months, is too long. Or the overall offer is still too costly, or both. Secondly, the reps in that department seem to have a personal allowance per month to �give away� in offers. They use them in different ways and offer better deals at different parts of the month, depending how they want to handle it.

It nearly always pays to ring more than once on different days, having made sure the latest offer is put on your file when it is made, for you to think about. You can then start by saying you still don�t think it is good enough.

Finally, there are some ISPs that offer straight monthly contracts at sensible prices with no minimum term these days. One that does is Pulse8broadband, and maybe Uno and Aquiss. I�m not sure about those last two, but all three have decent reputations. There may be others that slip my mind at the moment.

Make sure that you are looking at the cost of phone line as well as broadband, and whether Vat is included.

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 08-Nov-19 13:11:35)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Two thoughts.

I�m not sure what you mean by �exit fee�. If you are in a minimum term contract and migrate away, then you have to pay off an amount equivalent to what profit they lose. Note! Not the full amount of the outstanding term.

Where have you seen that advertised as that is good of Plusnet if that�s how they handle that situation?

Non of the companies I have worked on have ever been so good when customers want to leave mid contract.

Not disagreeing with anything anyone else has said but in the same position I would probably consider switching to one of the ISP's who also do FTTP so once its available I could switch without penalty. Appreciate that PlusNet may be cheaper for your current service but I would edge my bets with a view to the future.

Edited by deleted (Fri 08-Nov-19 16:41:00)

Sorry if people misunderstood my query

If I call my current ISP PlusNet, they will lock me into another minimum contract ( so do any other ISP if I go to them). This means while I can upgrade to FTTP when it is available penalty free, I can only do so with PlusNet (otherwise I pay a penalty to switch to another ISP). In my experience offers on fibre connection come and go, and it is not guaranteed I will get a good deal if I lock myself to a single ISP.

On the other hand, if I stay out of contract, I get a lot more choices when FTTP is available, but the disadvantage is I have to swallow the outrageous out of contract montly cost for no idea how long for. I am not sure when FTTP will come

Except PlusNet don't offer FTTP so if you want to upgrade to FTTP in the next 18 months then you will have to pay a penalty as it will require a switch of ISP's. Unless PlusNet start doing FTTP in the meantime that is.

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

Except PlusNet don't offer FTTP so if you want to upgrade to FTTP in the next 18 months then you will have to pay a penalty as it will require a switch of ISP's. Unless PlusNet start doing FTTP in the meantime that is.

You beat me to that point

In reply to a post by mobiuspizza:

Sorry if people misunderstood my query

If I call my current ISP PlusNet, they will lock me into another minimum contract ( so do any other ISP if I go to them). This means while I can upgrade to FTTP when it is available penalty free, I can only do so with PlusNet (otherwise I pay a penalty to switch to another ISP). In my experience offers on fibre connection come and go, and it is not guaranteed I will get a good deal if I lock myself to a single ISP.

On the other hand, if I stay out of contract, I get a lot more choices when FTTP is available, but the disadvantage is I have to swallow the outrageous out of contract montly cost for no idea how long for. I am not sure when FTTP will come

There is no magical answer sadly as you don't know when FTTP is coming.

In reply to a post by gary333:

Where have you seen that advertised as that is good of Plusnet if that�s how they handle that situation?

https://www.plus.net/help/legal/plusnet-price-guide-...

Early termination is half way down. I agree this is a good policy from Plusnet.