Home
 » ISP News » 
Sponsored Links

Survey Warns Loyalty to UK Broadband and Phone Providers is Costly

Thursday, Dec 14th, 2017 (1:57 pm) - Score 754

A new survey of 2,000 UK people, which was conducted by consumer magazine Which?, has warned that those who stay loyal to a particular phone, broadband ISP, mobile, energy or TV provider are being “ripped off” by up to £725 a year because they don’t benefit from the same savings as new users.

The £725 figure mentioned above appears to be across all services and is based on the median savings of 1,169 people in their survey who haggled in the past 12 months. The savings after haggling break down to £316 for energy providers, £216 for broadband and TV or £120 for standalone broadband, £72 for mobile, £50 for car insurance, £40 for home insurance and £35 for car breakdown cover.

Overall Which? found that 42% of respondents had not haggled with any service provider over the past 12 months, which is despite the fact that 86% of broadband and pay TV customers who asked for a better deal were offered a discount or incentive (77% for Mobile).

Advertisement

Alex Neill, MD of Which? Home and Product Services, said:

“People who stay with the same energy, telecoms or insurance company year after year rarely get the best deal.

Customers paying the price for loyalty should ask their providers to reward them, or be prepared to lose them.”

We should point out that not all service providers are the same. Some adopt fairly standard pricing and avoid discounts, which means that haggling won’t get you very far because both new and existing customers will already be paying the same price. However most consumers tend to use larger providers, were first year style discounting is much more common and this can result in a wide cost difference between new and old subscribers.

Similarly the pursuit of the cheapest deal on a linear service like Gas, Electricity or Water is rather different to paying less for broadband, where the cheapest providers often tend to fair worse in ratings of service and support quality. In that sense a race to the bottom on broadband price is something that requires more consideration, lest your pursuit of a cheaper service results in the adoption of steaming poop.

However we do agree with Which? that there’s really no harm in haggling and it doesn’t have to be stressful. After all, what do you have to lose? The worse that could happen is that your provider refuses to offer a discount and at least then you have some certainty about their position and that may help your future decision about whether or not to switch.

We wrote a useful guide on all this earlier in 2017 (Retentions – Tips for Cutting Your Broadband Bill Without Switching ISP).

Advertisement

Tags:
Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and .
Search ISP News
Search ISP Listings
Search ISP Reviews

Comments are closed

Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
100Mbps
Gift: First 3 Months Free
Sky UK ISP Logo
Sky £22.00 - 26.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Youfibre UK ISP Logo
Youfibre £23.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £23.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
NOW UK ISP Logo
NOW £25.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Cheap Unlimited Mobile SIMs
Talkmobile UK ISP Logo
Talkmobile £11.95
Contract: 12 Months
Data: 120GB
iD Mobile UK ISP Logo
iD Mobile £16.00
Contract: 24 Months
Data: Unlimited
Smarty UK ISP Logo
Smarty £18.00
Contract: 1 Month
Data: Unlimited
ASDA Mobile UK ISP Logo
ASDA Mobile £19.00
Contract: 24 Months
Data: Unlimited
Three UK ISP Logo
Three £20.00
Contract: 24 Months
Data: Unlimited
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
100Mbps
Gift: First 3 Months Free
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £19.00
300Mbps
Gift: None
Sky UK ISP Logo
Sky £22.00 - 26.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
toob UK ISP Logo
toob £22.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
Beebu UK ISP Logo
Beebu £23.00
100 - 160Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Promotion
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms , Privacy and Cookie Policy , Links , Website Rules , Contact
Mastodon