The Top UK Broadband ISPs and Mobile Operators for Haggling – 2022
A new survey of over 3,000 UK people has revealed that Virgin Media is the top broadband ISP and mobile operator for haggling, which reveals how much success consumers have had in getting a cheaper price from providers by negotiating with their retentions department.
Like it or not, it’s no secret that a bit of haggling could save you a lot of money, although only around one in ten people actually try it. Generally, if you’re happy with the service you’re on, then negotiation should be your first port of call before switching away, unless your provider doesn’t traditionally offer big discounts to new customers, as those ISPs may be less open to this sort of approach (we’ll touch on that again later).
However, it’s a different story with the largest and most competitive players, most of which have their own dedicated retentions departments for just such a reason. Speaking of which, the best time to haggle is usually around the end of your contract, or following a mid-contract price hike, and you can find some helpful advice for doing this in our Retentions Tips article.
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Now a new consumer survey from MSE has provided a useful indication of which providers might be more amenable to such an approach. The study found that Virgin Media came top, with just 15% of those who attempted to haggle walking away with “no success“, while the other 85% were able to reduce their bill either by a little or a lot.
Interestingly, MSE’s top ten table actually reflects a wider pool of companies (not only communications providers), but we find it very telling of this industry that nearly all the businesses named are broadband and mobile operators.
Top 10 UK Companies for Haggling a Lower Price
| Provider (total votes) | No success | Total success rate (last year’s rate) |
| 1. Virgin Media (748) | 15% | 85% (83%) |
| 2. RAC (253) | 15% | 85% (86%) |
| 3. Sky Broadband / Sky TV (1,132) | 16% | 84% (81%) |
| 4. AA (468) | 19% | 81% (84%) |
| 5. Admiral (233) | 23% | 77% (85%) |
| 6. TalkTalk (208) | 23% | 77% (81%) |
| 7. Three UK (166) | 27% | 74% (73%) |
| 8. Sky Mobile (142) | 27% | 73% (79%) |
| 9. O2 (216) | 28% | 72% (70%) |
| 10. Virgin Mobile (128) | 29% | 71% (70%) |
Interestingly, BT (inc. EE and Plusnet), which is the largest broadband provider in the market and one that is also notorious for having some of the biggest post-contract hikes in the industry, doesn’t appear in this table and that may be something that influences your future choice of provider.
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However, as hinted earlier, it’s important to underline that not all ISPs 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 or a similar amount. But most consumers tend to use larger providers, where first year style discounting is much more common, and this can result in a wide cost difference between new and old subscribers.
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 Linkedin.
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If you haggle with VM, record the conversation. We did, got promised a 12m contract because I said nope not agreeing to 18 months (because i know full well Netomnia will be here then). Anyway, new contract arrives, 18 months. VM dispute that they told me 12. I recorded the call, case open with ombudsman.
Their complaint process must be pretty crappy if you’ve provided evidence like that and they are prepared to pay to go to the ombudsman. (only having heard your side of the story obviously)
We were with them for a very long time, since nearly 2 years now got full fibre… but I remember with virgin the call centre were manned by indians and hardly understood what was being said and threatening to leave would only allow you to speak to someone in the UK… in my case lots of time it’d be some Scottish fella and all the long pause and silence and then you can bring it down. But who has the time over 2 to 3 hours every 12 to 18 months?
andrew&Arnold are doing perfectly for me, and currently I accumulated 18 TB of the rolling data, they only count the download, uploads are free… the no slow down during the peak times is the best part. I get what I pay for, they do everything i need or want… also the unfiltered internet is perfect, go on try to visit one of those sites virgin claims they got some high court injection and has to block you until you use a VPN…
Thank God or some higher power for freedom and choices otherwise “the big 6” would be shafting the free thinkers and nothing could be done about it even if you can vote with your feet!
If you recorded the conversation without making them aware you may find its inadmissible. Lets know what happens.
did make them aware, always do, however it is legal to not inform them too as long as it’s for your use and not to be published/made public. But why risk it? easier to just say “hello, i’m also recording this call for my own records, is that ok?” never had someone say no.
https://www.ereceptionist.co.uk/blog/legal-to-record-phone-calls-uk#:~:text=To%20sum%20up%3A%20it's%20not,with%20third%20parties%20without%20consent.
I have followed their complaints procedure. They are insistent that they said 12 months and I misheard/misunderstood. I told them I have a recording, offered to provide them a copy and in their response they just ignored that part. They said on you agreed to continue your contract for a period of 18 months.
I have requested the deadlock letter and to take it to the ombudsman as the complaint has gone on for 2 months now. Do they have to agree to go to ombudsman? I’ve opened the case with Ofcom anyway and they’ve asked for the evidence which i’ve now supplied. I’m sure it would be easier for both myself and Virgin Media if they’d just give me what they agreed to.
Yes you heard my side, not sure why you think i’d make it up but anyway my advice to people was to record the call. Seems reasonable doesn’t it ?
sorry typo (why can’t you edit comments?!) they insisted I agreed to 18 months.
The best way to deal with Virgin Media is to choose on the phone menu to change your package or thinking of leaving us? that way you always get someone here in the UK not someone over seas, I always do that when I have to and be polite some people get stroppy you never get anywhere with an attitude.
Yes they have to agree, the deadlock letter is the proof they agree to go to the ombudsman.
That isn’t quite true. The deadlock letter is so you can go to the Ombudsman before 8 weeks are up since your initial complaint. If 8 weeks have passed you can go to the Ombudsman without the deadlock letter. It asks when you initially complained so if it was 8 weeks ago they won’t ask for anything else from you.
Similar thing happened to me with TalkTalk, said one thing, delivered another. Said I’d pay £15/m for 18 months (20 with a 5 quid discount for the full contract) checked the contract after agreeing, the discount was only for the first 3 months despite me clarifying with them that it’d be for the full 18 months. Should’ve known something dodgy was gonna happen when they said it’d be 20 – 5 instead of just making it 15 for the duration of the contract. Oh well, was able to leave during the 30 day cooling of period. A shame since, in my experience their loyalty department is usually quite good.
We’re not a country of hagglers. It really should be a set price that is fair for all (maybe except social tariff).
I remember back in the day that this was always the case with PN… And prices went down with wholesale reductions.
I don’t personally think Sky are that simple. I left them when my price went up and they wouldn’t budge! This was about 2 years ago however.
I then left and went with another provider, got an installation date, then Sky started phoning me with really good deals. All to late though by that point!
Virgin being on here surprises me. I’ve heard it’s hard work even getting through…
With Virgin you need to get to the right department to get any reasonable deal. I was on 500mbps with them for £46pm including phone, once it ended they were going up to something like £56pm and the new 18 month contract was £52pm.
Called up retentions (1 then 4 then 4 on the Virgin phone tree) and was offered £42pm for the same package (new customers were £43pm). Could have probably gone lower if I’d gone further but for a few mins on the phone I was happy enough.
I totally agree with this article for Virgin Media, I have not long negotiated my Virgin Media 125mbps broadband for “a great price” with an 18 month contract.
I have always found Virgin Media customer relations team great for haggling, I don’t understand people who have not been able to in the past. Yes like with all providers you need it in writing, but VM send an econtract overnight so if it is wrong you call them the following day.
That’s my experience and personally since the DOCSIS 3.1 upgrades, I feel the whole network has been more reliable with fewer outages.
@Ray, Leeds I actually tried this (change your package or thinking of leaving us) 5 times the other night and got through to someone in the Philippines every time. I gave up after that, I found it hard to understand what they were saying
Right I See, It’s best to call them in office hours if you can otherwise you will get an overseas call handler it is a pain because they don’t understand most of the time.
But Virgin is awful if you don’t want haggling, it took me 5h talking to many people on WhatsApp who kept offering me crappy deals before they acknowledged that I wanted to leave and not to get a better deal.
The more I said this was not about the price and I didn’t want a better deal, the more they insisted. And they kept offering me worse deals than what I already had (slower and more expensive at the same time).
I’m with Hyperoptic and contact them every time my contract is up for renewal in order to get their best price, with 100% success.
Although I’d hardly call it haggling – I contact them via their online chat, ask to renew on their latest “new customer” deal, and they say “alright then”. And that’s it. 10 minutes, tops.
I have the 1Gbps package, and the last time I renewed 12 months ago I was paying £45/month or thereabouts, and they had no problems renewing me on their “10 year anniversary” 1Gbps package for £20/month for 2 years. Bargain.
I beg to differ. I was a customer for ten years and paying £54 for 350M. Called at the end of my contract and they offered nothing but a price increase. Now I’m paying £49 for 900/100M FTTP from a FAR better ISP. That’s the appreciation I got from VM. Leave while you can.
Agreed, but if there’s no alternative and they’re monopolising then it’s either virgin or ADSL and 8mb down and 0.75mb up… but as soon as an alternative is available jump the sinking ship!
After the docsis 3.1 upgrade for download only upload remains 3.0 (52mb max)… they’re quickly trying to go full fibre because of altnet and openreach, otherwise they would have dragged their feet and milk it for the next few decades before looking at full fibre… its commercial greed, they’re not a charity after all, and I don’t need to support such companies.
The ship is slowly sinking like the titanic, and when more people are aware of what’s going on, the more informed decision they’ll take… those indians kept calling me even after I got FTTP and kept trying to offer some deal, when I know these lot inside out and what they’re about. I’ve been looking at my neighbour and slowly more people are getting full fibre from openreach and community fibre, those are the only available here, I’m sure that virgin green box has lots of capacity now, when they told me it was running full capacity back in 2016.
100% I had the same experience with vm but sadly they where the only ones well now cityfibre is here and I can get 1g/1g for £30 from about 15 providers so I’m off as soon as thankfully my virgin contract is running out just in time
Thanks for each and every post this year. While I rarely comment, yours is one blog that I always read. until when will you become a writer? Please visit my website Tel-u
“Interestingly”
I never knew RAC.AA or Admiral did Broadband or Mobile either..
Learn something new every day, I did not know either, I expect they piggyback onto another provider like John Lewis use to use Plusnet
From the article:
‘Interestingly, MSE’s top ten table actually reflects a wider pool of companies (not only communications providers), but we find it very telling of this industry that nearly all the businesses named are broadband and mobile operators.’
Has the BB sector reached the point yet where ISPs will offer the same deal to end-of-contract renewals as they do for new customers?
VM have what was once the UK premium network with charges to match, they allow customers to haggle so they can maintain high prices while attempting to retain customers that have cheaper FTTP options.
For Virgin Media follow these steps and you will never end up paying more than new customers. 1 month before you contract it’s due to end call VM and ask for a new deal matching new customers offers. If they refuse give them notice and ask to terminate the contract in 30 days. Don’t worry, you still have 30 days to reverse the termination. Then wait for the Retentions team to call you, usually within 24-48hs and they will offer you an offer matching new customer deals without wasting time haggling. If they don’t well take the best offer you get from the Retentions team or tell them goodbye and say the cancelation stays on. Pretty simple.