A new survey of 5,083 UK adult consumers, which was conducted by Which?, has claimed that the average broadband-only ISP customer could save £105 per year by switching to a new provider and those switching from BT, Sky Broadband or Virgin Media saved even more – up to £165 on average for a Virgin customer. It’s a similar story for mobile and TV users.
The estimated average saving increases to £160 for out-of-contract consumers who bundled both a pay TV and broadband service (Sky customers saved the most, some £235, by switching away). On the other hand, consumers who tried to save money by haggling and staying with their existing TV and broadband provider saved an average of just £117, dropping to £55 for broadband-only customers (Virgin’s customers saw the biggest saving of £81).
The difference in savings between mobile customers that switched and those that haggled was less stark. Mobile customers at the end of their contract saved £67 on average by switching, while those that haggled saved a slightly lower £61. Vodafone’s mobile customers saved £146 by switching, more than twice the average, while EE and O2 customers also saved on average £122 and £132 respectively.
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Summary of Survey Findings
➤ Some 75% of broadband-only consumers found the switching process easy, falling to 73% for mobile customers and just 55% for broadband and TV customers.
➤ Price was found to be the “most common reason for switching“, although oddly Which? didn’t include a % figure for this.
➤ 31% of broadband switchers said customer service got better after switching, while 6% said it got worse. As for mobile customers, some 35% said it got better after switching and 3% said it got worse.
➤ 37% of broadband customers said their download speeds got faster after switching (most likely a line or package upgrade), while 12% said it got slower. As for mobile customers, some 24% found improved mobile broadband speeds after switching, while 9% said it got slower.
➤ 44% said their broadband connection was more reliable after switching (again, this is likely due to an upgrade, such as going from ADSL or FTTC to FTTP), but 12% said it got worse. Similarly, mobile network reception improved for half (48%) of switchers, but got worse for one in seven (14%).
Take note that haggling is more likely to work with providers, particularly the biggest players (they often have dedicated retentions departments), where discounting is a routine practice for attracting new and retaining existing customers. But a lot of smaller providers don’t traditionally offer big discounts to new customers and their prices may be more stable, thus haggling is less likely to return a positive result. Nevertheless, it’s always worth a try, and the worst thing they can do is say “no”.
All of this is particularly relevant as we approach the annual price hikes season, where all of the largest players tend to hike their prices and often above the already surging level of national inflation. But this year will be a bit different after Ofcom begins enforcing a ban on providers doing mid-contract price hikes that are linked to confusing inflation and percentage-based changes (here), which is due to be enforced from 17th January 2025.
The catch is that this doesn’t ban mid-contract hikes themselves, and will merely require ISPs to adopt a clearer policy that expressed such hikes in “pounds and pence” (the new approach cause even bigger hikes for some customers this year). At the same time, Ofcom have also introduced their One Touch Switching (OTS) system, which aims to make it even easier for consumers to change broadband and phone providers that are on physically separate networks.
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I heard somewhere it’s easier to haggle with the likes of BT if you have an altnet passing your door. Does anyone have any experience of this?
This survey is underestimating the obvious. In 2 years they added like 20% to my bills so if I hadn’t switched from BT to vodafone I would still be paying extra 15 per month