Time to ditch BT or Sky? 3 simple changes will cut broadband prices

Chances are, your broadband bill will be much more expensive this month.

You’re not alone, as millions of Britons will have to stomach rising costs from BT, Sky broadband, TalkTalk, Plusnet, and more this month. Some broadband providers will increase prices by as much as 14.4 percent. Ouch.

Despite the extra cost, you won’t see any changes to your download speeds, the service, or a new Wi-Fi router.

The average broadband bill for UK households stands at roughly £30, with the latest price rise adding an extra £4.32 to your Direct Debit for the rest of your contract. At a time when council tax, electricity, gas, and food prices are spiralling too – the extra £51 per year spent on broadband is a financial hit most of us would rather avoid.

The good news is that you probably can do something to block the broadband price rises.

If you’ve been with your current broadband company for a few years, it’s highly likely that you’re free to negotiate a new deal with the same supplier, or even better, switch to a different company to unlock exclusive deals for new customers.

Short on time? We’ve rounded up the best broadband deals available right now to slash your bills…

According to the most recent figures from regulator Ofcom, as many as 20 million UK broadband customers are currently outside of the initial contract period. Each one of these customers could make one of the three changes above to dramatically cut their bills.

For those who don’t know, whenever you sign-up for a broadband deal, there’s an initial 12-, 18-, or 24-month period where you’re unable to leave the contract without paying an extortionate fee. Broadband companies often charge a discounted rate during this initial contract period, with prices spiralling as soon as that period ends.

But as soon as you’re outside of that initial contract period, you’re free to renegotiate the terms of your agreement with your current provider or switch to a new deal with another supplier.

This isn’t just about saving money, either. Switching to a new deal can be a good way of unlocking extras for the same monthly price, including premium television bundles (Sky, BT, Virgin Media, TalkTalk) or bundling a SIM-only deal for your phone (Virgin Media O2) upgrading to a next-generation Wi-Fi router (TalkTalk, Virgin Media) or adding a mesh network (Sky, BT, Virgin Media).

Below, we’ve rounded up the standout broadband deals around right now.

With the latest inflation-fuelled price rises kicking in for (almost) all broadband providers at the end of last month, millions of customers will be faced with newer, costlier bills for the same broadband speeds and service from April 2023.

To combat the spiralling prices, out-of-contract customers can call customer service helplines to renegotiate the current terms of their broadband contract, or better yet, switch to another brand as a new customer and unlock free months of broadband, freebies, faster speeds, and more.

Remember this isn’t a permanent move, you can always switch back to your current broadband provider at the end of the 18-month to unlock the deals they reserve for new customers.

If you’re looking for the most affordable monthly bills, look no further than Three, which is offering free broadband for 3 months. Yes, really.

Three – perhaps better known for its monthly phone contracts than home broadband deals – will waive the £20 per month cost of its fastest broadband package for the first 3 months of your new contract. Not only that, but it’s also offering free next-day delivery and no set-up fee. As such, it’ll cost you nothing to take delivery of your new Wi-Fi router and use your home broadband connection until July.

Three includes a 30-day money-back guarantee with its broadband bundles, so you’ll be able to get a full refund if you’re unhappy with the service – almost like a free trial.

At the end of the 3-month promotional period, you’ll be charged £20 per month for an unlimited download allowance. Three is different from most other broadband providers – like BT broadband, Sky broadband, TalkTalk, Plusnet, EE, which rely on infrastructure provided by Openreach. Instead, Three uses the same 5G mobile network that powers speedy downloads from your phone. The Wi-Fi router has a 5G SIM tucked inside that connects to the internet.

When connected to the Wi-Fi network, you won’t be able to tell any discernible difference.

However, it means there’s no need for an engineer to visit your home and drill a hole in a wall to run a cable – just plug in the Wi-Fi router anywhere in your house. Since it only needs a power cable, you can even move it around if you want strong Wi-Fi in the garden, or at a friend’s house for the afternoon.

As well as saving some money, switching to a new broadband deal can be a brilliant opportunity to upgrade to faster download speeds. If you’ve noticed some stuttering when making video calls, buffering on Netflix, or slower downloads at peak times… it might be time to switch to a full-fibre broadband package.

Good news, Sky broadband is offering the most affordable full-fibre deal right now.

For a limited time, Sky is charging the same monthly fee for its Ultrafast Plus broadband package (with maximum download speeds of 500Mbps) as its standard Ultrafast bundle (max. 145Mbps). That’s 3x the speeds for the same monthly cost.

Unlike BT and Plusnet, which both lock new broadband customers into a 24-month minimum contract term, Sky will only sign you up for 18 months. That means you’ll be able to renegotiate the terms of your deal or switch to a new provider 6 months earlier than someone with the competition.

Sky Broadband’s Ultrafast Plus broadband package is easily the most affordable bundle for 500Mbps download speeds.

At the end of two years, you’ll have spent a total of £931.95, including the one-off £19.95 set-up cost.

That’s cheaper than BT Full Fibre 500 (£997.25, and that’s with half-price bills for the first 5 months of the 24-month contract – the latest deal from BT), TalkTalk Full Fibre 500 (£936), and Plusnet Full Fibre 500 (£935.76).

It’s also worth pointing out that while we’ve calculated the Sky broadband total based on 24 months to compare like-for-like with the other brands, in reality, after 18 months you’ll be able to switch to another deal – unlocking even more savings!

If your home is connected to the Virgin Media full-fibre network – around 15.5 million homes are able to take advantage of this standalone network – then it’s well worth looking into its latest broadband deals.

Virgin Media can unlock download speeds of up to 1,130Mbps (22x faster than the national broadband average) and speedier than the 900Mbps flagship speeds available from the likes of BT, Sky, TalkTalk, and Plusnet, supplied by Openreach’s full-fibre network.

Not only that, but Virgin Media’s merger with O2 means you can bundle SIM-only deals for more savings.

For a limited time, Virgin Media is offering 50 percent off broadband bills for the first 6 months of your new package.

This deal isn’t available for all speeds, but the M250 bundle – with average download speeds of 264Mbps (roughly 3.7x faster than the average home broadband speed in the UK) – should be the best fix for most people. Prices now start from £15 per month.

After the 6-month promotional period, your monthly bills will rise to £33 for the remaining 18 months of your contract.

However, that’s still very affordable compared to the competition.

Over two years, Plusnet charges £719.76 for slower 145Mbps speeds, BT charges £782.25 for slower 150Mbps speeds, Sky charges £931.95 for 145Mbps speeds, TalkTalk charges £768 for 150Mbps speeds.

Following the merger between Virgin Media and O2, all home broadband customers will get access to O2 Priority, unlocking free coffees and discounted meal deals from high street brands, as well as early access to some of the biggest gigs and festivals.

BT, EE, Plusnet, Vodafone, TalkTalk, and Shell Energy Broadband have all confirmed the annual price rises set to hit customers. These broadband brands base their yearly price increases on inflation figures – either CPI or RPI – from January, which reflects the rate of inflation recorded in December. Make sense?

Unfortunately, if you’re still within the minimum term of your contract, there’s not much you can do about the price rises as it’s included in the small print when you sign up.

Virgin Media does allow customers to leave without penalty when it confirms its annual price rise, but if you’re with BT, EE, Plusnet, or TalkTalk, you’ll need to continue paying the new higher rate until your contract term is over.

The latest broadband price rises for 2023…

BT Broadband (10.5% CPI + 3.9%) 14.4% increase

Sky Broadband (no set formula) 8.1% increase

EE (10.5% CPI + 3.9%) 14.4% increase

Plusnet (10.5% CPI + 3.9%) 14.4% increase

Vodafone (10.5% CPI + 3.9%) 14.4% increase

TalkTalk (10.5% CPI + 3.7%) 14.2% increase

Shell Energy (10.5% CPI + 3%) 13.5% increase

Three (10.5% CPI + 3.9%) 14.4% increase

O2 (13.4% RPI + 3.9%) 17.3% increase

Virgin Media (no set formula) 13.8% increase

That’s a toughie as the answer is different for everyone. After all, it really depends on what you want to do with your Wi-Fi network.

The average UK broadband speed currently sits around 70Mbps, which is more than enough to stream a boxset on Netflix, make a video call on WhatsApp or FaceTime, or back up your photos to the cloud. But if you attempt to do all of these tasks at the same time, you’re likely to run into some extended loading times.

Imagine your broadband speed is a motorway. To stretch this metaphor to breaking point, the total download speed available with your contract represents the number of lanes in the motorway. As more traffic uses the motorway at the same time, everything slows down.