This topic

Broadband renewal

seoras — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 20:27:29 GMT

Hi, I'm currently paying £77.87 for Full fibre broadband 900. I'm being offered a discount to around £76 per month for the coming 2 year renewal. On checking, I see it's being offered to new customers for about £36 per month. Can anyone explain that? Long standing customer gets shafted?

Re: Broadband renewal

Kimberlin — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 20:44:23 GMT

@seoras

If you do your research, you can find 900mbps broadband for between £22 and £25 per month.

If you’re getting amazing reliable fantastic service from m BT, keep paying what you’re paying or try and negotiate…..good luck!

Re: Broadband renewal

chrisjp — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 21:46:49 GMT

That's normal BT practice, I'm afraid (admittedly as with most if not all broadband suppliers).
BT is particularly bad because they still quote their "price promise" that "existing customers will never pay more than new ones, no exceptions".
That's only true if the new customer opts for the expensive "Halo" deal, which has a few bells & whistles to justify its typical double price and which often isn't offered to them anyway
People who want the keenest prices have to play the silly game of switching providers every 2 years when their contract comes up for renewal.

Re: Broadband renewal

Kimberlin — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 22:01:42 GMT

Unfortunately there is also a huge amount of customer apathy. Customers apparently too cautious to switch in case they lose their service as an example. Those that move onto the 30 day rolling contract and then just can’t be bothered to do anything about it until suddenly, they realise that they’re paying 50 quid a month more than their neighbour for the same product.

Yes, it is a silly game switching every couple of years but what’s the point of paying hundreds of pounds a year more for the same product? I find it rather strange that folks who’ve stayed with the same provider for decades, somehow think that their loyalty should demand a discount. The fact is, your provider couldn’t care less if you aren’t savvy enough to negotiate or switch out, they’re only interested in your money.

Re: Broadband renewal

imjolly — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 22:26:24 GMT

@seoras

Do you have any additional add-ons in your cost like halo or TV or phone package ? Are you now on digital voice?

Re: Broadband renewal

seoras — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 22:57:57 GMT

Thanks - I have Pay as you go to retain the landline number at £3.43 per month. The Broadband is Broadband Package
Broadband Package
Full Fibre 900 with Halo 3+

Any advice much appreciated.

Re: Broadband renewal

licquorice — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 08:00:06 GMT

Well there you go, it is the unneeded Halo3+ that is costing you a fortune.

Re: Broadband renewal

seoras — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 09:45:04 GMT

Thanks. It seemed to be the only offer when full fibre became available. They're not offering anything else, at least online. It doesn't even help - the backup 4g device doesn't work at all.

Re: Broadband renewal

Kodikid — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 10:41:44 GMT

Maybe consider joining plusnet. £34 for 900mbps and the joyous £150 gift card.

The only difference you'll notice is the SH2 is white with plusnet.

Re: Broadband renewal

imjolly — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 11:47:42 GMT

@Kodikid

it is not as simple as joining plusnet as @seoras has a phone service from BT which is not provided by plusnet. could still join plusnet for Broadband and get separate VOIP for phone but bit more hassle

Re: Broadband renewal

Kodikid — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 11:59:18 GMT

Sorry like the vast majority I completely forgot about land line

Re: Broadband renewal

Kimberlin — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 18:26:06 GMT

@Kodikid

And so it seems have many people. Apparently, as of 2024, only around 47 percent of domestic customers have a landline and that is decreasing year on year as of course mobile phone use is more common and convenient for probably most. It'll be a few years yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if the domestic landline eventually hits the skids and disappears forever.

I'd wager that the majority of households that retain a landline, are an older demographic (I could be wrong!) often citing the need to stay in touch with relatives or ease of use of a landline phone or the need to be on the end of a landline for medical reasons. Of course there is still an element of folks who don't trust the cellphone network insofar as reliability or downtime.

Re: Broadband renewal

seoras — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 18:47:50 GMT

I kept it for emergencies but during a recent 30 hour power cut, it failed. Not reliable any longer. We're just using 3 mobile phones now on different networks but during power cuts all are likely to be down. It used to be that the landline still worked but not under the digital system as it needs the router powered, presumably. No backup now.

Re: Broadband renewal

Kodikid — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 19:55:06 GMT

We abandoned our landline when BT overnight scraped the free anytime call package.

To be honest though towards the end our only calls were nuisance ones as family friends and work all used mobiles 📱

Re: Broadband renewal

seoras — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 09:46:33 GMT

Further on this, I recently called BT, explaining that i wanted a basic service at the same speed, i.e. without Halo3 as none of it was of any benefit to me. I just kind of slipped into that when full fibre became available. The phone signal backup device never worked and I was never going to get a visit from an expert where I live.

On explaining I wanted to reduce costs to a basic service, they came back after about 10 minutes with an offer that was even more expensive (£72/month) and included TV, something that I explicitly stated I could not afford.

The service I wanted was the core full fibre at around £35/month but seemingly this was not available to me.

I tried EE who offer similar but as soon as the system recogised me as a BT customer, their £35 service jumped up to the same £72.

It just seems wholly wrong, senseless and amounted to customer contempt - I'd been with BT for decades.

Re: Broadband renewal

Kodikid — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 10:07:47 GMT

Struggling to understand why you're bothering...you can get 900mbps for less then £40 literally anywhere.

As Sarah Brightman sang..it's time to say goodbye.

Re: Broadband renewal

gg30340 — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 10:08:08 GMT

There is no such thing as customer loyalty for being with BT for decades. You are just another customer.

Look around at other ISPs and see what they are offering and you will no doubt find a deal that you like and just move to them or if you want to call BT again and this time explain to them what the deal is that you want explaining that you have your "found" deal with a different ISP and if they can not match it just move to the new ISP.

Re: Broadband renewal

iniltous — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 10:27:27 GMT

Although I certainly agree dropping Halo is far more difficult than it should be , and certain presumably ex BT customers on here positively encourage customers to simply leave BT rather than have the aggregation, it is possible to get rid of Halo , unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any magic phrase or threat to leave that can get ‘guides’ to immediately do what you want , presumably they get a screen with options on it and can’t deviate from that .

I suspect the standard customer service staff cannot offer what retentions type staff can , anecdotally it seems when a notification is received by BT that you have started a migration to another ISP , the offers to stay don’t require you to have Halo .

It does seem illogical that the BT senior management that decide this type of thing presumably are aware that leaving is often the simplest way of getting rid of £20-£30 worth of unnecessary expense, and many , probably the majority will take that option, but they don’t introduce an easy way to drop Halo and remain a BT customer.

Perhaps the Mods are feeding this ‘upstairs’ to those that dictate policy.

Re: Broadband renewal

Kimberlin — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 10:50:30 GMT

@seoras

With the utmost of respect to you, if you’re intent on keeping your landline and you really do want to stay with BT, phone the call centre back and get tough with them. Tell them in no uncertain terms that you are demanding to be taken off the Halo3 package and to revert you to a more appropriate cheaper package. If they refuse to listen, tell them that they are causing you unnecessary stress and anxiety and you feel vulnerable. If they ignore that, then there really is an underlying customer service problem.

Please as you’ve already been politely advised, don’t be under the illusion that your decades long loyalty means anything because it doesn’t. You’re just another customer.

Re: Broadband renewal

seoras — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 15:45:53 GMT

Thanks. My spouse wants to retain her bt email address so that will be extra cost and hassle. It seemed sensible just to strip off the unnecessary stuff and provide a competitive core service but bt weren't having it. Still better than £70+ Halo 3 which provided nothing for that extra cost. I've joined Plusnet now and abandoned the landline although that prevented signing up with Vodafone.