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A recent survey of 5,014 UK adult consumers, which was conducted by Which?, has claimed that the average broadband-only ISP customer could save £100 per year by switching to a new provider – rising to £160 and £155 on Sky Broadband and Virgin Media respectively. Similarly, those who haggled saved £65 (rising to £92 and £85 respectively on Virgin Media and BT).
The story is similar for mobile and TV customers. Mobile customers who switched operators and swapped to a SIM-Only deal were found to have saved an average of £258 a year, while those who stayed with their existing network and instead opted to haggle their way to a SIM-Only plan were able to save £210.
Across all types of mobile contracts, EE, O2 and Vodafone customers stood to make the biggest savings by switching away from their provider. Meanwhile, EE, O2 and Vodafone customers who left their current provider and switched to a different network or SIM-Only deal saved an average of £163, £127 and £121 respectively. Finally, out-of-contract TV and broadband customers could save an average of £169 by switching (rising to £237 on Sky TV), while haggling with an existing provider resulted in savings of £99.
However, it’s important to say that haggling is more likely to work with providers, particularly the biggest players (they have dedicated retentions departments), where discounting is a routine practice for attracting new and retaining existing customers. By comparison, 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 say is “no”.
All of this is particularly relevant given the recent announcements from a number of broadband and mobile providers (e.g. BT – here and Virgin Media – here), which have increased the level of mid-contract price hikes they apply. For example, BT’s mid-contract hikes, which are applied from April each year, jumped from £3 to £4 (monthly). We’re expecting a number of other providers to soon follow suit, as per usual.
On the other hand, it’s now easier for consumers to switch providers than even before, thanks to systems like One Touch Switching (OTS) on broadband and Text-to-Switch (Auto-Switch) on mobile. Which?’s survey similarly discovered that most consumers found the switching process easy. This was the case for 80% of broadband and 79% of mobile customers, albeit falling to 69% for those with a broadband and TV bundle.
The main reason(s) people switched also varied by sector. Mobile customers switched for a better mobile deal with another provider (41%) or because they had issues with signal and reception (13%). By comparison, broadband customers switched to avoid slow speeds (21%) or an unreliable connection (16%), while broadband and TV bundlers looked for a new provider because of poor customer service (17%).