BT internet - changing address

[R.C.Anderson]

Just bought a house, so will be moving at the end of the month, so I called BT (my currently ISP) to get them to move the contract over.

They said they can move everything over, but it would start a new 12 month contract for line rental, which would mean I'm going to have my current package (on an introductory offer of £30/month) expire in about 6 months time, but the line rental will still have 6 months of contract with BT at £19/month, but I'm told they can re-contract the line rental when I renew after 6 months.

I see myself has having the following options:

1. Continue with the change, and hope I can get a reasonable contract when it comes to renewal, as when it comes to renewal, I'll either have to buy out of the line rental contract, or go with whatever contract they offer (they said that there's good deals available for renewing customers, but I struggle to believe this)
2. Renew everything now (the best they can offer is £45/month apparently)
3. Cancel everything now, pay the remaining contract cost & join someone else (~£145 apparently)

I'm struggling to find a good solution to this, as the options seem to be either pay them a load now, or *most likely* pay them a load in the future.

Has anyone been in a similar situation & have any advice?

 

[BaroUK2]

Regardless of what you do problem is you still have 6 months of contract with them so if you move to different provider that means you still have to pay for 6 months fee i believe. So for this instance best way is to work out total cost for a year or when new contract would run out....
Also for your info Plusnet have a good offer right now for fibre and line rental at £29.99 ( 12 Months contract ) with unlimited usage and typical fiber speed 76mb. For new phone line installations i believe they charge £49.99 rather then £130 what BT charges. So besides your remaining contract for your option 3 it would cost £79.98 ( £49.99 new line installation + £29.99 phone and broadband cost ).

 

[R.C.Anderson]

Yea, that's the problem... From what they said though, is if I re-contract in 6 months time (when my broadband package expires), the line rental will be started again, so then everything would finish 12 months after that, but it means I'm tied into BT for the next 18 months at whatever they want to charge :/

I'm intending to work out the total cost over the next 18 months for each option, but wasn't sure if there's an option I've missed somewhere!

 

[BaroUK2]

If you decide to stay with BT you need to calculate 12 months i believe as they will move you but make a new 12 month contract.
If you decide to go with another provider then you need to calculate 12 Months new provider + 6 Months remaining BT Contract...

 

[R.C.Anderson]

I note mainly for anyone else who ends up in a similar situation...

I called back the other day, and managed to negotiate a re-contract for all for 12 months (and for £3 less than I'm paying at the moment!), because I asked about upgrading the contract to include TV, but I chose the starter package (youview box, not the full BT box).

Seemed like a bit of a winner to me. Just shows it helps to get the right person on the phone, and to be persistent!