Broadband contract ending? Compare renewing, switching and staying

Start with the situation you are actually in

When your broadband minimum term ends, compare your provider’s follow-on price and any renewal with suitable alternatives. Check the contract length, scheduled price changes and the total cost before you choose. Staying can be the right result.

• Minimum term ends soon: write down the end date and the follow-on price, then compare before you renew.
• Still inside the minimum term: get the exit charge from the provider in pounds. Compare leaving now with waiting. An unknown fee is not zero.
• Moving soon: check the new address and the moving-home terms. Do not choose only on the opening price.
• Offered a renewal: treat it as a new offer. Note the new minimum term and the payment schedule.
• Content with the current service: compare the cost of staying. You do not have to switch.

Three options, not one advert

Stay on the follow-on price if you need another month to check the address. Renew only if the new term, the price after any discount, and the rise clause beat leaving. Switch only if the saving still exists after the exit fee and the setup cost.

An illustration, not a tariff: £32 a month, four months left, a £40 exit fee, and a new deal at £28 for 18 months with no setup. Over 18 months, staying at £32 is £576. Switching is £40 plus £504, which is £544. The £32 gap vanishes if the new price rises or the fee is higher. Run your own numbers in the switch-now tool. Do not treat this paragraph as a deal on sale.

Retention is optional

Your current provider may offer a new term. Treat it as one option among others. Check the new term length and the next price-rise clause, not just the first-month number.

The end-of-contract letter

Providers are supposed to tell you when the minimum term is ending and what you will pay next. Read that note. The price on it is a better comparison than the price you remember from the advert eighteen months ago.

If you do nothing, you usually stay, on the out-of-contract or follow-on price, rolling. That can be the right choice for a month while you check the address, and an expensive choice for a year.

A retention deal is a new commercial offer. It can restart a minimum term. Ask how long, what the price does after any discount, and whether a later price rise is in pounds and pence. Then compare it with leaving.

A calm sequence

Find the end date. Ask for the early-termination figure if you are not sure you are free. Check the address for what else exists. Compare the full window, not the headline month. Order with the new provider only when the saving survives the fee. Do not cancel first.

If you might move within the next year, a long retention term is how a small monthly saving becomes a fee at the new house. Prefer a term you can finish. The moving-home planner treats a new address as a different job from a same-house switch.

Use the total-cost calculator when the price changes during the term, including a free month or a later higher price. Use the switch-now tool when you have a current price, a new price and either a confirmed exit fee or a contract that has already ended. If the fee is blank, the tool will not pretend it is zero.

What to do with this guide

Use this page as a checklist, not as a quote. The decisions sit with you and with the provider: the address, the contract you already signed, and the offer they will actually sell. OneTouchSwitch can show a mock catalogue and explain the switching process. We do not send the One Touch Switch messages, we do not set exit fees, and we do not decide social-tariff eligibility.

Before you act, write down four things. The premises, including the flat number. The early-termination figure in pounds if you are still in a minimum term. Whether a television package, a phone number, or a care alarm depends on the line. And the date you can be at home if an engineer is required. If any of those is unknown, you are not ready to order, however clear the guide feels.

Then compare at the address. Look at the opening monthly price and, separately, the minimum-term cost: later months, setup, and a confirmed exit fee. A first-year figure is useful and it is not the whole term when the contract is longer. Order with the gaining provider only when you have decided the numbers work. Do not cancel the old service first. Keep the confirmation and the old router until the new line has worked. If the situation in “Broadband contract ending? Compare renewing, switching and staying” does not match what the provider just told you, use the provider’s written answer.

If you are helping someone else, you need their authority. Paying a bill is not authority. A parent, a landlord, or a housemate cannot One Touch Switch a contract that is not theirs. Sit with the account holder, or get the provider to note an authorised contact, before a date is agreed.

Related reading on this site is there to stop a second mistake. Full fibre is a way of building, not a speed. A social tariff is a provider’s discount for people who qualify, not a promo code. An exit fee is a number you ask for. Availability is the premises, not the town. If you only remember one of those, remember the premises.

When the new service is up, return borrowed kit to the address the old provider named and keep proof of postage. Check the first bill against the price you were told, including the month the introductory rate ends. If it does not match, query it while the order email is still easy to find. A comparison is finished only when the bill matches the promise.