Contracts
Exit fees and the broadband switch
The most common way a “cheaper” broadband switch loses money is an early-termination charge nobody wrote down. One Touch Switch does not cancel that charge. This page is how to put the fee in the decision without inventing one.
Reviewed 5 November 2026 · 6 min read · Independent · Not a price list
Ask for a figure, not a formula
Ask the provider you are leaving for the early-termination charge in pounds on a date you name. Months left times the monthly price is a sketch you can do in your head. Their figure can include a different calculation, a router balance, a discount they claw back, or a waiver you only get if you ask. Use their figure in the same week you compare.
If they will not give a figure, you do not yet have a comparison. Leaving the box blank and treating it as zero is how people order a new eighteen-month contract to save less than the fee. Write “unknown” and stop, or wait until you have the number.
Get it in writing: a bill message, an email, or a note of the call with the date and the name. A memory of a chat is a weak document if the fee later differs.
When there is often no fee
After the minimum term, many services move to a rolling period. Leaving then is often free of an early-termination charge, but the provider may still want notice, and they may still bill a router that was a loan. Ask. “Out of contract” is not a magic phrase until they confirm the cease terms.
A price change that was not the one you agreed can open a penalty-free exit for a limited time. The notice says how long. A rise that was already written in pounds and pence usually does not. Do not mix those two stories up because both involve the word “rise”.
A home move is sometimes a waiver and sometimes a new fee plus a new install. The contract, not a neighbour, decides. Ask what evidence they want, and whether the waiver survives if you switch brand at the same time as you move.
What not to do
Do not cancel the old service to “stop the billing” and then shop. The cancellation can start the fee and a cease. In the ordinary case the new provider starts One Touch Switch, and the old service stays until the handover.
Do not assume the new provider will pay the fee. Some retention teams and some marketing offers include a contribution. If it is not in writing on your order, it does not exist. A forum post about someone else’s waiver is not your waiver.
Do not compare only the first year of the new deal against a fee you will pay on day one. A fee is money you pay now. A lower monthly price is money you might save later, if you stay. Both belong on the same page.
Put the fee beside the new stack
Take the known scheduled cost of the new contract, as described in our price-reading note, and add the exit fee. If that total is higher than staying until the end date, staying is usually the cheaper switch. You can still leave for a reason that is not money: a fault, a move, a building that finally has full fibre. Just do not call it a saving.
If the new contract itself has an early-termination clause, you are choosing a new trap as you escape an old one. Read the new minimum term with the same seriousness. Rolling plans exist for people who will not promise the year.
We do not publish a typical UK exit fee. The range is too wide to be useful, and a midpoint would be mistaken for advice. Your letter is the data.
Questions
- Does One Touch Switch cancel exit fees?
- No. It coordinates the handover. The charge remains unless the provider you are leaving, or the new one, waives it in writing.
- What if I do not know the fee?
- Then the comparison is incomplete. Unknown is not zero. Ask for the figure in pounds on a named date before you order.
- I am out of contract. Is the fee zero?
- Often, but confirm notice and any equipment charge. “Out of contract” is not a cease on its own.
- Will the new provider pay it?
- Only if your order says so. A general advert is not your waiver.
- Should I cancel first so the fee starts cleanly?
- No. Cancelling first can create a gap and can make the coordinated switch harder. Keep the old service until the new one works.
- Does a price rise let me leave free?
- Only if the notice says you may reject that change. A rise you already agreed in cash usually does not open a new exit right.