Two broadband offers show £25 on their first screen. You are working from a flat in Leeds, both offers cover the address and both carry an 18-month minimum term. Before picking one, open the contract summaries and draw a line through the months when each price applies. A change six months into the contract has twelve months to affect the total.
Build a price calendar
For new UK telecoms contracts, Ofcom says providers that specify future rises in the main monthly price must show the increases upfront in pounds and pence. Use the amounts and dates in the offer you are considering. An older contract may use different terms. Record what your existing provider would charge to leave early if your current minimum term has time left.
Use one column per offer and a row for every month when the amount changes. If the supplier quotes a rise on a named date, place it on the calendar for the start date you have actually been offered. An April rise will arrive much sooner for a March installation than for a November one. Where a change falls within a billing month, ask how the provider will divide that month before rounding it to either price.
Count the months across the row once you have finished. An introductory price for six months followed by the standard price for the rest of an 18-month commitment leaves twelve months at the second rate. If a separate annual increase also applies, the standard price quoted on the sales page may only cover part of those twelve months. The dates in the contract summary decide where to split the row again.
Here are two invented offers with identical installation dates. They show how a deal with the lower later price can still cost more overall.
| Item | Offer A | Offer B |
|---|---|---|
| First 6 months | 6 × £25 = £150 | 6 × £25 = £150 |
| Next 12 months | 12 × £28 = £336 | 12 × £27 = £324 |
| Setup charge | £0 | £24 |
| Total over 18 months | £486 | £498 |
Offer B saves £1 in each of twelve months and charges £24 at installation, leaving it £12 dearer over the term. If the provider waives the setup charge in the written offer, B costs £474 and the result reverses. Keep any promotional credit separate until you know when it will appear and whether you qualify.
Dividing each total by eighteen gives a monthly equivalent of £27 for A and about £27.67 for B. Keep that figure for comparing offers, and the actual payment schedule for managing your bank balance. Offer B could take £49 for the first full month and setup together, even though its monthly equivalent looks much lower. Ask when installation and the first subscription payment are collected.
What counts as money back?
Suppose B also offers a £20 account credit. If it applies automatically within the term and you qualify, B’s net total falls from £498 to £478, putting it £8 ahead of A. If the same promotion gives you a voucher for a shop you seldom visit, your broadband direct debits still add up to £498. Record a voucher in a separate column and assign the value it genuinely has to you.
For a cashback promotion, check who issues it, how to claim it and the dates when claims are accepted. A redemption window that opens after the third bill calls for a diary entry with the order number. Run the comparison with and without the payment. If B wins only when the £20 arrives, you have a specific reason to keep the claim instructions with your order.
Look at linked services too. Perhaps your present mobile contract carries a £3 monthly discount because you also buy broadband from that provider. If switching removes the discount for the remaining eight months of your mobile deal, add £24 to the household cost of switching. Apply that adjustment only to the option that causes the change. The same logic works for a TV subscription you would need to replace.
Compare commitments of different lengths
Suppose an alternative contract offers £25 for 24 months with no increase or setup fee. It commits you to £600. For a household planning to stay for two years, compare that with the first eighteen months of A plus the following six months. If you continue A at a hypothetical £35 after its term, those months cost £210 and the two-year total becomes £696. The apparent bargain depends partly on what happens at month nineteen.
Someone expecting to move after eighteen months has a different question for the seller of that two-year deal. Ask for the moving-home terms, what happens if the new address falls outside the network and how an early termination fee would be calculated. An unknown moving charge belongs beside the £600 figure as an open question. Adding six months of full fees as a guessed penalty can distort the comparison.
Test the service against a working day
Price the service you need at your own address. A household backing up large video files cares about upload speed as well as download speed. Ask what speed estimate applies to the property, what equipment is included and whether installation needs access to a shared cupboard. Write down any appointment you would have to arrange with the building manager.
In this example the £12 difference is smaller than the price of a single unexpected day of alternative connectivity for some households. Put your own number against that disruption. Save the contract summary and the order confirmation together so the price, installation commitments and dates can be checked against the first bill.
If upload speed matters, put it into the language of your working day. A 1 GB file contains roughly 8,000 megabits using decimal units. At a steady 10 megabits per second, sending it would take at least thirteen minutes. At 40 megabits per second the theoretical time is just over three minutes. Actual transfers take longer. Ask for the upload estimate on each deal before deciding what an extra pound a month buys.
For a residential broadband switch at the same address, Ofcom’s One Touch Switch process starts with the provider you want to join. The existing company supplies switching information, including any early termination charges and effects on other services. Compare that information with your figures before confirming. If the order specifies the wrong flat number, correct it at this stage. Two flats in one building can have different installations.
Read the first bill against your figures
Match the dates on the first bill to the activation date, then identify any part-month service and the period covered by the next full payment. Look for the installation amount and any optional equipment or service added at checkout. A first direct debit above £25 can have several explanations. A line covering extra days is straightforward to check once the dates are visible. A £24 activation charge on a written offer that waived it is a separate issue.
If a figure still differs, give the provider the relevant line from the summary and identify the line on the bill. A request to correct an identifiable £24 charge is easier to answer than a complaint about the headline monthly price for the account.