Fluctuating bills / Best deal?

[#1]

Hi,

I am on the Unlimited Fibre Extra package at what I thought was £23.95 a month. Why are my bills more than the agreed price for the last 3 months?

20/6 - £26.17
20/5 - £26.17
20/4 - £27.60
20/3 - £23.95
20/2 - £23.95

Also, I see that Plusnet are doing a deal for 66Mb speeds for £24.49 a month. I am only getting around 40Mb speeds and my bills are more than that.

Can someone contact me and explain what is happening, and perhaps advise me of what the best deal for me would be please.

Kind regards

[#2]

@PabloBruno 

If you read the contract to which you agreed when you signed up, this will state that there would be a CPI plus 3.9% increase on the 31st March. This was 9.3%.

The April bill is charging the new rate going forward plus a back charge for the difference between the old and new rate from the end of March up to your billing date this month.

It will now stay at £23.95 plus 9.3%, which is £26.17.

Plusnet are constandly bringing out deals. It just happens that they currently have a reduced offer on sale. If you are out of contract or nearing the end of your current contract then ring the Customer Options Team on 0800 013 2632 and see what you can negotiate.

[#3]

I did not spot this on the contract. Another lesson learnt to read EVERYTHING I guess.

Okay, so is it possible for me to move onto the similarly priced, but much faster, package?

[#4]

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@PabloBruno wrote:

.... I see that Plusnet are doing a deal for 66Mb speeds for £24.49 a month. I am only getting around 40Mb speeds and my bills are more than that.

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A bit more of an explanation on this:

The Plusnet deal is not 66Mbps for £24.99 a monrh. It is up to 80Mbps for this sum. This is the same service as you are currently on. 66 Mbps is the average speed that all customers get on this service. It is determined by the distance your property is located from your local BT FTTC cabinet and your line condition. To see the predicted speed for your property put your phone number in here: https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL. Plusnet will also have given you a speed range estimate. If you are not getting the quoted minimum speed than come back here for more advice.

If you are only getting fault free 40Mbps then when you renew your contract you should consider whether it is worth paying the extra for the Extra service.

[#5]

Well, it's certainly not 'fault free' and the speeds go from 38-50 Mbps, but mostly on the lower end of that range.

That checker gives these results:

VDSL Range A (Clean) - 66.9/46.8
VDSL Range B (Impacted) - 65.1/40.7
Max Observed Downstream Speed - 47.94
Max Observed Upstream Speed - 11.15

As a layman, does that mean that I should not be expecting anything above 47 Mbps?

[#6]

@PabloBruno 

No it says that your sync speed should be between 46.8 and 66.9Mbps. Your actual data speed will be a bit below this.

How are you measuring your speed? are you using wireless or have you connected a computer to your hub using an Ethernet cable? You need to be connected over Ethernet when doing a speed test. This removes the possibility that it is the wireless, link that is causing speed variations.

You seem to just about be getting the contracted speed but it's worth looking to see if it can be improved.

To check that you haven't got internal wiring problems restricting your speed there is a simple test. What you do is remove the front from your BT master socket. You may need to remove two screws. In behind you will find the test socket. Plug a filter in here and connect your hub. Test over an Ethernet cable  and see if the speed picks up.

Let us know how you get on.