Re-contracting

[#1]

Hello Good People!

I`ve received my yearly (Ofcom) email regarding re-contracting and the `best price` offer from Plusnet which I`m happy to accept to continue the great service I`ve had from Plusnet for my unlimited broadband.

I know I just have to click on the link in that email to accept this new contracted offer but my question is, it does say * if I renew before March 31st 2023, I will be hit with the CPI price rise for this year. My actual contract ends on April 9th, so just wanted to ask if it`s okay to wait until April 1st to accept the new contract? I`m not too sure if this is less than the allowed notice required or is that only when leaving your existing provider to switch away?

Just wanted to be sure as it does say I can accept the new offer today, but I`d rather wait until 1st April for obvious reasons. 

Thanks. 😊

[#2]

@plusmouse 

Ring the Customer Options Team on 0800 013 2632 and talk to them and if OK make sure you get it confirmed in an email.

You will be pretty cheesed off if you will not be charged the increase if renewing now and by the 1st April the offer is no longer available.

[#3]

The offers in these emails seem to be time limited (although the email does not spell this out) as my son found out when he tried to take such an offer up a few weeks after the invite email. If I recall the email came in January and he trioed to take it up in the first few days of February. Plusnet seem to change their offerings on a monthly basis judging by the times I have looked on the Dashboard. Thus it is almost guaranteed that the available offer will be different after 1 April esp. with the impending price rise. It is anybody's guess if the new April offer will be a better deal than today's offer plus 14/4%. You pays your money etc.etc. As has been suggested you need to nail it down with COT but they will not tell you about April offers but I think I saw another post somewhere confirming that if you sign up before April 1st any deal will be subject to the increase.

[#4]

Thanks both. 

@ Baldrick; I remember receiving an offer from Plusnet on my accounts page last time I renewed but I waited until the Ofcom email arrived afterwards which was lower. This time, both my account offer and the Ofcom offer are the same at £20.99p a month. So only a small rise from what I pay now. I was hoping the Ofcom email offer would just stay as it is and allow me to accept it by clicking the internal link before my old contract ends, which is what I did last time to renew and that generated the emails telling me I`d signed up to another 18 month contract etc, etc....being an Ofcom lowest price offer, I though this could be a binding offer? Meaning, it couldn`t be changed? 🤔 Really can`t say if that`s the case though.

@jgb; Thanks for your input. It`s a toss up between taking the offer now and paying the increase and then being hit again after April1st! How I can be sure what my actual monthly amount will be? I`m useless with % and add-on`s. Just for clarity, I pay £20.75p now per month (ending on April 9th). Which is going to be added to soon by the impending rise.

New contract will be £20.99p per month. So 24p more than current contract, which seems nothing, but it`s these impending doubt hits being added that will mean I pay more than what`s on offer although I realize everyone is having to absorb that.

[#5]

@plusmouse 

Your offer price of £20.99 will increase by 14.4% to £24.01 or thereabouts with effect from 31 March..

You do not say what product you are on, but the current offer price for FTTC Unlimited Fibre  is £25.99 (£26.99 for Fibre Extra) for current customers found via a google search. These prices will increase after 31 March to £29.73 and £30.88 if the 14.4% increase is applied.

I do not see the offer prices after April  being any less than the offer prices now even if they do not reflect the prices with the 14.4% added.

If you are on FTTC then your offer is attractive but I suspect you may not be on those Fibre products, but on ADSL which historically was cheaper than FTTC, and I cannot see any Plusnet prices for that product.

As has been suggested a call to the COT may be the best way ahead.

Good luck with your decision.

[#6]

Than you for that jgb. I am still on ADSL yes, so the slower version! Although it suits my needs for the time being. So the price offered reflects that I guess without the need to pay more for FTTC or FTTP. Even though my location seems to be able to have the FTTC option but I haven`t bothered to look into it much. My head is telling me that I shouldn`t pay more for a faster speed where it`s not necessary at the moment. 

I`m thinking I will have the CPI rise anyway while still on my old contract which incurs this rise before my contract expires on 9th April. Then if I take the £20.99p offer for another 18 months, That will also see the next rise soon after. 

Can`t really win either way. 🙄 I might just call the team and see where I stand going forward or just go with the link regardless. 

One important point though. Do I need to accept this offer before a certain date? What I mean is, is there a timeline where if your on a soon to expire contract and a new offer is made (as mine has), do I need to accept this offer 10, 12, 14 days before my old contract ends? Or can I wait a few days before my old contract ends? I can`t remember how I proceeded the last time but realise there will be a pro-rata difference between old and new ending and starting.

[#7]

@plusmouse 

The offer you have received will expire but I do not know that there are any set rules as to when that will be. One of my referrals recently tried to accept an offer that was a few weeks old and found it withdrawn but was offered and accepted a slightly dearer one. I suspect that it will not go beyond late March (if not sooner) as Plusnet are likely to revise all offers for new and existing customers to reflect (even if only partially) the price increase from 31 March. Therefore I doubt you can wait until April and still get this offer...

Whatever you do there will be adjustments on your next bill to reflect a new contract starting and the price increase. From my recent experience any new contract on the same product will start the day following your agreement to the recontract.

Good luck!

[#8]

I checked some notes I`d jotted down the last time I re-contracted and I waited until my final payment was taken before I decided to accept the latest Ofcom email offer price and I did this 20 days before my old contract was due to expire. 

If I was to do the same this time, it would be March 21st (20 days before my existing contract ends). So that means I would be re-contracting before the end of March. 

Thanks for your input jgb, I appreciate it. I really like being with Plusnet even though there are new deals out there I could get for less. I suppose I`m one of those people who feel "if it ain`t broke - don`t try to fix it" 

[#9]

@plusmouse 

You refer to the email you have as an Ofcom one. I presume that you actually mean Plusnet. Ofcom are the telecoms regulator and do not sell / administer contracts.

It really doesn't matter when you recontract in relation to your billing date, apart possiibly in saving a few pence for each day you remain on your existing contract, assuming the recontract is dearer. As I said your next bill after recontracting will seem chaotic with adjustments for the month you have already paid for under your existing contract to cover days now covered by the recontract, and also adjustments to take account of the price rise for any days already paid for in the previous bill for the period after 31 March.

[#10]

Yes sorry jgb, I did mean the email is from Plusnet with the `Ofcom best offer` they can do. I have decided to wait until my final payment is taken for this current contract and then take that offer as it seems pointless to try and haggle for less when the imminent price rises mean I`ll be paying more anyway. 

Just wondering also, because these CPI hikes which are stated within each contract terms before you agree to sign up to another term, do they mean because they have pre-warned the customer about these future rises that the customer then cannot leave mid-contract for a cheaper deal elsewhere without being hit by early termination fees? I`m inclined to think that`s correct? So, when we sign up for a £19.99p a month offer, over the full 18 month term, it may end up costing £26.00 a month? That`s just an estimate though.

[#11]

@plusmouse 

Yes, that is correct as the annual increase is in the T & cs for the contract you have no get out without early termination charges just because of the increase.

[#12]

That`s what I thought jgb, thanks for your reply. So, before anyone re-contracts, the T&C`s already state the aforementioned CPI rises each year so the initial pricing quoted will be additionally `added to` as the contract rolls on until it`s end date.

I`m guessing that doesn`t include any price rises not mentioned where Plusnet (or any other provider) wish to add in mid-contract, therefor, allowing the customer to switch `exit fee free` where that would allow a switch to happen because it was not part of the CPI thing?

Not that I`m planning to switch anytime soon but apart from the CPI yearly additions, I can`t see how a customer can then switch away for a more affordable price mid-contract where there is no monetary loss involved. 

[#13]

As predicted, my Ofcom/Plusnet email renewal offer was gone when I decided to wait until this morning (April 1st) to accept it and was told in another thread that it should still be available to me right up until my contract end date, which is April 9th. 

My renewal offer is now higher for staying on the same product, but when I look at the faster fibre offers, there is an Unlimited Fibre offer at £25.99p per month for 18 months with estimated speeds of between 38-40mb. This offer ends in 4 days. I still use the old copper lines but I know Openreach have been upgrading their network and Plusnet seem to offer fibre to the cabinet now but I`ve no idea whether to switch to this fibre product and possibly also have to pay for an upgraded router? Or whether these offers include line rental also? The page doesn`t state this?

Looks like I`ll need to call retentions because unlike a few years ago, the renewal page isn`t offering me a simple `click and your done" scenario. I just want to know what I`m agreeing to in full before I accept any of these offers. I notice some other members are seeing strange renewal pages and price fluctuations on their bills? My last payment has been taken so no issues with that. 

[#14]

FTTC and FTTP both use the same router - Plusnet's Hub 2.  The only difference is that for FTTC you use the xDSL port connected to the phone socket (the same as ADSL) and for FTTP you use the pink WAN port connected to the ONT.

The Hub 2 only offers 3 LAN ports.

Having upgraded to FTTC, there is no necessity to then upgrade to FTTP when that becomes available.  You have suggested that you do not need more speed.  The cheapest FTTP package (36mbps) is circa £31pcm.

WARNING: FTTP does not have an associated voice service with it.  By the end of 2025, the PTSN network will be closed down, which will have a significant impact on how voice services are delivered.  Between now and then, CPs presently offering voice services will need to facilitate a migration of existing analogue voice services to one flavour or another of VoIP.

Personally I would not worry about that today when considering a 12 or 18 month contract.

In reference to the online upgrade matter, there was a bug in the upgrade journey specific to some properties and the associated BT Openreach data.  This was fixed on 31st March 2023.

[#15]

Hi Townman, thanks for replying. Right now, I`m on ADSL and it has suited my needs so well. My renewal price (after April 9th) will be £25.99p a month for 18 months, should I choose to stay with the same product, however the `estimated` download speed seems to have dropped to 1-2mb from up around 4mb currently. This worries me that if I stay on this ADSL and renew, I may find my speed is slowed down more and I don`t want that happening. 

The other option would be to upgrade to one of the `faster fibre` options open to existing customers. The cheapest one I saw was Faster fibre `from` £23.00p a month with the Hub Two router. Which I assume I would need to pay for? If that`s the case, would it be a simple unplugging of the old router I`m using and on the specific switch date and plug in this new one? Without any requirement for an engineer calling? I take it that`s only done if a household switches to Full fibre? Which I won`t be doing at the moment.

The other Fibre package I saw was £25.99p a month for 18 months with estimated speeds of 38-40mb and that offer ends on 4 days. I need the line rental still for my older Mother as she can`t use a mobile. 

I`m still a bit unsure which road to go down and cost obviously comes into it. But there doesn`t seem to be much difference now in the pricing between ADSL renewal and the fibre offers.