I’m a blogger, writer and journalist (all kind of the same thing, but it sounds fancier when I split them up!), so as you can imagine, the internet is important to me. It’s important because I write and research a lot, so need to be able to have fast internet connection at all times, but mostly, I get some serious writer’s block and find myself hitting Netflix box sets (check out streamedTV for what to watch) hard and streaming Call of Duty hating myself for not writing that book I’ve been promising to do for years.

If you think I’ve had a smooth ride when it came to getting the right package, you couldn’t be more wrong. We moved into our flat in central London and found a cheap deal with Plusnet. It was a bargain and it’s not like I lived in the middle of a field in the countryside – like, how much money do you really need to spend on broadband, right? Wrong!

You know, just writing this is giving me heart palpitations. You LITERALLY could not watch YouTube in my flat. Think I live in a big mansion with lots of walls and a million people using the internet? Nope! It’s a tiny one bed flat and there were only two of us.

You couldn’t do anything with the broadband. I’d be up at 1am, a time when it was no way busy, not understanding why I couldn’t open a webpage. And I’d complain. Don’t you worry about that! I called and chatted to my provider online – demanding to know why it wasn’t working.

I had my bandwidth upped, yet that did nothing. There was nothing they could do and it just wasn’t good enough, so I switched as soon as my contract ended.

TalkTalk

When thinking about a new provider, something I didn’t know about is that TalkTalk guarantees that it will never up its broadband prices during your contract. It’s one of the only providers that does that. 

And that’s important right? Personally, I think it’s somewhat unethical to change the rules during a contract (they wouldn’t let you do it!) and when budgeting you think about how much you can afford when you consider how much you intend to pay out for the next 12+ months.

TalkTalk is also encouraging you to assess whether you’re getting the best broadband deal when your current one comes to an end. Trust me, broadband companies LOVE it when you sign up with some nice little deal (maybe a cashback or free films for a bit), and then not bother to assess your deal once your contract is up, it keeps rolling on (and maybe going up in price slowly).

They are punting on your disinterest. So whatever you do, really think about what else is out there and if you’re currently getting what you need from your package.

The Great Connection Guarantee

TalkTalk’s Great Customer Guarantee is something I really like because means that new customers joining TalkTalk on fibre packages have an extra 30 days from the day service goes ‘live’ to stay or if they’re not happy with their connection, they’re free to walk away. 

I don’t know if a fibre package is for you – depends on where you live, how many people live in your house etc – but for me, it was a game changer.

I think we should be pickier when it comes to our broadband choices. We shouldn’t accept price hikes for a start and if you’re not happy, or if something doesn’t give you exactly what you want – walk.

It’s worth considering TalkTalk because of this guarantee in my opinion.

How to switch before your contract ends

I moved to BT a bit less than a year ago and decided (even though it killed me a bit) to pay up the extra cash and get fibre broadband.

It’s weird right? You’ll happily pay out for things that make you happy every day, like food and heating – but broadband is just as important – well, you know what I mean – yet it’s something you often begrudge paying out for.

And it all worked nicely, I budgeted the price in (it was a lot more than the dirt cheap price at Plusnet), but my internet never dropped out – so I was happy. Then it happened – the price rise.

Argh! LIKE SERIOUSLY?! You sign these big contracts where you, under law, say you’ll pay a certain amount every month, won’t do this, will do that – but the broadband provider thinks it’s OK to change it up and increase the price? It’s not like I can be like ‘Hey BT, decided it’s not the price for me, going to lower the cost’. I get the feeling I wouldn’t get away with it.

BUT lots of people don’t realise there ARE instances where you can get out of a contract early and switch to a more appropriate provider. These are:

• If your provider has raised your monthly bill, more than just in line with inflation. You can cancel without penalty if you do so within 30 days of being notified of the change.
• If your provider is in breach of contract – and hasn’t done enough to solve your issues.

So yeah – if a broadband provider (ahem, looking at you BT) ups its prices in the middle of your contract, you can – and probably should ditch them to be honest.

Who is your broadband with? What do you think about it? When was the last time you switched?! Let me know in the comments.  

*This is a sponsored post*