how to keep broadband costs down?

I envy you. I’m paying €59 p.m to Virgin and they will slap on another €4 from August because....they can.

No other provider offers real broadband in our area of Dublin i.e. every other provider offers less than 100 mb which means it will regularly go down below the acceptable speed e.g. for 4K. Netflix or business quality VCs.

I feel trapped by Virgin and it’s amazing how the Government think broadband is only a problem in rural areas.

Pure Telecom will be able to supply it on a 12 month contract. Ring them up and ask for Fibre to the Home.

I use a 4g router myself, €20 a month pay as you go three sim card and I get over 100 meg, Router costs about €120 and you can bring it on holidays or anywhere around the house. No contract either.

Moving to a 5g router soon so I think it'll be €25 a month or so.

I'm with vodafone for the last few year , every 12 months i haggle with them. they usually match best offer out there.

Seems it might be pot luck with Vodafone then if one poster got the same deal and another just offered 5 euro off. Perhaps what they can offer fluctuates throughout the year or even at certain times of the month if they are chasing sales targets

Nonetheless will likely go with Vodafone if keeping your discounted rate is possible. How do others find it when renewing with Sky?

I might be wrong but AFAIK with broadband and mobile companies if they raise the price during your 12 month contract you are allowed to break the contract without any financial penalty. Not sure if it is worth your while switching again for 5 euro x 6 months= 30 euro price increase but you could try ringing up and pointing this out to them and see if you can talk them out of the price increase under the vague threat that you are thinking of switching over this price increase that you didnt sign up for. It might only take a few minutes of your time depending on the agent.

That would peeve me right off becasue if they're still giving new customers the 35 a month deal then what it feels like is a bait and switch job, ie sign you up to 35 knowing full well they will jack the prices further down the line. I know its only a fiver a month but I still see it as shady practice. If they have 200,000 customers they do that to its a million more a month for them or 6 million over the six months. So you can see the grift thats going on here, dip a small amount off each customer and hope less than 2 or 3% of them cancels their contract over it.

In theory you could try to outmaneuver them, cancel it and get your partner to re-sign up at the 35 rate. Its a bit of work I know though so it all depends on your time and tolerance to go through with it. I know a few people who do this with Sky Sports year to year becasue they are forever trying to charge them full whack in the second year and they dont feel full whack is worth it, its either the new customer rate or nothing at all for them.

please update the thread on how you get on just out of interest. Though if you do have the time/inclination try ringing an agent as they do sometimes have the ability to knock off these stealth charges without it going further up the chain. Ive found Twitter/Facebook reps to be nothing more than PR merchants in the past, they normally dont have any power to change anything and will just feed you some PR speak giving the company mantra whereas agents on the phone sometimes do have that power.

On switching the big telcos know from their customer retention data that only a small percent of their customer base will ever switch. In the energy markets they say that less than 15% of customers every switch year to year so they are over the moon with having 85% of their customer base paying higher rates. Id imagine it is similar with broadband plus people have a fear of days or even weeks of downtime, it is not as easy a switch as it is for electricity or gas. The telcos know this so thats why they force us in to this silly dance every 12 months, you have to prove your disloyalty to them to actually get a decent price. Its all very silly but they dont care when they are milking the vast majority of their customer base.

I got this when I woke up this morning

This increase applied for all Vodafone accounts, this annual price adjustment reflects changes in the CPI rate and network investments. This will ensure we can continue to invest in our network to enable us to provide the best products and services to our customers.

However I will add 5EU discount for 12 month to cover this increase:) As good will gesture from Vodafone and your monthly charges will retain the same with No increase:)

The SIM cards in those 4/5G routers are the same as a phone SIM card AFAIK.

You can get some cheap SIM only deals for 5G which should work in the routers, cheaper than what Vodafone etc would have you believe.

lol so you got the corporate PR speak but also managed to get the increase knocked off=) Fair play, great result. Like I said it might only be 30 euro but its better in your pocket than theirs. Others on Vodafone should do the same.

@Fingleberries good to hear you got the discount with Vodafone 2 years in a row as thats what Id be worried about in that they may not give it and then you're left with the grief of having to send back their equipment and get new gear from another company with the potential for no internet for a few days. I would do it if I had to because being loyal costs you money in this market but it is still hassle you could do without.

How much per month is your 1GB connection with Vodafone?

I just sent them a message on Facebook, stating contact due up, reviewing offers from sky/Eir and asked what was their offer. I got message back saying 15 Euro off on 12 month contract 35E per month, they arranged for Call back then to go over the contract and verb agreement..

friend also renewed his at 35, before that he had jump through few hoops though, first they offered him 5 euro off, but when he question them on it why would he would accepted that if he could just hang up and call sky to switch, got transfer to higher up and they offered him the 35E bundle

Even though it goes against everything I believe in, it pays to actually talk to them on the phone (wait times included) rather than just on FB or via chat. It is quicker to get through to the loyalty dept with less back and forth.

Buy a decent wifi router and use it for any and all providers you use - pretty much all the ISP provided kit is junk

Mine is still capable of pushing my entire line speed to anywhere in the house so I don't need to upgrade it yet; and its quite a few years old. ASUS RT-AC58U; I would look for a newer one than that if buying now though. Its the second ASUS I've had, the earlier one did about 7 years.

If you don't work from home or stream much, it may be time to look at using a 4G/5G service instead of wired broadband considering the huge cost differential. I'm paying 64/month for my cable here; but 10.99 a month for the ~70Mbit 4G I get in a holiday house. 70mbit was unbelievably fast at home not that long ago; but it wouldn't cope with two WFH and lots of large file downloads now.

You're being absolutely robbed.

They will likely claim ownership of all the kit, but even if not, a router, external antenna and cabling will cost you less than 250 to buy outright.

Each network has a sub-15 quid option available - GoMo on Eir, Clear or Postfone on Vodafone and 48 on Three. You need to find out which network is fastest outdoors at your specific house.