Broadband packages have a sting in the tail…
Citizens Advice is on the warpath against ISPs, accusing them of treating loyal customers unfairly because it isn’t clear that the cost of a broadband package can increase considerably once the initial discounted price expires.
You may well be aware that broadband providers generally have a cheap introductory offer on the cost of a subscription, but what Citizens Advice wants to highlight is that a considerable amount of folks don’t realise when the price of their connection goes up – and also that the extent of these increases can be very substantial.
According to new research from the charity, no less than 35% of broadband customers in the UK don’t realise that they face a price hike if they stay on the same plan with their ISP after the initial discount period ends.
Hence Citizens Advice says that customers remaining with the same provider are effectively having a ‘loyalty penalty’ exacted on them. And as mentioned, it’s a substantial fee.
According to the organisation, when the initial offer period expires, the average price rise of a broadband subscription is £113 per year. That’s almost £9.50 per month, and in percentage terms, an average increase of 43%.
Note that these figures weren’t calculated across all ISPs, but they’re an average of the cheapest basic broadband packages from the five biggest UK providers: BT, EE, Sky, TalkTalk, and Virgin Media.
