UK Residents Should Compare Broadband – It provides Golden Opportunity to Haggle

An article in the Daily Mail this week suggests that even a vague interest in comparing broadband can save you huge amounts of real cash, with only a single phone call.

The idea is pretty simple. Every broadband provider has to provide you with a MAC key in order for you to swap accounts, so you need to call them up before you can get transferred. Talking to the Daily Mail, consumer expert Martin Lewis (moneysavingexpert.com) suggested that when calling to get your MAC code you can also attempt to get a cheaper deal without ever leaving your current ISP – just using the information found on broadband comparison sites as leverage.

“Arm yourself with the best price you can get.” Martin Lewis advised, “I threatened to leave my provider, told them what package I was moving to and they matched it – even though it was half what I’d been paying. I saved £70 a year.”

It’s another great reason to compare broadband and check out the prices, although don’t forget there are plenty advantages of actually going ahead and moving ISP. We still recommend change if more than just money is motivating your decision.

Remember, a new ISP could potentially offer better customer support, faster speeds and a more reliable connection that simply saving cash on your current ISP cannot.

With the MAC code system swapping providers mean you should only be offline for a couple of hours at the very most as your service gets transferred, so the old days of having to stay offline for weeks trying to get yourself transferred are thankfully long gone. (Or at least they should be!)

You can check out the ISP ratings on UKCheapBroadband to get an idea of the “reality” of using any given provider and use the ISPs own site to get a good idea of the level of service and speed you can expect in your area. Keep in mind you’ll need to have reached the end of your contract before you can switch ISPs without paying out huge bills.

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