Britta O'Boyle

Switching my broadband was something I had on my to-do list for years. I signed up to Sky when my husband and I moved into our first flat together 15 years ago, and when we moved house seven years later, I stuck with the same provider.

Fast forward another eight years, and here I was, still with Sky (I had apparently achieved something called ‘Platinum VIP’ status by this stage), accruing year-on-year price increases every April.

But after receiving an email from them, thrilled to be promising me faster speeds for the same price I was already paying, the penny finally dropped. I was actually getting a rubbish deal, and I think even Sky knew it. It was time to switch, but I wasn’t prepared for the ordeal that was to come.

What I was (over)paying for

I finally put aside some time to research and I’m embarrassed at how little effort it took to discover how much I had been overpaying. I was on what Sky calls ‘Superfast Broadband 80’. This package gave me average download speeds of up to 67Mbps, which is frankly far too slow by modern standards – especially for my four-person family.

The email was offering me an upgrade to ‘Full Fibre 100’, with speeds of up to 100Mbps for the same price. This package was costing me £53.50 a month, and if you think that sounds expensive, you would be correct.

A quick browse on rival Virgin Media’s website revealed that I could get Gigabit speeds, ten times as fast as what Sky was offering me, for £30.99 per month – increasing to £35.99 next year.

I’m a writer, not a mathematician, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Sky’s £53.50 for 67Mbps (or 100Mbps if I upgraded) was a worse deal than Virgin’s £30.99 for ten times the speed.

In Sky’s defence, every broadband and mobile provider is guilty of this ‘loyalty penalty’. While there are consumer protections in the UK for home and car insurance, preventing companies from offering better deals to new customers than existing ones, this doesn’t apply to broadband or mobile networks.

I’ll also say that I received an email from Sky prior to them telling me about the speed boost, which said I was going to be out of contract soon. So the company did at least try to warn me.

A warning to all – expect a lot of calls

Now armed with the figures, I entered my address on Virgin’s site to confirm I could get the fastest speed (Gig1) in my area, closed my laptop and made a note to sort it out before the annual price increase on April 1st.

That was where I went wrong. In the four days that followed, I had six missed calls from Sky, presumably hoping to convince me to sign a new contract, and 12 from Virgin hoping to seal the deal. These came every couple of hours until I got so fed up, I blocked the number.

By the fourth day I was so angry that I contemplated no broadband at all just for some peace. Instead, I did what Virgin was no doubt hoping I would do: I opened my laptop back up and completed the switch. It took 10 minutes.

Before doing this, I rang Sky to see if it was able to match Virgin’s price for a similar speed. I’d always recommend this. Sadly, it came out £11 a month more expensive, despite my years of loyalty. I hung up, a little disappointed my 14-year relationship was resulting in divorce without so much as a trip to the couple’s counsellor.

I learned a hard lesson – but I saved £250 a year

By kicking the can down the road for 14 years, I wound up spending at least £250 per year more than I should have for broadband.

So whatever you do, please look at how much you’re paying and consider switching. Loyalty is no longer rewarded: less than 10 minutes of my time saved me money and I’m now getting a much faster service than what I was offered with my previous provider.