How to Re-Negotiate Your BT Home Broadband
BT Home Broadband customers can re-negotiate the cost of broadband when contracts end. Here’s how to speak to BT on Live Chat and their Cancellation Team on the phone to save money.
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In 1 hour I re-negotiated my BT Home Broadband from £34.24 to £27.99 per month saving £150 over the 24-month period.
Speaking to the BT Cancellation team got the biggest discount in comparison to the BT Live Chat Agent. In this article, I show how to speak to both including template messages and transcripts.
This money-saving guide is for existing BT Home Broadband customers. First, you need to know when your contract ends...
When does your BT Home Broadband contract end?
If you visit http://bt.com/see-bb and login, the BT website should tell you when your BT Home Broadband contract ends:
Alternatively if you login to BT and navigate to > MyBT > Your Products > Broadband > (Scroll down) Your Contract Details:
You should only try and re-negotiate your BT Home Broadband for when your contract date ends.
If you terminate your contract early, you may have to pay an early termination fee.
How to Find Other Broadband Deals to Compare Against
Broadband deals:
Before re-negotiating your BT Home Broadband for a cheaper rate, you want to find cheaper prices from alternative suppliers.
You can see the best broadband deals in our monthly guide. We have a price comparison table:
It shows you the provider (Vodafone, Now Broadband, Hyperoptic etc.), download speed, contract length, and monthly cost.
Explore your options and find something that is of similar speed to your existing BT Home Broadband service, but cheaper.
For example, I was paying £34.24 per month with BT Home Broadband for a fibre package. I found Vodafone Broadband had the same speeds available for less (keep reading to see what BT Home Broadband offered).
You should take screenshots of any broadband deals you find that are cheaper, to use these in your re-negotations with BT Home Broadband.
Extra tip - BT will ask you for your account number and email address registered. You may find it helpful to have these ready before the next step. You'll also need your mobile phone available to receive a security code.
How to Re-Negotiate Cheaper Price for BT Home Broadband (Existing Customers)
There are many reasons why you may wish to stick with BT Home Broadband rather than move to another broadband provider.
The most common reason amongst Latest Deals members is to avoid the faff of having to change WiFi routers, re-connect devices, and go through the trouble.
Armed with your information of cheaper broadband packages (see above), it's now time to speak with BT Home Broadband to re-negotiate a cheaper package. This is easier said than done.
My preference is to speak with online agents as I don't enjoy telephone option menus and listening to terrible music for hours whilst on hold.
When you start an online Chat, you'll first speak with a virtual assistant. The following details are for existing BT Home Broadband customers: You need to select Account & Billing > Broadband & TV > Give your full name (as it is on your account) and give your BT phone number
Tip: If you don't know your BT phone number, type "Don't know".
You may then have to wait a while. Don't give up hope. Just like waiting on the phone, you'll have to wait for the Chat agent. It took 15 minutes for me to be connected.
Template message to send:
Hello, my BT Home Broadband contract ends soon. I would like to re-negotiate to a cheaper price as I have found cheaper options elsewhere. Please can you help me with this?
BT will ask you to confirm your BT Account number which can be found when you log in to BT and the email address you have registered with them.
BT will send you a security PIN to your mobile device or email registered to your account. You will need to give the code back to the agent.
Transcript of the conversation:
BT: I can see you are now paying £34.24 for Fibre 2 broadband. Let me check the deals for you.
Me: That's correct. I have found that on Vodafone Broadband I can receive the same speed for £25 per month.
BT: We can renew your contract with Fibre 2 just for £31.99 each month. This package gives you:
An estimated download speed of between 61-67 Mbps
An estimated upload speed of between 16-18 Mbps
There wont be any activation charges
Me: Thank you, are you able to match the Vodafone Broadband deal I found? I can send you screenshots of the offer.
BT: We also have Fibre 1 for £30.99 each month. This is the cheapest deal we have. This package gives you:
An estimated download speed of between 61-67 Mbps
An estimated upload speed of between 16-18 Mbps
Analysis of re-negotiation
You can see in the above conversation I managed to re-negotiate my BT Home Broadband from £34.24 per month to £30.99. Over 24 month contract that's a saving of £78.
Note how it took an extra push to get the cheapest offer. This wasn't offered straight away.
Now it's up to you whether you want to accept that cheaper offer, or continue to cancel if you found another cheaper option with someone else.
How to call BT Home Broadband and get even cheaper prices
As the Live Chat Agent didn't go so far to match the £25 per month offer I had received from Vodafone, I decided to call BT.
You need to call their cancellation team:
The BT Cancellation Teams are not available on chats , you can call them on 0800 800 150 / 0800 783 1401/ 0800 783 1849. (8am to 9pm Mon-Fri 8am to 8pm Saturday 9am to 6pm Sunday) It's a toll free number.
It's frustrating to have to call BT (long queues, holding on the phone, telephone menus, adverts as you listen), but it's worth it.
Note: You will need to give your account number, full name, and receive a security number via text.
What To Say on BT Cancellation Call (To Get Cheaper Price)
The following is a transcript, lightly edited for brevity, showing how I negotiated an even cheaper price than the Live Chat Agent was able to give -
BT: Hello what service may I help you with
Me: Hi, I would like to cancel my BT Home Broadband please.
BT: Certainly. May I ask what the issue was: Pricing, service...?
Me: I found a cheaper price on Vodafone. £25 per month, and I spoke to your Live Chat agent who said the cheapest you could do was £30.99.
BT: OK. Let me have a look as we should be able to do cheaper than that.
I was then asked about the speed I had seen on my Vodafone offer. I asked if she would like to see the screenshot but she said no.
BT: I can offer £27.99 per month for the same speed that you have now (that matches the Vodafone speeds). I know that's not quite as cheap, so let me speak with my supervisor as they sometimes have supervisor only deals.
She then went and spoke to her supervisor.
BT: I'm sorry, £27.99 is the cheapest we can offer at the moment.
I asked if they could give me a BT Disc for free - an extra WiFi booster - but she said no.
Analysis of Call
The BT Home Broadband Cancellation team on the phone was able to offer cheaper prices than the Live Chat Agent, however, it was frustrating to wait such a long time on the phone. On the phone I got an offer of £27.99, whereas on Live Chat I got £30.99.
In my personal circumstances, Vodafone was still cheaper at £25 per month.
However, you may decide you are happy paying a little bit more to stick with the same company. It depends on your personal circumstances.
There is also the question as to whether cheaper internet service providers give the same quality hardware. It may be that BT's router is better than others and therefore gives you stronger WiFi throughout the home. It gets a bit geeky and beyond the scope of this article. But keep in mind it is possible to upgrade your router (see router deals).
It took approximately 1 hour to re-negotiate my BT Home Broadband Fibre 2 package from £34.24 per month to £27.99. This saves £150 over 24 months.
Remember to start your new contract the day after your existing contract ends. Whilst BT Home Broadband does part-payments for mid-month contracts, there's a risk you'll over-pay on your final month.
You can see more broadband deals shared by fellow Latest Deals members.
