Ask Our Expert

Save with broadband and digital TV bundles

Dear Michael, I am very confused by all these bundle packages being advertised on TV for broadband, TV and telephone.

I am currently with BT and am paying nearly £50 a month for my broadband and telephone, and on top of that I'm paying £18 a month for sky TV.

I cannot just leave BT as I haven’t completed my contract yet, but they are ringing me day and night to get me to switch to their BT Vision

I really am looking into saving myself some money, my partner has just been made unemployed and a single person’s wage doesn’t go far, so the cheapest option would be best at the moment.

We mainly watch channels 1, 2, 3, 4, E4, More4, BBC3 and ITV2, so films and sports would be a luxury not a requirement as such.

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated.

Helen, (postcode supplied) on 30 January 2009

Our Broadband Expert says...

Dear Helen, you really are paying over the odds for your services and could save a small fortune by switching broadband provider.

Broadband

In terms of your broadband and home phone, BT is definitely not the cheapest on the market. You could save loads of money by going for a cheap package such as Plusnet Broadband (www.Plus.net). Its Broadband and Phone Essential package costs £6.65 a month, plus £10 for line rental - a monthly total of just £16.65.

It comes with up to 8Mb broadband and a 1GB download allowance - though you also get free usage between midnight and 8am. The phone package comes with inclusive weekend calls to UK landlines. It doesn’t come with any free hardware, but you can get an ADSL wireless broadband router for as little as £29.99.

Digital TV

You’re not covered by Sky Broadband's (www.Sky.com) local loop unbundled (LLU) area so you can’t take advantage of its “free broadband” offer, and you would be far better off ditching Sky’s costly digital TV package if you don’t need all the channels.

While BT Broadband's (www.BT.com) BT Vision service covers everything that you need from your digital TV, it’s nothing that Freeview doesn’t provide, and signing up to BT Vision could land you with a whole new contract.

One of the great benefits of BT Vision is that you can watch movies and sports on a pay as you go basis, and the BT Vision Box comes with a built-in digital TV recorder allowing you to record, pause and even rewind live TV.



	Broadband: XXL + Phone: XL + TV HD: XL	Talk, Surf and Watch - Calls + Broadband + TV	Base Broadband + TV + Talk Freetime
Monthly charge	£3.01 for 2 months	£9.99 for 3 months	£18.00 Online Offer £50 Gift Voucher Ends 25/03/10
Speed (up to)	50Mb	20Mb	2.0Mb
Usage limit	unlimited	10GB	2GB
Contract length	12 months	18 months	12 months
Line rental	£143.88	£138.48	£132.00
Call rates	Day Free Evening Free Weekend Free	Day 5.40p Evening 1.50p Weekend Free	Day 5.25p Evening Free Weekend Free
TV package information	Over 165 channels Choice of HD TV, films and music on demand Includes V+ HD box	1000's of hours of on demand entertainment TV and Replay viewing packs	Choose from 6 entertainment packs Get over 200 free to air TV and radio channels

		Call BT on 0800 028 2122	Call Sky on 08442 410 582

However, since saving money is your priority, you would be far better off buying a standard Freeview box, which cost from around £15 for a standard set-top box or around £80 for a Freeview box with a built-in digital TV recorder.

This will give you all the channels you regularly watch, plus more, for a one-off set fee for the box.

Save by switching

Although you’re not yet free of your BT contract, the savings you would make by switching means it could be worth investigating whether or not you can buy yourself out of the contract early.

At any rate, buying a Freeview box and ditching your Sky subscription would instantly save you £18 a month, and once you’re free of your BT contract and can switch to a cheaper broadband provider, you could cut your monthly costs from nearly £50 today, to as little as £16.65 a month.

NB Best buy tables (orange background) are always current.

Examples in the text of the article (white background) are correct at time of publication.