About Broadbandchoices.co.uk

Frequently Asked Questions

Broadbandchoices gives you fair, unbiased advice in a language you understand so you make the right choice. This page tells you more about who we are, what we do and why we do it.

• Why should I use Broadbandchoices?
• What does Broadbandchoices stand for?
• Where do we get our information?
• How we make our money
• How comprehensive is Broadbandchoices?
• How we check broadband availability
• Where we get our tariff information
• Looking for a better deal?
• The tariffs we list
• First year cost
• Data purchase costs
• Home phone costs
• Line rental
• Digital TV bundles

Why should I use Broadbandchoices?

At Broadbandchoices you can:

• Research and compare offers from leading suppliers
• Compare prices by first year cost to include any discounts or hidden charges
• Find detailed product information
• Learn how to get more from your existing supplier
• Keep up-to-date on key industry developments with our daily news stories
• Gain access to a wide range of self-help consumer guides
• Download free, bespoke tools to monitor downloads or check your broadband speed
• Receive valuable after-sales support for day-to-day problems
• Share your views with like-minded people

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What does Broadbandchoices stand for?

Broadbandchoices is a free, online self-help service that supports your decision-making when selecting broadband packages.

We are an independent, privately owned company who offer expert advice to equip you with everything you need to make an informed decision about your broadband package. We believe in exposing price creativity, allowing you to see the true value of a broadband package by looking beyond the marketing hype and are dedicated to offering impartial and informative news and features and guides.

We offer a fair and unbiased view of the market, above and beyond price, listing packages by first year cost to take into account any discounts or hidden charges. We make our money from a small commission paid by suppliers if you take out a broadband package but this doesn’t affect the price you pay. We also list packages regardless of whether we have a commission deal in place.

Broadbandchoices.co.uk is part of the Consumerchoices.co.uk Group.

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Where do we get our information?

The information on broadband packages is taken directly from providers and compared against other sources for accuracy. In most cases we have a relationship with the provider who will proactively inform us of any changes to our service, in any cases where we don’t have a relationship with the ISP, we will check package details on a monthly basis. All data is regularly checked to ensure that the information and advice we give is accurate and up to date.

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How we make our money

We receive commissions and advertising fees from companies that link to, or advertise on, our site. This does not push up the cost of any service that you might subscribe to through our site and we do not charge you for the service we offer on this website. We do not receive commissions from all the companies that link to our site and our commercial arrangements have no relation to the way that we list providers or packages.

Our listings, news content and consumer guides are completely impartial and with us you can compare costs against other providers, check for hidden costs or fair usage policies. We rank broadband packages on our site by total first year cost and you can also select other ways to rank the results including monthly cost, download limit or speed.

We are dedicated to providing informative, impartial content that offers true value to our customers.

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How comprehensive is Broadbandchoices?

Our objective is to provide customers with a wide choice of usage and pricing options. We list all the major ISPs as well as a range of smaller brands such as Madasafish and Eclipse. Although some of these pay us a fee when a customer switches to them through our site, this doesn’t affect the price you pay and we still list providers with whom we do not have a commercial relationship.

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How we check broadband availability

When we check a postcode for broadband availability we offer up a list of all geographically relevant packages using a database that provides us with a list of postcodes, the BT exchanges they are linked to, and the services that are available to them.

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Where we get our tariff information

The information on broadband packages is taken directly from providers and compared against other sources for accuracy. In most cases we have a relationship with the provider who will proactively inform us of any changes to our service, in any cases where we don’t have a relationship with the ISP, we will check package details on a monthly basis. All data is regularly checked to ensure that the information and advice we give is accurate and up to date.

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Looking for a better deal?

We aim to advise customers how to get the best from their broadband, and that isn’t always by switching. If you’ve been a loyal customer and your contract is now up, you should try contacting your current provider and offer to recontract for a better deal.

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The tariffs we list

We only list tariffs that are currently available. This means that if the tariff you’re currently on is out of date and no longer available to new customers, you won’t find it on our site and you won’t be able to compare it against new packages.

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First year cost

Many providers reel you in with tempting introductory offers that only last a few months. After these have expired you could find yourself paying over-the-odds for your broadband. To help you compare the true costs, we list packages by first year cost, highlighting any special offers or discounts and flagging up any hidden charges such as hardware postage costs and installation fees. However, this cost does not include line rental that you may have to pay to BT or your ISP in order to use ADSL broadband.

Our default ranking is by first year cost but you can also search by monthly fee, supplier, package details, speed, connection fee, minimum contract length and download allowance.

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Data purchase costs

We compare only the fixed costs of each package, so you will also have to think about the package you’re signing up for, and whether you will incur any additional costs. When we calculate the cost of your broadband package, we don’t take into account the cost of exceeding a set download limit or the purchase of data on pay-as-you-go packages, but we will tell you exactly how much you’ll have to pay for additional data.

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Home phone costs

We compare only the fixed costs of each package, so you will also need to think about the types of calls you make when choosing a home phone provider. When we calculate the cost of any home phone package, we don’t take into account the cost of any calls that you make.

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Line rental

When we refer to line rental on this site, we use the standard cost of BT line rental at £12.79 a month - this is the direct debit cost, which is how most people choose to pay. If you choose not to pay by direct debit, you will pay an extra £4.50 a quarter. This cost is not included in our first year cost or monthly cost listing because we are a broadband focused site. However, we do make it clear where you will be required to pay additional costs for line rental. Other providers who offer line rental as part of their package may offer more competitive prices.

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Digital TV bundles

While we do list broadband packages that are part of bundles, offering broadband with digital TV and usually a home phone package, we only list those that come with basic digital TV. This is because we are a broadband focused website and there are a huge number of digital TV and broadband combinations available. For a more comprehensive list you can do a search at www.DigitalChoices.co.uk

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