Now's the time to get a great broadband deal, says Martin Lewis

The key trick to getting cheap broadband, according to our Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis, is to pounce on short lived super-cheap deals. And he says now’s a great time to do it – most people can cut costs by £100s. So here’s his masterclass.

If you’ve had broadband for over a year with the same provider, you’re likely massively overpaying.

Broadband is a forgotten bill, the cost drips out of your account. Yet it’s worth thinking about how much you spend a year on it. Remember in truth you’re almost always locked in to having a landline with it as well so you need to add the two costs together and they’re frightening. Here’s the main out of contract standard costs with the big firms.

- BT standard: £45/mth (£540/yr), fibre: £52/mth (£624/yr)- Sky standard: £30/mth (£360/yr), fibre: £37/mth (£444/yr)- TalkTalk standard: £30/mth (£360/yr), fibre: £36/mth (£432/yr)- Virgin: £44/mth (£528/yr) - it only does fibre

The current best buy deals.

The cheap way to get broadband is to pounce on a promo deal. These are usually via comparison sites and only last a week or two. They change all the time. Often what they do is rather than reducing the price straight, their marketing budget means you get incentive vouchers or gift cards. So I’m going to factor that in over a year and give you the cost without calls.

Important: All broadband deals are postcode dependent, so to find your cheapest use Martin’s Broadband Unbundled tool which shows what you can get in your area (and even includes most deals that are specific to other comparison sites) - if you can't get them, it'll suggest alternatives.

Standard broadband and line:Newbies to Post Office broadband going via comparison siteBroadband Genie (available to 90% of country) can get average 11Mb speeds on a 12mth contract for £15.90/mth (or £191/yr). You can also claim a £50 Amazon voucher (diarise asyou won’t get a reminder). Take that into account and it works outat £141/yr (equivalent to £11.74/mth).

Fast fibre broadband and line. Newbies to Vodafone broadband going via comparison sites including Amazon, Currys PC World, John Lewis or M&S voucher, and an Amazon Echo Plus speaker (worth c.£140). Take the voucher into account and it works outequivalent to £17.39/mth (plus of course the speaker on top). This deal ends this Friday. Superfast fibre:Two deals here. The fastest is a super cheap deal from Virgin Media with average 108Mb speed (available to 50% of UK) on 12 month contract for £25/month, but you also get a £75 bill credit (which means the first three months are free) – so over the year you pay £225, or equivalent to £18.75/month. But this is only available via Martin’s comparison site linked above and ends on Thursday.

And if you can’t get Virgin, another Vodafone deal, gives average 63Mb speed on an 18 month contract via the same sites as above (available to 90% of country) for £27/mth plus a £10 set up fee. Again you can claim a £100 Amazon, Currys PC World, John Lewis or M&S voucher, and an Amazon Echo Plus speaker. Take the voucher into account and it works outequivalent to £23/mth (plus of course the speaker on top). This deal ends on Friday.

Remember all these cheap deals are either an 18-month or one-year contract, so once it ends expect the price to jump. Though, from next February they’ll have to warn you of the price hike. Be prepared to ditch and switch again then.

Will people really get the speed advertised?

In May 2018, providers changed from advertising an ‘up to’ speed (which meant only 10% of its customers had to get the advertised rate) to now showing an ‘average speed’ which is received by at least 50% of the providers customers between 8pm and 10pm – when most people are online.

But as speeds vary by postcode, since 1 March 2019 most big firms, including BT, Sky and Virgin Media (but not Post Office and Vodafone) have agreed to a code of practice that says they'll also give you a PERSONALISED MINIMUM speed before you sign-up, and if your speeds drop below this and they can’t fix it for 30 days you have the right to leave penalty-free.

This applies even if you signed up to a phone and TV package at the same time as the broadband, you can leave the entire contract penalty-free.

What if people aren’t happy with their provider and don’t want to switch?

Then it’s all about haggling. Use the cheap prices I’ve mentioned as a benchmark. Then call up, especially if you’re out of contract, and ask for a better deal – explain it’s too costly or you can’t afford it.

Be polite and charming, not aggressive, and if it says no, then tell it you’re going to leave and ask to be put through to disconnections, known internally as ‘customer retentions’. As their job is to keep you, they have much greater discretion to give you better deals.

In fact, in my February poll, poll 84% of people who tried to haggle with Sky said they had succeeded, 76% with Virgin, 75% with Plusnet and 73% with BT. I’ve heard of many success like Nikki who tweeted “@MartinSLewis finally had the guts to haggle with Virgin. £222 saved over 18mths + faster broadband! Thank you”.

If it won’t match the price then do consider going elsewhere. You may find just cancelling gives you a better deal, as happened to Ashleigh who sent me a letter saying when she left Sky paying £67/month, three weeks later they sent her a letter offering her the same service for £27/mth.

Yet if you don’t want to leave and you’re worried they’ll disconnect you, then if that happens just say “I need to check with my husband/wife/canary first.”

What happens when you switch – will people loose connectivity?

You don’t usually need to tell your current provider you’re moving. The new firm does the communication work (unless if switching to or from Virgin – then, you must tell your old provider). And generally on the day you’re installing your new broadband you're only likely to be offline for a few hours, or maybe hardly at all – if you're at work you may not even notice it.

Plus as of April 2019, a voluntary scheme joined by BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin and Zen Internet, means you’ll now automatically be entitled to compensation if:

- Your landline or broadband is not fixed quickly enough after it has stopped working - £8 compensation for each calendar day the fault isn't repaired (after 2 working days).

- Your new landline or broadband service is not up and running on the day promised - £5 for each calendar day of delay, including the missed start date.

- An engineer doesn't arrive for an appointment as scheduled - £25 compensation.