Switch Broadband: One Touch, Exit Fees, and Where It Still Goes Wrong

Switching broadband got considerably easier and most people have not noticed. Within the Openreach network you no longer contact the company you are leaving at all: the provider you move to arranges everything, including the closure. Between different networks, that is not what happens.

The One Touch process, and what it removed

Under One Touch Switch the gaining provider runs the whole thing. It contacts the losing provider, agrees the date, tells you what you will be charged and closes the old account for you. The retention call that used to be the unavoidable price of leaving is gone.

You are also told, before it goes ahead, what any early termination charge would be and when the switch will happen. That disclosure is the useful part, because it turns a decision made on hope into one made on numbers.

What it does not do is waive anything. If you are inside a minimum term, the charge is still due, calculated from the months remaining. One Touch makes the process painless, not free.

Where the easy process does not apply

Moving between networks is a different operation. Openreach to Virgin Media's cable, cable to an alternative full-fibre builder, or either to a mobile-based home broadband hub sit outside the same arrangement.

In practice that means arranging the cancellation yourself, the real possibility of two bills for an overlapping period, and a gap in service if you sequence it badly. The rule is straightforward: never cancel anything until the new connection is confirmed working.

There is also equipment. A cable or altnet installation involves hardware belonging to the provider, and non-return charges are real. Get a returns reference and keep proof of postage.

The right order of operations

Check what is available at your exact address first, across every network rather than one. Then check whether you are in or out of contract, and if in, what the remaining charge is: both are figures your current provider must give you.

Then decide whether you are switching for price or for technology. If for price on the same network, the whole thing is a form. If for technology onto a network that has not served the property, expect an appointment and plan around it.

Only then order. Choose an installation date with somebody available if an engineer is needed, and do not let the old service end before the new one starts.

Out of contract is the best position you will hold

An account past its minimum term has no exit charge and is almost certainly on the standard rate rather than the introductory one. That combination is the strongest hand a broadband customer ever has, and most people sit on it for years without playing it.

Two options, and both are worth exercising. Switch, which takes ten minutes and lands you on a new introductory rate. Or ring and ask for a retention price, which is not published and is not the same as the new-customer figure, so ask for both and compare.

Quote a specific competing price when you do. Better still, quote the same group's own cheaper brand, BT against Plusnet, Sky against NOW, because that is the same company pricing the same line and it is harder to dismiss than a rival's offer.

What actually goes wrong

Number ports stall more often than connections do. If you are keeping a landline number and it does not follow, chase the provider you are moving to rather than the one you left: under the current arrangements it is their process and their incentive.

The second common failure is a final bill that is wrong, usually because the closure date and the billing period do not line up. Keep the last statement from the old provider, because once a brand closes an account the portal goes with it and your copy becomes the only record.

If either is unresolved after eight weeks, or you receive a deadlock letter sooner, it goes to the provider's alternative dispute resolution scheme. Membership is compulsory, it costs you nothing, and the decision binds them. See the providers and what full fibre changes.

The compensation scheme nobody claims

Providers signed up to the automatic compensation arrangement pay a set daily amount when a switch goes wrong in specific ways: service that does not start on the agreed date, a missed engineer appointment, or a fault that runs past the repair window. The point of the word automatic is that you are not supposed to have to ask.

In practice it is worth knowing about anyway, for two reasons. It changes the tone of a conversation about a delayed installation, because the delay now has a price attached to it rather than being an inconvenience you are absorbing. And where the payment does not arrive by itself, knowing the scheme exists is what turns a vague complaint into a specific one.

The amounts are modest rather than generous, and they are not compensation for the afternoon you spent waiting. Treat them as a floor: the automatic payment does not stop you claiming separately for a real, evidenced loss, and the two are different things.

Frequently asked questions