General Chat

Has anybody done this? If so, your advice would be very welcome.

We are currently with BT and have a BT email address, which of course is linked to every website we use, not to mention the phone line.

If we switch, presumably we will need a new email address. Do we have to then change every single website separately? All the online shopping channels, for instance? I know the reason people don't see PMs on here is because they have changed their email and not told GR. I have just done a rough count of all the sites on my favourites bar and there are about 100!!

Can we transfer all the folders etc on our current email site or do we lose them all?

Will we have to get a new phone number?

There are probably more things I could think of but that will do for starters. OH thinks it will be too much hassle, but he doesn't pay BT's very high bill.

It is quite a while since I changed provider, so I can’t answer most if the questions, but when I did change I set up a gmail account and I use that as my main email. I ignored the new email account which came with the new provider. It was a pain having to change all of the registered emails, but at least with gmail, I will never have to change them again. You could use hotmail, or any other type email which is not tied to a particular supplier

You'll have to change your email address on everything individually.

It's better to have an email address which is not linked to your phone/broadband, so that next time you change provider, your email address won't be affected.

Gmail, for instance:

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/56256?hl=en-GB

Re new phone number -
As far as I remember, when you apply to a new broadband provider, they handle the switch for you - you don't have to contact BT yourself.
The phone line belongs to Openreach, not BT, and your new provider will need it to give you broadband.

I think there's a place on the application for most providers where it asks you if you want to keep your existing number.

Have a look at your proposed provider's website, and read the FAQs and other info.

Thank you both. I can see I'll have to do a bit of reading! :-)

It’s a while since we changed and we went the other way and changed to BT. I can’t answer a lot of your questions.but you should keep the same landline and mobile number. For a mobile you need to get a PAC (Porting Authorisation Code) from BT and give it to your new provider which will allow you to keep the same number.

If you decide in the end to stay with BT make sure you are not paying for services you don’t need or want. My OH did get our monthly amount slightly reduced.

When i moved here 2 years ago, it was in a different area and so i had to get a new number but my email address was not registered to any provider so that did not have to change. But if it did, then yes, I would have to notify over 100 companies like you Andysmum of a change.

My dad changed providers 2 years ago because he moved and they wouldnt let him keep his number so had to get a new landline.

My mobile is not connected to my broadband provider either so I have had that no 23 years!

But if you switch, why can you not keep your existing email?

Personally, I think it is a huge hassle either moving or changing provider of anything unless the saving is so great, it outweighs the hassle.

We can't keep our email because it is linked to BT and we would still have to pay for it.

I agree it's a hassle, but BT is going up to £64 per month for basic broadband and a landline, while I can get a deal on Sky, without TV for £26. Even with TV it's only £45.

Because of where we live, the choice is very limited. The only options are BT, Sky and Talk talk.

Have you tried talking to BT, my OH does that each time and usually gets a better deal. I.m sure we don’t pay that much for the same. Will add a note on how much we pay when he surfaces.

Note: we currently pay a bit less than that but the cost includes payments for free phone calls and OH’s mobile. He thinks it would be around £40 without those.

Names, I think the reason it is going up so much, apart from inflation, is that we are "out of contract" and all the ones I can see are for new customers. On their website, the best they can do is reduce it by £1 if I change to one of the Halo deals. It doesn't seem worth it.

Try phoning them.

EE have notified us that the price will increase by 14.4% from April, based on the 10.5% inflation figure in January plus a contractual 3.9%.

That is for Fibre to Cabinet broadband with UK landline calls included and currently costs about £45 a calendar month.

I can't see the justification for adding in the whole January inflation figure, although that's in the agreement, as their costs can't have gone up by that much.

EE is wholly owned by BT.