Pretty much every household these days has broadband, it’s simply the way the world works. We love to have the answers to everything, social media, music, and games all at our fingertips and having the internet at home allows us to do this with ease. But these things don’t come for free and sometimes finding the best deals for broadband and phone lines can be hard work, time consuming, and even confusing.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!So I have put together a list of my top 5 tips for finding the best deals.
1. Know what you want
It is important that you know what you want from your broadband or your mobile phone before you start looking, otherwise the options will seem endless and overwhelming. If you are looking for broadband for example, consider what you will use it for and how often, is it a work from home requirement? Do you have lots of people in your home that will be using it at the same time? Will you be downloading films or music? Knowing what you need will make a big difference and will also ensure you don’t sign up to a package that is cheap but doesn’t meet your needs or that you end up over spending because it seemed a good deal when in reality you wont use half the data allowance and are in fact wasting money.
2. Have a set budget
It is important that you know what your budget is before you start looking. I suggest you have a budget you want to spend but also an upper limit that you simply can’t go over, this way you can avoid even considering any deals that exceed your limit. Broadband is important but not important enough to get into debt for, so shop within your budget and be prepared to make compromises on other aspects instead of going over budget. It is also important to look at the payment plans and choose the best one for you, some deals are better if you pay more upfront others work out better if you pay monthly.
3. Use comparison sites to find the best deals on broadband
It can be really laborious trawling through lots of individual sites looking for the best deals but I find that using comparison sites is the easiest way to find the best deals for broadband and phone lines and pretty much everything else to be honest. There are lots of great and well trusted comparison sites available which allow you to input your postcode and them shows you the broadband and phones deals that are open to you. It s such a quick and easy site to use and having all the options next to each other makes it so easy to compare without getting muddled or going from screen to screen. I also find that these sites are great for introducing you to providers that you may not have considered or even heard of before. For example the best deal for my area at the moment is with the Post office and without this comparison site I would never have even looked at them as I wasn’t aware it was something they offered.
4. Check the strength of the signal in your area
This next top tip comes from Charlie from Our altered life who advises people to always check the signal strength of any broadband or phone network in your are before you sign into a contract. This is especially important if the contract is 12 or even 24 months as that can be a long time with rubbish signal and will be even more frustrating if you are using it for work. Certain providers are stronger in certain areas and you can either ring the providers directly and ask them what the coverage in your area is like or ask people in your area what their experiences have been of using various providers.
5. Give yourself plenty of time
If you know your current contract is coming to the end or you are about to move house and need to change providers then shop in advance. Give yourself plenty of time to check out the different deals, ask other people for recommendations on service providers and then before you sign up double check that the deal you have found is the best deal for you. If you are short of time you are more likely to make a rash decision and potentially miss out on a better deal or find out that although you have a good deal the signal in your area is not very good and then regret the decision. So always give yourself plenty of time to make the right decision and find the best deal.
I hope these 5 top tips help you to find the best deals for broadband and if you have any extra top tips them please do leave them in the comment section below as I would love to read them.