For years, Britons who no longer have a contract with their broadband provider or their mobile phone network have been paying hundreds of millions of pounds a year. But maybe not for too long.

With the aim of cracking down on punitive out-of-contact pricing and making pricing fairer and more transparent, a series of new regulations have come into force.

Central to the revamped regulatory regime is that suppliers are now required to notify customers when their contract is about to end or has already ended.

Customers will therefore no longer be responsible for knowing where they stand during the term of their contract. From there, it’s the providers’ responsibility to make sure their subscribers know about it.

But that’s not the only thing that’s changing. Here we explain how end of contract notifications work and how you can make them work for you.

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Why are end of contract notifications applied?

In a nutshell, to make things fairer and to enable customers to seek better deals.

To explain why they are necessary, let’s see how broadband and mobile phone contracts work …

Broadband contracts

When you sign a broadband contract, you agree to an initial term. Which has traditionally been between 12 and 18 months.

After this period was over, broadband providers usually increased the prices. You will therefore pay more for the same service. Much more.

According to Ofcom, the price outside the contract is on average 20% higher for broadband and 26% higher if you have pay TV in your package.

This is supported by a Advice to citizens study from May 2019, which found that Britons collectively pay £ 9million per day for their broadband.

Mobile phone contracts

When you sign up for a telephony and tariffs contract, you pay a monthly allowance for data, calls and texts, as well as the cost of the telephone in installments.

On most standard 24-month contracts, when the minimum term is over, you have fully reimbursed the cost of the phone.

Which should mean your monthly premium drops and you will only pay your monthly allowances, right? Wrong.

In fact, networks have traditionally neglected to reduce ongoing monthly premiums for off-contract customers to reflect the fact that the handset is fully paid.

As a result, customers paid an average of £ 182 per year for their mobile phone contract than if they switched to a SIM-only contract, according to Ofcom.

When should I receive my end of contract notification?

If you’re still under contract at the moment, expect to receive a notification 10 to 40 days before your minimum contract ends.

If you are already out of contract with your supplier, you may have already received one.

And if you don’t take any action after that prompt, you’ll receive a notification every year you stay out of touch to remind you of your contract status.

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How will I receive my notification?

Your broadband service provider or mobile phone network will contact you by email, letter or text.

What information does the notification contain?

In addition to the end date of the contract, providers are obliged to tell you …

• The price you paid while you were under contract
• The new price you will pay once you are out of contract
• Changes to the service they will provide in the future (if applicable)
• How much notice you need to give to end your contract (if any)
• The best deals on offer if you stay with your current supplier

Suppliers are also required to include details of any services you request from them and whether the cancellation of one service from them could affect another.

The notification email should also include instructions on how to cancel and confirm that there is no charge for departure.

Will I be notified if I am already out of contract?

If your contract has already expired, you will also receive a notification from your supplier informing you that you are no longer under contract and that you are free to change.

This will also contain details about your notice period, what you are paying now, and a full list of the services you are taking.

And you’ll also see a selection of the best rates from your provider.

How did the providers react?

For years, a 12 or 18 month contract was pretty standard when purchasing broadband.

But due to the new regime, they are apparently on the verge of extinction, with some branded broadband service providers responding to notifications by locking out future customers for longer.

BT has extended its minimum term to 24 months, as has TalkTalk. And we’ve heard that other vendors are planning to extend their minimum contract terms in the near future.

Suppliers also appear to be raising prices, amid claims that the new regulations will make trading conditions more difficult for them.

It should also be noted that some providers have claimed that the new regulatory regime could discourage innovation and cause them to reduce infrastructure investments. It remains to be seen.

Mobile phone networks have reacted more positively, committing to automatically switch customers to better and cheaper deals at the end of their contract.

EE, O2, Tesco Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone have announced that from now on they will automatically reduce customers’ bills at the end of their minimum contract term.

Three has yet to announce a bill reduction plan, prompting Ofcom to warn that Three’s customers “will continue to overpay and will not enjoy similar protections if they stay on their current contract.” .

What should I do when I receive my end of contract notification?

Don’t delay is the answer. In the case of broadband contracts, the longer you stay on your existing contract, the longer you pay too long.

So we suggest you take action and start shopping to see what’s on offer from other providers.

Use our broadband uptime checker to see what’s available at your location and take a close look at our comparison tables, where we’ve reported what we consider to be the best broadband deals at the best prices.

If you want to avoid the long-term broadband contracts that are becoming more and more common, we suggest you look to providers such as Virgin Media, Now Broadband, and John Lewis.

At the time of writing, all of the above services are still offering broadband on 12 month contracts.

Need a little help changing jobs? We got you. Take a look at our unique guide and we’ll walk you through the process.

With mobile phone contracts, unless you are at Three, your bill will automatically be reduced. But that’s no reason to stick with your network.

There’s always a good chance you could save some money or get a better deal somewhere else, so it’s worth taking a look around to see what the competing networks are up to.

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