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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Business
James Andrews

Martin Lewis explains how to double your broadband speed for half the price

Martin Lewis has pointed out huge numbers of people can get faster internet while paying less for it.

And the first thing you need to do is check your contract.

"Nine million of you are out of contract," he told viewers of ITV's Martin Lewis Money Show.

Typically, that means people are paying £600 a year.

But you can potentially halve that cost and do it while increasing your speed.

And you can even save money without needing to switch at all.

"You may be able to haggle with your existing provider," Martin said.

"All the firms will tell you the cheapest deals they'll offer you at renewal," he explained.

"The key is it doesn't include the promotions available to new customers."

However, that doesn't mean you can't get them.

"Generally if you're out of contract, use the deals I'm about to show you, the super-cheap ones, and use those as a benchmark to go to your existing provider and say - 'will you match it?'

"If they say no, tell them you want to leave, you get put through to disconnections and that's where they have the real power to haggle with you and offer you more."

Haggle success rates for Sky, BT, TalkTalk and virgin were all over 75%, Martin pointed out.

Millions can get faster internet for less money (Getty)

And it's the promotional deals - including bills credit and Amazon vouchers - that make the big difference. So he factored that in when working the monthly cost out .

Once initial discounts are accounted for, the best deals available for new customers are:

  • Shell Energy - 35Mb - £15 a month for a year over the whole contract
  • Vodafone - 63Mb - £18.40 a month over 2 years
  • Virgin - 108Mb - £18.40 a month over 18 months
  • BT - 50Mb - £19.90 a month over 2 years.
You can rely on advertised speeds much more now (PA)

However, all these deals are only available by using comparison sites, Martin added, so you won't see them on the providers' main websites.

He added that speed estimates are also a lot more reliable than they used to be, with providers letting you know what speed you can expect when you sign up.

"If you're having bad service, complain, you might be due automatic compensation," Martin added.

To check your speed make sure you do a test over wi-fi and again with the a computer plugged directly into the router, Martin said.

If there's a big difference, you might be able to speed up your browsing by moving where you keep the router, or with a signal booster.

"Put it high up, don't put in in a cupboard or drawer or have objects or ornaments near it that could block the signal and slow everything down," Martin said.

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