When doesn't £10/month cost you £10/month? When it's 'equiv'
When don’t you pay £10/month for £10/month broadband? We’ve introduced a new site convention to try to make things even clearer. I hope it’ll be obvious, even to those who haven’t read this, but I just wanted to note down exactly what the phrase ‘equiv’ means and when we’ll use it.
Deals, especially in the broadband and home phone area, have got more complex. We try to make it easier to compare by quoting prices by month. However this negates the fact that some would prefer to pay a little more for simplicity. To make it more clear we’re introducing the term ‘equiv’ (similar to when we introduced the difference between free and ‘free’).
When is it £10/mth?
If it says £10/mth that means you need to shell out £10/mth. Simple. If there’s a connection fee, we used to factor that into the monthly price, but now, unless we need to show a direct comparator we’ll simply phrase that as £10/mth, plus £25 connection.
When is it ‘equiv’ £10/mth?
There are three main scenarios…
- Comparing with connection fees: If we were comparing the £10/mth plus £25 connection fee above over a year’s contract deal with a straight £12/mth deal, we will factor in the connection fee by month making it ‘equiv’ £12.08/mth, ie, (£10 x 12 +£25)/12.
- When you pay a year upfront: Most big line rental providers now offer this, giving a discount for locking in your custom and them gaining cashflow. For example BT Line Rental Saver (see the Home Phones guide) currently costs £129 if you pay upfront for a year. So that’s ‘equiv’ £10.75/mth.
Complex deals: The best way to explain how complex things can get is with an example of a current deal. We will use the ‘equiv’ for comparison, though may also phrase it by the more appropriate annual cost if it makes more sense.
So, with "Plusnet broadband and line rental for ‘equiv’ £10.50/mth", you in fact pay Plusnet £114 upfront for a year’s line rental, then get its £6.49/mth calls and broadband package half price for 5mths, and you get £50 cashback 30 days after activation. Factor all that in, and it’s £126/yr, equivalent to £10.50/mth.
My hope is that even those who haven’t read this will realise ‘equiv’ £10/mth indicates it isn’t a direct £10/mth payment – it’s there for easy comparison.
If we do use it in headlines, where there’s space we’ll try to explain it afterwards too. Without that, if people then click to a product provider’s page, they tend to get confused as they phrase the pricing differently to us.
Do let me know what you think.
