subject: How To Buy Broadband On A Budget [print this page] Oscar Wilde may once have famously said that without his debts he would have nothing else to occupy himself but for those of us with a less languid aesthetic cutting back day to day living expenses is generally preferable to penury.
One large-ish (and, it's often claimed, unnecessary) household expense is a broadband connection but it's worth bearing in mind that access to the internet can save money in itself.
Big companies now tend to offer their best deals as online-only offers
The truth is that when you buy broadband on a budget there are really only three things that you need to know and here they are.
First, only pay for what you need.
Yes, I'm sorry but if you're buying broadband on a budget you can kiss goodbye to that specialist gaming broadband deal or the very fastest connection, it's time to strip back.
The most obvious way in which this is the case is with usage allowances.
A huge amount of people go for unlimited broadband deals when all they do is browse webpages and use their email - probably not even using 10GB in downloads a month in total.
You can save a huge amount if you'll just accept that your chances of being the next Mark Zucherberg are greatly decreased by the fact that you already have a full-time job and can't work out how to put your emails into folders.
Now that example might be excessively personal but it does have a ring of truth for us all: be realistic.
The second thing to bear in mind when you're looking for the cheapest broadband deals is the end point.
It used to be the case that broadband providers made a lot of money from set up or connection fees and by charging for modems.
Now there is fierce competition for new customers so the highest costs have started to be tacked onto the end of broadband contracts.
The cheapest deals will be the ones with the longest contracts but before you sign up make sure that you can see them through to the end - if not they can quickly turn from the cheapest into amongst the most expensive.
Finally, never estimate the power of your price comparison.
Even providers that seem to have less than a gnat's hair of difference between them - like Sky or Virgin - can end up being quite different.
Practice long term linking - 50p difference between the price of monthly line rental might not seem like much but when you consider that across the length of an eighteen month contract that 50p will grow to 9 - more than a week's broadband - it's a different matter.
