The cheaper broadband deal stops being cheaper in month 15.
Sky sell the same 500Mb plan two ways: €27.99 a month on a 12-month contract, or €35.00 on a 24-month one. The first is obviously better. It is better for fifteen months.
Then it isn’t. By the end of year two the “cheaper” deal has cost €306 more. And this is not one odd product — it is how twelve of the eighteen multi-term broadband products we track are priced, every one of them Sky or Virgin Media.
The same plan, two contracts
Month 12.The 12-month deal is €84 ahead. It has cost €335.88; the 24-month has cost €420.
Month 15.They cross. From here the 12-month customer is on €67.50 and the 24-month customer is still on €35.00.
Month 24.The 12-month deal has cost €1,145.88. The 24-month has cost €840. A gap of €305.88.
After that, nothing changes. Both are on €67.50 and the gap stays exactly where it is. The whole thing happens in year two.
Why it happens
Both contracts revert to exactly the same price.
That is the mechanism, and it is easy to miss. The 12-month deal is not a cheaper plan — it is a shorter run at a lower rate before the same cliff. Sky Ultrafast Plus reverts to €67.50 whether you took the 12 or the 24. The longer contract simply holds the discount twice as long.
So the €7 a month you save by choosing the shorter term buys you €84 in year one, and costs you a year of paying €32.50 a month more in year two.
How common
Twelve of eighteen. All Sky and Virgin.
We track eighteen broadband products sold on two contract lengths. Twelve of them invert like this by the end of year two, by €240 to €480. The largest are Virgin’s TV bundles: the 500Mb Broadband and Basic TV bundle costs €480 more on the shorter contract.
The pattern is consistent enough to be a pricing strategy rather than an accident. Both companies advertise the lower monthly figure, both revert to the same standard rate on either term, and both are counting on the same thing.
Not every supplier does it. Vodafone prices the other way round — its 24-month deals are cheaper on the advertised rate too, so there is nothing to trip over.
The honest answer
Take the 12-month. Then actually leave.
This is not an argument for the longer contract. Someone who takes the 12-month deal and switches the month it ends pays €335.88 for the year — less than either figure above, and better than anything else here. That is the right move and it is the one we would tell you to make.
The problem is that the pricing is built on the assumption you won’t. The €7 a month you save on the shorter term is, functionally, a fee for having to remember. If you know yourself well enough to be honest about that, the 24-month contract is the cheaper mistake.
Either way, the number that matters is the date. Put it in your calendar the day you sign up, eleven months out, not twelve.
The same plan, drawn
Where the lines cross.
Sky Ultrafast Plus on both contracts, from a September signup. The dot is where each contract ends and you are free to leave; past it the line is what doing nothing costs.
The five cheapest here, ranked on the contract you’re committing to. Two years is shown so you can see what happens after it ends.
Which plans invert depends on what is sold at your address, and the figures move. Put your eircode into our broadband checker and it draws the same chart for the plans you can actually get. No sign-up, no commission, no affiliate links.
The honest answer
Take the 12-month. The hard part is remembering.
This is not an argument for the longer contract. Take the 12-month deal, switch the month it ends, and you pay €335.88 for the year — less than either line on that chart. That is the right move.
The pricing is built on the assumption you won’t make it. The €7 a month you save on the shorter term is, functionally, a fee for having to remember — and twelve of eighteen products are priced on the bet that you will forget.
Which is the whole reason this service exists. We watch the market against your actual bill and tell you when moving is worth it, including when it isn’t. You don’t need the calendar reminder, because we send it.
We’ll tell you when it’s worth moving.
Upload a bill and we'll compare it against every plan at your address, tell you whether switching is worth it — including "stay where you are" when that's the answer. Then we re-check every month, so when your deal ends or something better turns up, you hear about it.
Get the verdict on your billThe detail, and the sources
The worked example:Sky Ultrafast Plus 500Mb, taken from Sky’s own published rates. €27.99/month for 12 months then €67.50, against €35.00/month for 24 months then €67.50. Cumulative at month 12: €335.88 against €420.00. At month 15: €538.38 against €525.00 — the crossover. At month 24: €1,145.88 against €840.00.
The twelve:Sky Broadband Superfast (€390), Ultrafast Plus (€306), Ultrafast Max (€240), Ultrafast Max 2Gbps (€240), Ultrafast Max 5Gb/s (€300); Virgin Media 500Mb (€300), 1Gb (€420), 2Gb (€300), 5Gb (€300), and the 500Mb + Basic TV (€480), 1Gb + Loaded TV (€468) and 2Gb + Loaded TV (€408) bundles. Figures are the extra cost of the shorter contract by month 24.
Basis: costed from a 1 September 2026 signup, including any setup fee and signup credit at month one, and any contractual annual price rise. Six of the eighteen do not invert, either because both terms carry the same advertised rate or because the longer term is cheaper on both bases.
Prices are the published rates we re-check nightly, taken from each supplier’s own page, and were correct on 9 August 2026. We take no commission and there are no affiliate links here.