Broadband

It's Christmas week. If you're off work (or bored at it), stuffed with turkey, and desperate to avoid the relatives...

TalkTalk customers attempting to claim a free upgrade offered to them in the wake of October's high-profile hack have been left frustrated after logging in to their accounts to find they were unable to select the upgrade they wanted.

TalkTalk has today started giving out free upgrades to all four million of its customers – including free Sky Sports for its TV users – to "say thank you" for sticking with the firm after a data hack left nearly 157,000 account holders' personal details exposed.

George Osborne has pledged to save families up to £470 a year by boosting competition and cutting red tape in areas such as banking, utilities and mobile phones.

- A YEAR'S BT line & fibre b'band for £285 plus get a £100 Sains vch - A YEAR'S Plusnet line & standard b'band for £111 (equiv £9.24/mth) - How Sky, Virgin and TalkTalk custs can leave or slash £100s off costs

Four million TalkTalk customers will be able to choose a free upgrade to their service from 1 December, following the data hack last month which resulted in more than 150,000 users having their personal details accessed.

Around 4.4 million Virgin Media home phone, broadband and TV customers will be hit with inflation-busting price hikes of 5.4% on average from 1 February 2016, the provider has announced.

TalkTalk is insisting upon charging some customers who may have been hit by last week's massive cyber-attack hundreds of pounds to ditch the giant. We explain how to switch penalty-free and how to protect your finances and passwords following the huge security breach.

Switching between household utility suppliers should become quicker and easier under proposals unveiled by the Government in a bid to help millions of consumers save billions on bills.

TalkTalk customers will lose a 10% discount they currently enjoy for paying bills promptly, as the provider's axing its 'speedy payment discount' from 1 December.