More than one third of Brits are ‘scared of change’

More than one third of Brits admit they are ‘scared of change’.

A study of 2,000 adults revealed a fear of the unknown, as well as a lack of time and confidence mean many stick with what they know rather than switching their gym memberships, service providers and diets.

In the past year, more adults have swapped their car, hair and diet than their broadband provider.

But one quarter have been told they need to ‘switch things up more’.

As a result of the fear of trying new things, eight in 10 consider themselves to be ‘loyal’, with Cardiff, Leeds and Glasgow citizens the most faithful.

The research was commissioned by fibre broadband provider Hyperoptic, which is rolling out across major cities in the UK.

Charles Davies, Hyperoptic’s MD ISP, said: “It’s interesting to see how anxious people feel about change, particularly when it comes to different areas of life.

“Switching things up can often seem like a lot of effort and it’s clear from the research that people sometimes don’t get around to making a change due to lack of time, knowledge or confidence.

“We know waiting time, prices and confusion are big influences on whether consumers change their broadband provider, but we’d encourage everyone to check they are getting the best deal.”

The research also found only 14 per cent of Brits have changed their broadband supplier in the past year, compared to two in 10 who have switched energy companies.

One quarter of Londoners have moved internet provider in the last 12 months, while only one in 10 in the West Midlands and Yorkshire have done the same.

Almost four in 10 have never even tried to switch their broadband supplier because it makes them ‘anxious’, they can’t be bothered or haven’t got round to it yet.

Three in 10 Brits haven't moved to another company because they are stuck in a 'contract' while one sixth are worried they won't get a better service.

But 61 per cent have attempted to change provider, only for almost half to find the process ‘complicated’.

Forty-eight per cent of those were passed to multiple people on the phone before being able to switch while four in 10 had to wait a long time for the process to be completed.

It also emerged Brits will would be willing to wait a maximum of eight days for a supplier change to take place, while an impatient one third will only wait up to two days.

Those in Wales are happy to sit tight for five days, but East Midlands residents will wait for nine days.

In order to consider moving to a different service provider, those polled would need to save an average of £12.23 a month.

Top reasons for wanting to switch include getting a cheaper deal and for better customer service.

However, while one third of those in Manchester rated slow broadband as a reason for changing, just one in five of those in South West said the same.

Almost half of adults admitted they would be more likely to sign up to a service if there was the option of a shorter contract.

And 44 per cent of those, polled via OnePoll, said they have signed an agreement they came to regret, but this may be because more than one quarter rarely or never read the terms and conditions.

The study also revealed what Brits consider to be among the worst contracts ever, including Alexis Sanchez signing for Man United and Twentieth Century Fox signing over the Star Wars licensing and merchandising rights to George Lucas.

Charles Davies added: “Switching can often seem like a lot of effort and it’s clear that some people fear change, so we have introduced our best ever prices for our no strings monthly rolling contracts to allow people to try our services - without being tied in for the long term.”

Hyperoptic’s 1Gb (1,000 Mbps) service is the fastest available in the UK – almost 3x faster than Virgin’s top speed and 10x faster than average BT or Sky speeds.

Some of the worst contracts ever signed according to Brits:

*When Chris Grayling and The Department for Transport signed a ferry deal with a company with no ships.*Mourinho reportedly receiving a cool £22.5m pay-off when he was sacked.*Ronald Wayne’s contract to leave Apple for $2,300.*Alexis Sanchez signing for Man United.*20th Century Fox sign over the licensing and merchandising rights for Star Wars to George Lucas.*Universal Pictures selling the foreign rights to American Pie because they didn’t havefaith in it – it ended up making more than $132 million outside of America.*Fulham spending £12m on Kostas Mitroglou for him to only play three games.