Swisscom Revises Its Family Discount

Swisscom is now offering a new We Are Family discount for families. The new offer replaces the previous multiple-plan discount with an integrated family discount. Many customers still know the previous offer by its old title, Blue Benefit.

What does We Are Family have to offer?

The new family discount has the following features:

• Available to families, couples, and flatmates. The requirement is that all subscribers must share the same household.
• 50-percent discount on the basic fee for the second, third, fourth, and fifth mobile phones.

The new family discount can also be combined with other plans upon request: If you also use Swisscom for your home Internet connection in addition to your mobile plans, you get a 20-franc discount on your first mobile plan.

How is the new offer different from the previous discount?

The most important changes are:

• You now get a 50-percent discount from the second mobile plan. The previous offer gave you a 30-percent discount.
• The discounts for mobile plans can now be used even if you do not have Swisscom home Internet.

As before, customers who also have Swisscom home Internet get a 20-franc discount on the first mobile plan. This discount does not apply if you do not have Swisscom home Internet.

Does the new family discount have any disadvantages?

The new Swisscom family discount has a number of disadvantages:

• Customers are limited to getting customer service via the app or website, instead of via the hotline or at Swisscom stores. The first mobile plan is freed from this limitation.
• You may lose existing promotions and discounts.
• Existing customers have to agree to a new minimum contract term of 24-months.
• Existing customers have to actively request the new discount.
• The multiple-plan discount can only be used with the Blue Mobile S, Blue Mobile M, and Blue Mobile L plans.

How can customers benefit from the new discount?

Even if you already use the previous Swisscom multiple-plan discount, you still have to actively request to have your plans transferred to the new offer.

That can be done online using the customer portal. The person with the primary mobile plan can add other people under My Household.

Is the new family discount better than the last one?

From a purely financial point of view, the new offer is most beneficial for families that do not use Swisscom for their home Internet connections. The additional discount for homes that use Swisscom Internet is somewhat low. In all fairness, it is important to note that if you use the more expensive mobile plans, then the new family discount gives you a somewhat larger discount.  

But there are also major disadvantages like the 24-month minimum contract term and the fact that you are not allowed to get customer service over the phone or in stores. You need to account for these when considering the new offer.

Table 1: Swisscom family discounts compared

The comparison in Table 1 shows is based on the assumption that all family members use the cheapest Swisscom mobile plan with a flat fee for local calls and data within Switzerland. For the calculations with home Internet, the comparison uses the cheapest Swisscom home Internet plan that has a connection speed of at least 1 Gbps. The comparison does not account for promotional offers that are only offered for a limited period of time.

How does Swisscom’s family discount compare to offers from other service providers?

Even with the family discount, the Swisscom offers are substantially more expensive than those offered by other mobile service providers. As Table 2 shows, there are many competing offers that are more than 50 percent cheaper than Swisscom.

Table 2: Swisscom family discounts compared with offers from competitors

The comparison uses the cheapest mobile plan with a flat fee for local calls and data within Switzerland. For the calculations with home Internet, the comparison uses the cheapest Swisscom home Internet plan that has a connection speed of at least 1 Gbps. The comparison does not account for promotional offers that are only offered for a limited period of time.In addition to Swisscom, the comparison also includes telecom service providers that have eligible mobile plans for less than 20 francs per month.
¹ These service providers do not offer family discounts.
² These service providers do not offer eligible home Internet plans via optical fiber. In this case, the calculations use an affordable plan from a different provider. For example, Init7 offers a home Internet plan for 44 francs per month.

Verdict from moneyland telecom expert Ralf Beyeler

Once again, we can see how important it is not to place too much emphasis on discounts. A 50-percent family discount may sound good, but it is more important to look at the actual cost. A five-member family would still have to pay more than 200 francs for their plans after accounting for the Swisscom discount. The same family would pay around 75 francs per month with some other telecom providers that do not have discounts. This example shows that a zero-percent discount can be cheaper than a 50-percent discount.

A positive change is that the new offer is also available to households that do not use Swisscom home Internet plans. It is worth mentioning that a home Internet connection is often beneficial for households with multiple Internet users.

One thing I noticed is that Swisscom has once again followed Sunrise’s lead. For many years now, Sunrise has offered a 50-percent family discount for the second to fifth mobile plan in the same household. Like Sunrise, Swisscom also offers a 20-franc discount to customers who also use its home Internet plan. 

But there are also differences between Swisscom and Sunrise. Sunrise’s family discount is more customer-friendly because the user group can also include people who do not live in the same household. Additionally, Sunrise doesn’t limit customer care for family discount users to online channels.

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