If you’re a dial-up user looking at the low-cost broadband plans, be very sure to read the fine print on additional costs and download limits.

Here’s the perfect reason why: I am currently upgrading a piece of software I use, via download from the USA. It’s Ulead’s Movie Factory 6 Plus software — used to create home DVDs etc.

Downloading online makes more sense to me than waiting a few weeks for a physical shipment to arrive (along with the extra shipping costs). Within an hour, on 1.5Mb/sec broadband, I’ll have the files.

There are two files I’m downloading, of pretty large size:

• Main file is 537Mb
• “Bonus” content file is 352Mb

That’s a total of 889Mb!

That’s fine by me — I’ve got 60Gb (60,000Mb) per month of data allowance.

However, some of the entry level broadband plans available only have a paltry 200Mb of data allowance before you pay EXTRA money for your downloads.

So, this SINGLE file on a SINGLE day of the month would exceed the whole month’s data limit by 689Mb. Let alone all the other activity I do in the month (or even today).

Some low-level plans make you pay $0.15 per Mb over your limit. Makes it sound pretty small, eh?

However, $0.15 x 689 = $103.35!

That’s more than DOUBLE the cost of this piece of software — just to download it! And it’s more than three times the $30 or so you pay for such a plan.

Whilst it’s not a very usual purchase, and is more than I normally download, a low-level plan would either burn a hole in my wallet or mean I can’t take advantage of a convenience such as an online download of a purchased product.

Buyer beware! Before you chose an inexpensive sounding broadband plan, read the fine print, and talk to your friends and family first about “real life” internet usage.