I have found this supplier...

http://www.itplc.com/Residential/itplus.html

Who claims to be able to cut the line rental on a BT line to £5.25/month (presumably plus VAT).

This sounds fair enough, even factoring in the £25 service charge which will eat up 4/5 months of savings.

Question is, will I still be able to use prefix providers with services like this? And does anyone know what this company's service is like? Their call rates are uncompetitive during evenings (but reasonable against BT during the day) and obviously nowhere near 18866 but that line rental sounds tempting. Are there any cheaper options for this sort of thing?

Hmmm.

"4.7

Under no circumstances is the customer allowed to use an alternative Telecom supplier to override or bypass IT services either through the installation of equipment or through the BT local exchange, any such changes or bypassing the IT network or services may result in suspension/termination of services without notice to the customer or extra charges maybe added, without the written approval of IT."

Strike this one off the list then  ::)

Absolutely.

There's another 'provider' (Telecom+ or The Utility Warehouse?) which offers a reduced rental as well but, when you take into account the 'club membership charge' and VAT, it ends up being more expensive than BT!

wrote on Mar 18^th, 2005 at 4:18pm:

Absolutely. There's another 'provider' (Telecom+ or The Utility Warehouse?) which offers a reduced rental as well but, when you take into account the 'club membership charge' and VAT, it ends up being more expensive than BT!

Be careful to be accurate and  fair !!   I'm a very satisfied TelecomPlus/Utility Warehouse customer  -  I have been for two years now (see my posting for that topic further up the topics listing).   All TP's prices include vat, so that is NOT an extra cost, as suggested, and they undercut ALL BT's prices (in fact they have a written guarantee to do so).
Yes, there is a £1.76 a month (incl vat) membership fee, but this then opens up a whole host of great prices on telephony/internet AND the UK's CHEAPEST domestic Gas and Electricity.  
They also then give annual "cashback" of £10 for each service taken, after the first (ie take 3 services - get £20 cashback; take 5 services - get £40 cashback, etc.)
In my two years of membership I reckon I've saved about a thousand pounds on all my home bills, compared with my previous suppliers (. . . and yes, I also use 18866 for some of my calls, too.)

They're a Stock Exchange regulated plc, and an Ofgem regulated energy provider and, since becoming a member, I've seen loads of good 'press', too, including "Which" and "What Cellphone", as well as newspaper articles and tv (Money programme/Working Lunch), etc.

Except for domestic energy, as I already mentioned, they may not (and don't claim to . . .) provide their members the cheapest individual price for all situations,  (they don't claim to offer the cheapest price for a call to Timbuktu on a Thursday morning, for example, etc.) but taking all their services as a whole, and including the  'cashbacks', I'm very happy that I've found a great overall package.  As you can tell, I'm a 'fan' of TelecomPlus/Utility Warehouse !!

. . . And everything comes on one fully itemised bill every month (it's easy to read and mine's always been accurate.)  The bill comes about a week before the end of a month, for payment by direct debit at the end of the month, and shows the charges for the previous month; payment is then taken as planned  -  again, always correctly.

We're all looking for good and fair deals, coupled with security and good, ethical practice;  we want to get cheap prices and avoid scams and pitfalls.  

As mentioned earlier,  I also use 18866 for some of my calls, too, but I'm wary because the company isn't  'transparent' and if asked for my opinion or recommendation I would always suggest to my friends  to use 18866 with care and caution ;  it's been ok so far for me, but I wouldn't want to hang my friendship or reputation on it.  

On the other hand, I'd have no hesitation recommending TelecomPlus/Utility Warehouse to my friends (I do . . .).  I usually tell them to look at a website where they can check it all out for themselves;  if they want to join there and then, they can.  They just "shop" for the services they want to take (putting them in a "shopping cart", one by one, before going to the "checkout")  -  just like any other online shopping experience.  (Or if they prefer dealing with a 'human being' they can contact an agent to deal with.)
Have a look at :  http://www.SaveWithTP.co.uk

But whichever path we choose, we're all looking for good deals, and one thing's for certain, and it's the reason we're on this website in the first place :  the more we can get round the 0870 numbers, the more we'll save because, no matter which alternative telephony supplier(s) we use, numbers like 0870 and 0845 knock all the savings for six !!!

wrote on Apr 3^rd, 2005 at 12:14pm:

Be careful to be accurate and  fair !!

I was.  I was comparing BT with Telecom Plus for landline rental and landline rental alone.

BT don't require me to pay a subscription to join their club - they just ask me to may their rental charges.  It therefore seemed fair to compare the total I would have to pay Telecom Plus for line rental (which includes their club membership fee) with what BT currently charge me (which doesn't include any club membership fee).

If you want to introduce irrelevancies like gas and/or electricty supply, my energy supplier refunds (by cheque) one month's DD payments each year for each (in my case, that totals £65 rather than the £20 Telecom Plus might refund me).

wrote on Apr 3^rd, 2005 at 1:04pm:

I was.  I was comparing BT with Telecom Plus for landline rental and landline rental alone. . . . . . . . BTW, if you are using 18866, you are in breach of Telecom Plus's T&Cs.

Extract from TelecomPlus T&Cs > Home Phone > 3(k) :
". . .  Once Carrier Pre-Selection (“CPS”) has been provisioned on your phone number, then all calls made from that number will benefit from our low call charges (unless you choose to route them to another service provider by using the appropriate prefix).  . . . "

To be fair, the TP+ service might be the best in the world, but it's only pennies cheaper than BT for line rental, as such I don't see much point in changing over for the sake of 50p a month saved.

The IT deal looked good (£65/year saved), and to be honest if I can get away with using 1899 VoIP for most calls I may well switch over (and use VoIP for landlines, my Three mobile for mobile calls, and the landline for incoming only).

wrote on Apr 4^th, 2005 at 12:55pm:

Extract from TelecomPlus T&Cs > Home Phone > 3(k) : ". . .  Once Carrier Pre-Selection (“CPS”) has been provisioned on your phone number, then all calls made from that number will benefit from our low call charges (unless you choose to route them to another service provider by using the appropriate prefix).  . . . "

My apologies, I withdraw the 'in breach' comment from my previous post (I have deleted the sentence therefrom).

However, the remainder ... er ... remains, so to speak!

As bclnet is an agent, perhaps you could advise me.

If (and I stress IF) Telecom Plus is cheaper than Powergen for gas and electricity, I MIGHT be tempted to move over.

Is it?

No it is not the best value!

I suggest you look at the detailed discussions on the MoneysavingExpert forum?