Over the last few week I have been studying and digging through every telephone provider I could find that offers the full package.
By this I mean
Line Rental & Call Package.

I was doing this to review my current situation:-

I am BT Together Option - Paying Via DD

I have no interest in any pay tv scheme, 99% of it is dross and repeats so we happily use freeview.

Internet: I have been on Virgin for years happily, and as I work in a place where I have 4mb broadband I have no big use for internet at home so this goes from PAYG in the summer to 24/7 in the winter (dial up) with onspeed.

Ok first of all I looked at one.tel.

The customers services was awful, I was kept waiting for ages.

Read all the T&C on the site and all the hidden charges all add up to be the same price as BT.

Looked at Telewest but they want you to have everything else chucked in, the cost of calls did not compare to BT together 1 for evening calls at all. Nothing like 5.5p per call for eveing and weekends up to an hour. Although they admitted we could have the phone in the end on it's own it did not make any savings for us.

Cooptel came out well but had an 0845 customer services number and their billing system is very odd, the saving were not worth the move really.

Now BT have offered me together package 2 for 3 months at the price of BT together 1.

Just wanted to share the results of this for anyone who may find it useful.

Also it would be cool to know if anyone else has had any good luck in changing or reviewing their current phone usage.

Jay

wrote on Oct 19^th, 2005 at 10:50am:

Now BT have offered me together package 2 for 3 months at the price of BT together 1.

How long are you tied in to Option 2 for after the first  3 months ?

The best  bet surely is to  keep your line rental with BT.Use 1899 for your peak geo 01/02 calls,and your mobile calls.Use one of the free evening and weekend suppliers for your 01/02 calls.

wrote on Oct 19^th, 2005 at 1:00pm:

The best  bet surely is to  keep your line rental with BT.Use 1899 for your peak geo 01/02 calls,and your mobile calls.Use one of the free evening and weekend suppliers for your 01/02 calls.

I have now decided to hold onto BT for line rental as none of the other providers are any better or worse than BT for line rental and it's never worth all the hassle.

Although I have not heard of 1899 what are they, how does it work and what do they charge, also it good customer services. I am not a facist don't get me wrong but I prefer UK call centres as they do not work from scripts.

wrote on Oct 19^th, 2005 at 12:16pm:

How long are you tied in to Option 2 for after the first  3 months ?

As far as I can read no tie in unless you were on the lite user scheme you can not go back to that as they are trying to scrap it. You can however go back to option 1.

wrote on Oct 19^th, 2005 at 1:54pm:

Although I have not heard of 1899 what are they, how does it work and what do they charge, also it good customer services.

See www.call1899.com used by many members of this site,and the MSE site.Doesnt have a CS as such.

www.call1899.com

The Current offer on BT Option 1 one for the Price of Option 2 for 3 months starts today 20/10/05 and you must sign up before 11/12/05.

Their is no tie in after the 3 months you can revert to option 1 again, each bill will show you the savings made from being on option 2 to enable you to decide if you are getting value for money or not.

Well I will give it a shot from the 1st Dec as the 3 months around xmas are always the tightest money wise.

By the way I called them and asked the questions rather than take the leaflet for granted.

So you dont mind paying 3p a minute to make peak rate 01/02 calls then. Yet you seem to be trying to cut your costs.

No I am fine their big john never make any calls during peak time at all as I am out of the house always during peak times.

The last one I made was about 6 months ago for the Drs when I was off work sick that lasted less a minute or two.

But it would be a good idea for me to register with one of these pre-dial telcom companies that have no monthly fee and charge you for what you use at that time only.

Just knowing who ?

wrote on Oct 20^th, 2005 at 3:37pm:

Just knowing who ?

Have a look in 1899.com, 18866.com, 18185.com and also niftylist.co.uk in case you have international traffic.
Good Luck.