BT's daytime calls on its Weekend and Evening & Weekend tariffs (formally Options 1 and 2) to geographical numbers are chargeable. With the reduction in VAT call rates went down to 3.92 pence per minute.

I have just discovered that this rate was increased on 1 April to 4.5 pence per minute !!  :o

The call set-up fee also went up to 8 pence including VAT @ 15% (formally 6.85 pence).

Remember, this is in whole minute increments, so the minimum charge is now 12.65 pence !

Going off topic a bit, I had a phone call from BT asking me if I would like a reduction of £2 a month off my Broadband. So my option one B/B is £12.63 amonth plus the landline telephone rental. :)

So, they take with one hand and give some of it back with another. ::)

Again off topic.  This week I was called a number of times from an 0800 number.  Finally, I was at home when I was called again.  It was BT trying to woo me back to their services as they could see I was making very few calls on my land line.  I said that I made one or two calls so as to ensure that I received caller display without charge and that these calls were to override supplers for international calls.  I said that my main calls default to BT Broadband Talk and was surprised that he was unable to see that on his system.  He said that he was not privilege to that information.  I suggested that for him, it was like trying to make a sale whilst blindfolded.  He agreed.  I suggested that BT might like to give me caller display without the need to make the odd call on the land line as all my calls were via BT, all be it mostly on the VoIP line.  He said that he could not do this.  The whole thing is a shambles.  BTW, I do know that override providers are usually cheaper than VoIP via BT but I often have poor call quality calling Canada through an override provider and then I am obliged to use the BT VoIP service.

Dave wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2009 at 7:39pm:

BT's daytime calls on its Weekend and Evening & Weekend tariffs (formally Options 1 and 2) to geographical numbers are chargeable. With the reduction in VAT call rates went down to 3.92 pence per minute. I have just discovered that this rate was increased on 1 April to 4.5 pence per minute !!  :o The call set-up fee also went up to 8 pence including VAT @ 15% (formally 6.85 pence). Remember, this is in whole minute increments, so the minimum charge is now 12.65 pence !

Er.... 12½p (8p + 4½p).

Heinz wrote on Apr 24^th, 2009 at 8:10am:

Dave wrote on Apr 22nd, 2009 at 7:39pm: BT's daytime calls on its Weekend and Evening & Weekend tariffs (formally Options 1 and 2) to geographical numbers are chargeable. With the reduction in VAT call rates went down to 3.92 pence per minute. I have just discovered that this rate was increased on 1 April to 4.5 pence per minute !!  :o The call set-up fee also went up to 8 pence including VAT @ 15% (formally 6.85 pence). Remember, this is in whole minute increments, so the minimum charge is now 12.65 pence ! Er.... 12½p (8p + 4½p).

It does. But calls are round up to the whole penny with VAT being applied at the end of the bill.

Just noticed that charges to mobiles from BT Calling Plans (table 6) are now daytime and evening seven days a week. So there's now no weekend rate for them!

Yet more BT price rises coming in October:

http://www.which.co.uk/news/2009/07/bt-hikes-call-charges-for-second-time-this-year-180347.jsp
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/jul/17/bt-call-cost-rise

Dave wrote on Jul 29^th, 2009 at 3:55pm:

Yet more BT price rises coming in October

These will mean that , for those subscribed to Call Plans making a weekday daytime call outside the terms of their plan, the most expensive 0844 numbers will be cheaper than a "normal" 01/02/03 number.

More on this and the implications here.

SilentCallsVictim wrote on Aug 28^th, 2009 at 10:01am:

More on this and the implications here.

BT charges are a wholly unsuitable reference point for call costs because its charging structure is atypical. This is due to regulation of some rates, and the imposition of penalty charges for those who make calls outside their call plan in other cases. (How else can a 33% per annum rate of price increase be justified!)

And now ...


Dave wrote on Sep 7^th, 2009 at 11:54am:

Market data for the first quarter of 2009: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/tables/q1_2009/

... its share of residential (landline) call volumes by duration has been below 50% for twelve months, most recently standing at 46.7% (see Section 2 Table 8).

Adding in mobiles, with a little jiggling as the figures are incomplete and do not split out business calls, BT’s share of personal telephone calls is fairly estimated at around 25%, the same as its over-reported share of all calls. (Some figures for mobile calls are not included. Data aggregated from S3 Table 2 and S2 Table 13.)

Unless there is good reason to assume otherwise, anyone quoting only BT prices is ignoring 75% of calls made.

Those mentioning the cost of calling a revenue sharing number could fairly use a statement along the following lines:


Quote:

Telephone service providers will charge more than usual for calls to this number because their revenue has to be shared with us, BT charges may vary.

If they wish to append an additional comment that specially promotes BT as their recommended provider with illustrations of its low or zero call charges, then I see no reason why they should not do so. If they want to add a claim that they give their share of the revenue away to their telephone company or a charity, such as their senior staff benevolent fund, then that too could be appended, but only after the essentially true statement has been made.

More expense coming, not only with BT but all other land line providers if our dear government get there way......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8270772.stm