Supersearcher wrote on Feb 24^th, 2007 at 9:03pm:

I agree that it is unfair to charge so much for those more who pay promptly. But BT is increasing its charge and not introducing it from scratch. It costs £4.50 per quarter or £1.50 per month to pay by non-DD, an increase of £1.50 per quarter or 50p per month.

Also, bear in mind that these days prices are generally quoted per month even though bills are still sent quarterly.

Obviously the argument will go that those who insist on paying by cash on a service where they can run up large call bills they don't have to pay for in advance are proven to be bad credit risks as a class and so imposing this extra charge is the only way to cover that cost of payment defaults directly.  The only alternative would be to further put up the line rental charge to everyone and for the rest of us to cross subsidise the bad payers.  And by first offering the discount for paying by DD and now reversing that into a larger extra charge for paying by cash (which simply grabs the attention more of those paying by cash as to the extra cost and provides a bigger incentive to change to DD) they make it a virtually self fulfilling prophecy that  the only people paying by cash will not have a bank account and so tend in the main to be mainly very bad credit risks indeed.  Anyone who simply hates DDs is I think now living in the past as they are one of the safest and best protected ways to pay.

However this whole issue does raise the question of the underlying fairness of BT's Phone Line Rental charges, which in my view are monstrously high when compared to other utilities in the home.  Also since the higher charges come from the risk of people defaulting on paying the bill then why can't BT come up with a prouct where people credit their account in advance with cash for call costs and then spend this down to zero at which point they can't make any more calls.  In that way it should be possible to offer cash customers a service at the same price as non cash customers.

Although cheque users are often old and crusty unfortunately many of them are also cheque book thieves.  So again this is why cheque as well as cash is being charged an extra fee to reflect the higher risk.

Like it or not we are moving to a cashless society for all but all very small transactions made in person at retailers.

lompos wrote on Feb 25^th, 2007 at 7:21pm:


I don't think BT's phone line rental charge is a market price.  It is a price that by clever and false accounting and over estimating the value and servicing costs of its copper wire network that it has conned Ofcom (with its many ex BT employees) into accepting and that is now the price all other companies are following, largely due to the excessive charge levied for BT's WLR service.

Look at standing charges for gas, electricity and water and the fact that they are beween £0 and £3.50 per month and you will start to realise there is something wrong with BT needing £11 per month.

darkstar wrote on Feb 27^th, 2007 at 8:46am:


Yes I should have that facility for very little because BT earns revenue for terminating and very often also for originating every one of those calls.  They earn this revenue from what the caller pays as part of their call charge.

Anyhow I don't argue I should get line rental for nothing but merely for a fair charge reflecting the real cost of maintaining the old copper line.

The problem is that the value of making calls has fallen to almost nothing and so the whole of BT's creaky, inefficient and overpriced infrastructure is being propped up by the high line rental charge.

Darkstar:-

I love your blinkered faith in 'experts'.
WMD, 45mins........???
Say no more.

NGMsGhost wrote on Feb 28^th, 2007 at 9:29am:



You really dont bother reading anything do you? OFCOM ARE NOT BT!!!! Its OFCOM who made the entire revue and INVESTIGATION. Yes I have faith in experts as they ahve become experts and have actually checked all the facts and figures. The day that NGM can show me why it costs less than the ammount OFCOM have claimed than I will starts to listen, until then we have 1 official pricing given and tahst what we have to use.
Its got nothing to do with BT, its got nothing to do with anyone. I dont care about the damned company, I care about people saying something is wrong JUST because they dont agree with it. You heve no proof at all, youre like one of the people who claim that the first moon landing was fake, that the Montreal Screwjob was a work and that Dianna was killed by MI5.

Simple balancing act for you:

Conclusion provided by people who had done all the research > conclusion done by theorist

Edit: firestop, my faith in experts is there until prooven otherwise, or until a sytudy made by another body can at least challange with better than 'well i think'.

If the British BT model is so great then why does everyone in business in the USA to seem to have 0800 numbers.

As to darkstar I think by now he has amply demonstrated why he has a life long career as a BT customer service person obediently trotting out the latest company propaganda ahead of him.