http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10676934


BT to raise call charges by 10%
Telephone BT wants customers to sign up to annual contracts

Telecoms giant BT has said it will increase call charges by 10% and its monthly line rental by 50p from the beginning of October.

The majority of customers will be informed of the move by letter this week.

The cost of connecting a call will go up from 9.9 pence to 10.9p, while the daytime rate rises from 5.9p to 6.4p.

Customers who sign up to a year-long contract upfront will avoid the increased charges.

BT said it estimates the impact of the changes will be just 1p a day, because its average customer makes only 80 seconds of daytime calls each day, and more than half subscribe to inclusive packages.

It said "calling plans enable customers to avoid the set-up fee and charges for most calls altogether".
Cheaper rates

From October, BT customers will pay a landline rental charge of £13.29 a month, or £12.04 if they receive their bills by e-mail.

The price changes are part of a concerted move by the company to get customers to sign up to longer-term contracts and special bundled packages.

They are offering cheaper rates for those that do.

After 1 October, the standard cost of a landline will be £159.48 to those who pay the entire sum upfront, but for those who sign up before the end of October, the cost will be £113.88, which works out at £9.49 a month.

BT said it understood the price increases would not go down well with customers, but said it would be happy to discuss inclusive packages to reduce bills or different payment options, such as inclusive packages.




So, does this mean that BT want us to pay the year's line rental upfront?

Thanks CJT-80

As usual with BT it is all very complicated.

They are saying, and I quote from the link

Pay 12 months in one advance debit or credit card payment of £113.88, equivalent to £9.49 per month and save over £24 per year.

They then go on to say

If you currently get a discount for paper-free billing, this will stop

Which is  I think £1.25 a month, which is £15 a year.

My arithmetic makes that a saving of £9 a year, or have I misunderstood it all?

Here


http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayTopic.do?topicId=2...

All very confusing and if I don't fully understand anything or think there is a catch, I don't take up any deal. I think the catch is the ending of the discount of paper free billing. Also there probably are more catches that I have not found out yet. No doubt their email/letter telling me of the changes will make my eyes glaze over even more!!!!

BT never ever make anything simple.

Anyone else noticed this price increase is announced within days of the BT/CWU 3 year 9% pay rise agreement?

sherbert wrote on Jul 23^rd, 2010 at 1:52pm:


I left BT 20 years ago after 30 years service & I'm still confused,companies now run by accountants straight into senior management positions fresh out of university with zero experience in telecoms,no promotion through the ranks anymore

Dave wrote on Jul 25^th, 2010 at 12:55am:


Thanks Dave

Bob1942 wrote on Jul 25^th, 2010 at 3:30pm:

The thing is that the prices they charge are what they can get away with.

Whole minute billing is something that BT has introduced, something which we might expect if we still had clockwork exchanges!

Call set-up or call connection fees are now a staple of BT and many others, and the minimum cost of calls has sky rocketed from the days when there was just BT.

And then there's rounding the cost of each call on a subscriber's bill to the next whole penny.

All these things are done so as to charge more, whilst not having to increase the published 'pence per minute' call rate!