Cost of phone calls, broadband and line rental to go up from January 2013 as BT charges more for popular products !!!

Full Story Here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/aug/25/bt-consumer-squeeze-price-rise?newsf...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9539179/Misery-for-10-million-households-...


From January next year the price of phone calls, line rental and broadband will rise by up to 5.9 per cent, over twice the rate of inflation, which currently stands at 2.6 per cent.

The steepest price rises come for BT's 728,000 Vision customers, who pay for television channels. The Vision Essentials plan, which is BT’s cheapest TV deal, will see the monthly charge rises from £4 to £5, an increase of 25 per cent.

The move is a blow to households who are already facing declining household incomes. Other telecoms and energy companies have already started to raise their prices ahead of the winter, and others are likely to follow suit.

BT's price rise will lead to speculation that households are paying the price for its surprise move into football.

In June BT spent £738 million on the rights to screen 38 Premier League matches each season for three years, starting next summer. Yesterday the telecoms company underlined its ambitions to become a broadcaster by announcing it had spent £152 million on a four-year contract to broadcast Premiership rugby from next year. 

Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at uSwitch.com, the website, said that BT’s price rise will be “one increase too many” for millions of households.

“We've already seen one of the big six energy companies announce a price hike and this news that BT will follow in its footsteps in the New Year will give some the January blues already,” said Mr Doku.

However he said that there was a “silver lining” as BT is offering a number of packages that should save households money.

BT started to send out letter to its customers about the price rises last week. It said that some prices, such as calls from landlines to mobiles, will not change. Following next January's price rises, the company said it will freeze key costs until 2014.

Under the changes, BT’s most popular calling plan - the Unlimited Anytime Plan - will see a 5 per cent price increase, from £4.90 a month to £5.15.

This package includes all landline calls, including those to 0845 and 0870 numbers, but does not include calls to mobiles.

Those who don't have inclusive calls in a package will also be hit. Daytime local and national calls will rise by from 7.95p per minute to 8.41p per minute. The cost of evening calls is set to rise from 1.05p to 1.11p per minute.

Line rental will rise by 5.8 per cent. Most homes have no choice but to pay this in order to receive broadband, even when it is provided by another company. The charge is rising by 85p, from £14.60 a month to £15.45 for those paying by direct debit. The charge for paying by cash or cheque will also increase from £1.89 to £2, taking monthly line rental paid for via these methods to £17.45 a month.

A BT spokesman denied that prices are being raised to help fund the £738 million price tag of the football rights.

“We believe the football rights will help us drive sales of bundles of calls, broadband and TV and also to retain customers who might otherwise have left. We will also look to make [football games] widely available to various platforms – satellite, digital TV, pubs and clubs – so it is not right to link the two,” he said.

John Petter, managing director of BT’s Consumer division, said: “We will be changing some prices in January but we will then be freezing many key prices until 2014.”

He said that despite the rises, the company is telling its customers how they can switch to cheaper tariffs.

“BT is wholly committed to offering really good value in an extremely competitive market,” said Mr Petter

No need to pay penalty for non inclusive calls anyway. All customers whatever plan they are on get inclusive weekend minutes. A couple of calls a month made from them ensure they avoid such penalties.Also i understand that you can still get inclusive evening and weekend calls from them at no charge if pushed.

Couple 18185 with these and it can prove more cost effective depending on calling pattern then taking a full BT call plan. EG You would have to make at least 104, 5p, no time limit  01/02/03 calls a month  on 18185 to justify subscribing to the BT anytime plan.

However if you cant be asked to dial a short code ,keep a track of calls made,or just  like the benefit of making as many inclusive  additional calls as you wish without worrying about cost,then a BT anytime plan is the way to go.

I’m not sure whether or not I’m posting in the correct forum or not.  If it’s wrong, please accept my apologies.

I’ve recently received my BT bill and saw that I was charged for CLI because I did not make a minimum 2 calls in the month.  I have BT broadband talk and that is the default line for all outgoing calls.  I try to remember to make some calls on the geographical line (to my broadband line) during the evenings or weekends when calls are free so as to try to avoid these charges.  The last bill showed one call to an 0844 number (overseas at ½p a minute) and a 1571 return call (not made by myself, I hasten to add). 

I queried the bill and have been credited with the charge but I was called by BT and told that they don’t class these 1571 return calls as “calls” even though they charge for them.

I’m going to be more careful in future and set up a reminder to make a proper call at lease once a week.

Kiwi_g wrote on Feb 18^th, 2013 at 11:16am:

Clearly, BT hasn't made the bill confusing enough for you not to realise that this has happened. By you querying this with BT, it knows that it still has work to do on de-simplifying bills.