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BT Equipment Hire - have you been renting your telephone for over 18 months?
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forumfan_2
Posts: 719 Forumite
in Phones & TV
I have been renting a phone from BT for years @ £3.55 per quarter... just never got around to doing anything about it.
Anyway, I phoned them today to say that I didn't want to continue renting as it wasn't cost effective. I found out that once you have rented an item for 18 months it effectively becomes yours - they will only continue to charge you if you don't phone to cancel the contract.
£3.55 might not sound like a huge amount of money but this phone has effectively cost me £85.20 more than I needed to pay so, if you are renting a phone, please don't make the same mistake!
Anyway, I phoned them today to say that I didn't want to continue renting as it wasn't cost effective. I found out that once you have rented an item for 18 months it effectively becomes yours - they will only continue to charge you if you don't phone to cancel the contract.
£3.55 might not sound like a huge amount of money but this phone has effectively cost me £85.20 more than I needed to pay so, if you are renting a phone, please don't make the same mistake!
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Well said.
Can I also encourage readers to check that their elderly relatives aren't still renting phones too - I'm sure there are thousands who still do.Time has moved on (much quicker than it used to - or so it seems at my age) and my previous advice on residential telephony has been or is now gradually being overtaken by changes in the retail market. Hence, I have now deleted links to my previous 'pearls of wisdom'. I sincerely hope they helped save some of you money.0 -
My GF was. She had been renting the phone that was already there when she moved in 18 years ago! She didn't realise it was a rental phone. Needless to say, when she contacted BT to terminate the rental, they said no problem and keep the phone!0
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I didn't know it was still possible to start renting phones now! The cheapest phone to buy right now at Argos is this one at £2.97.
I installed my first phone line about seven years ago, an "In Contact" line for incoming calls only - and it didn't occur to me then that it was possible to rent phones either. I bought a phone from Dixons - I didn't realise that Argos sold phones at the time.
Does anyone still have a hard-wired phone, or know anyone who's got a hard-wired phone? I dare say there are a handful of elderly people in this situation.
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Just phoned and cancelled rental for parents phone.
I meant to do it a few weeks ago before last bill was produced so have been charged another quarter now.
They were paying £3.40 a quarter. Account has been held since 1960 - hardwired till mid 1980's when I needed an extra socket to be on-call.
So current phone cost approx - 23 years at £3.40 a quarter = £312.80 - daylight robbery ! Not to mention rental for hardwired one for 24 years before that.
Serves me right I should have just replace it with a cheap phone from Argos years ago.0 -
I cancelled my aunts phone rental 2 years ago and they sent a jiffy bag for her to return it ,not really cost effective if its going to be dumped0
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I didn't know it was still possible to start renting phones now! The cheapest phone to buy right now at Argos is this one at £2.97.
Yes, it is still possible to rent phones, I asked when I was speaking to them just in case it was cheaper to do this than buy new. Amazon looks like a good bet as they were £20 cheaper than Argos on the phone system I was looking at.Can I also encourage readers to check that their elderly relatives aren't still renting phones too - I'm sure there are thousands who still do.
It's not just older people that get caught out, my friend and I are only in our late 30's but we bought houses in the days when BT used to say that they wouldn't check out a fault unless you had a BT phone so that was the only way we could afford to do it - they have more competition now0 -
To be a truly competitive market, the phone lines need to be accessible to all people not just one company holding and servicing it I think...0
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To be a truly competitive market, the phone lines need to be accessible to all people not just one company holding and servicing it I think...
They are accessible to all people and have been for some time. BT may own and maintain the network, but any company can wholesale the lines themselves from BT.
It's like Railtrack (or whatever there now called), they own and maintain the rail network, but there are any number of companys using the lines.If saved £2710 and only spent the interest (Based on a return of 5%), you would have enough money to pay your TV Licence every year. Saving you £7452.50 over a period of 55 years, based on you buying a license from the age of 20 until your 75 at a cost of £135.50.0 -
Yes, so I think we can't have a competitor owning and servicing the network..
It is sort of like BT has allow people to use their car, but they are servicing the car etc...the costs aren't really transparent...we need a separate independent company servicing the car and all competitors paying for its use...
just a thought...not sure if it works or not..0 -
And that's called Openreach - heavily regulated by Ofcom (even BT have to pay them).Yes, so I think we can't have a competitor owning and servicing the network..
It is sort of like BT has allow people to use their car, but they are servicing the car etc...the costs aren't really transparent...we need a separate independent company servicing the car and all competitors paying for its use.Time has moved on (much quicker than it used to - or so it seems at my age) and my previous advice on residential telephony has been or is now gradually being overtaken by changes in the retail market. Hence, I have now deleted links to my previous 'pearls of wisdom'. I sincerely hope they helped save some of you money.0
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