Why haven't I written about line rental?

MSE_Martin · 4 April 2005 at 4:52PM

I've been e-mailed a lot recently by people saying "did you know you can save on line rental with One.Tel?". Yes BT monthly line rental is £10.50 a month, but now One.Tel offers the same for £9.99 - that's a saving of £6 a year and other big providers are making similar offerings.

Let me just clarify a few things before I start.

* Line rental is simply a payment for the line.

* Call providers can be one of two options. \
Carrier pre-select, where all your calls are routed through a single provider
Override providers, where you need dial a prefix number to access the network.

Now all these elements can be combined using different providers for the ultimate tariff. E.g. the current perfect set up is.

Line Rental: BT
Carrier Pre-Select: One.Tel (as its currently offering its free evening and weekend calls package for no monthly fee – Read more
Override Providers: call18866 daytime landline calls
call1899 for calls to mobiles.

So why aren't I shouting out - change, switch, move, ditch?

Due to its monopolistic position BT is forced to allow you to use other providers via its system. Most importantly this includes the UKs cheapest call providers 18866 and 1899 (see UK's cheapest call provider article)

Yet other landline providers are not. Their landline offerings are an attempt to get you to sign up to their Carrier Pre-Select services, so they get all the revenue from your calls. Not a good thing as overall there are much cheaper ways.

No surprise then that in their terms and conditions they do state (I'm paraphrasing of course) 'use other people and we may block you or put your line rental up'.

It has to be said, One.Tel has told me it won't be blocking people, yet in the past its official line and actions have differed.

So in summary as line rental price savings are relatively small compared to cheapest call providers and the system is still in its infancy - I just wouldn't bother

Is this a blanket piece of info?

No. Once there's evidence this isn't a problem, it may well be the way to go in future. This isn't a no, but a not yet.

PS. What about IT Plus?

Ok, if you've just asked that you're good. IT Plus is another line rental provider that's been around a long time. It does have much cheaper line rental yet it doesn't allow override providers, and contracts you in for a year. However, the saving on this is so big that for very low call users (a couple of pounds a month) it is worth using.

SteveBeeby · 6 April 2005 at 5:28PM

In reply to your "I just wouldn't bother"

We at Vitel are a BT wholesale service provider, we do not penalise any of our customers for only using us for line rental.

We have no minimum call spend or do we state you must use us for calls

We do offer calls that are not routed over any other network than BT. We do NOT CPS any calls.

We bill both line rental and calls if used on one detailed simple to understnd bill so you you have one bill to pay rather than one for calls and one for rentals

Business customers are welcome also

We are quite prepared to offer a no minimum contract offer to all refferals from "Money Saving Experts" website

All we ask is that our customers pay by Direct Debit as we have a £3 per month non DD charge.

Regards

heather+tom · 6 April 2005 at 6:43PM

PS. What about IT Plus?

...We would be very CAREFUL considering IT Plus ... in addition to the 1 Year LockIn contract ... they CHARGE

1) a massive 24.99 GBP Administration fee during SIGN UP

2) .... Plus ... VAT , of course ...

very 'sharp' calculated ... :-((

3) AND YOU have to pay ... the line rental ALWAYS 3 month in ADVANCE !!!.

We are kind of surprised ... but ... in addition to MARTIN's ... comments .... "YOU have to be a low phone monthly user .... "

WE believe NO reasonble SAVINGS are achieved ....

IN FACT .... this is a VERY one-sided (customer restricting) and OUTDATED retail customer relationship ... policy ... in Telecommuncations ....NO-One should enter into ... (and not just in the UK ... by the way ..)

bbb_uk · 6 April 2005 at 8:05PM

Further to what Heather+Tom said about IT Plus, I've just scanned their terms&conditions (paragraph 1.3) and it turns out that not only are you tied to a 12 month minimum term contract but after this 12 months they then tie you to 12 months minimum term contract again, and again, and again. That is unless your quick after your 12 months you give them notice to cancel otherwise you're tied to another 12 month contract with them.

In addition to this, Paragraph 10.2 reads, "IT reserves the right to alter its prices from time to time without notifying the customer of such alterations."

Also, IT Plus line rental only includes what they class as a level 1 fault repair service free. For a more comprehensive fault repair an extra fee per month is payable inc for outside normal office hours repairs. Even their level 1 fault repair service that is free is a standard service and in certain circumstances additional charges may apply. More on their 'care level' (fault repair service) here http://www.itplc.com/Pricing/special.asp. Remember prices on this page are excluding VAT as pointed out by Heather+Tom.

For further info on their t&c see http://www.itplc.com/companyinfo/itplus_terms.html

raeble · 6 April 2005 at 8:09PM

When all's said and done BT really aren't that bad. Yes they have the voicemail system from hell but it's their phone bill so I don't really care, unless I'm calling from work where I have to pay a set up charge for making personal calls.

layces · 6 April 2005 at 10:32PM

Another reason for not abandoning BT as the line rental provider is that some other companies do not provide all of the additional services like call forwarding, ring back, etc. I was tempted by Toucan at one time but soon changed my mind!

Essu · 7 April 2005 at 8:13AM

What about company called Utility Warehouse based in London? They claim to be able to sell cheaper than One.Tel in phone calls and cheaper than anyone else in electricity. Has anyone managed to decipher their pricing schedules to see if this is true? They work on Discount Club basis.

mbspuk · 7 April 2005 at 8:25AM

SteveBeeby wrote:

In reply to your "I just wouldn't bother"

We at Vitel are a BT wholesale service provider, we do not penalise any of our customers for only using us for line rental.

We have no minimum call spend or do we state you must use us for calls

We do offer calls that are not routed over any other network than BT. We do NOT CPS any calls.

We bill both line rental and calls if used on one detailed simple to understnd bill so you you have one bill to pay rather than one for calls and one for rentals

Business customers are welcome also

We are quite prepared to offer a no minimum contract offer to all refferals from "Money Saving Experts" website

All we ask is that our customers pay by Direct Debit as we have a £3 per month non DD charge.

Regards

Steve

that sounds like a good start to me.

What do you say Martin?

Martin

DaveO · 7 April 2005 at 10:01AM

I haven't bothered looking into switching from BT for one reason only.

I was under the impression that to use certain ISP's (including my own - Plus.net) you have to be with BT.

Have I got that correct?

Dave

ilovefreebies_2 · 7 April 2005 at 10:13AM

For the low cost saving and not being able to use the discount numbers I'll be staying put with BT

oldagetraveller · 7 April 2005 at 10:15AM

I use Onetel CPS with BT line so can use 18866 etc. However I contacted Onetel and asked specifically about using other services if I opted to use them for line rental. The reply was quite categorical in that I could not use other providers e.g. 18866 when paying them for line rental. Don't see the logic because it must be better for them to receive £9.99/month from me than I continue paying BT for line rental? I also use Onetel for my dial up internet and as a result of this, seriously thinking of changing ISP. So their dogged adherance to rules may lose them all my payments.

Why haven't I written about line rental?

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free