Cheapest Home Phones Article Discussion

quercus50

Feedback for Primus

I have had the broadband for two weeks and the wireless does not work. Even the plug in does not work reliably and I am stuck offline except when visiting friends, as now. and not managed to talk to a technician.

I was told it is monthly with no contract so I am going to try and change provider.

Gray-Fox

We're currently paying:

Phone - £14.60 (rising to 15.45 in Jan)

TV - £5.70 on BT Vision

Broadband - £24.70 per month on 8mb BT (and it's not even inifinity!!!)

What are the cheapest services, according to our usage?

We are not contracted to any of the services except for the phone (until 31st December) so all can be cancelled pretty quickly. Also, we don't use the phone at all, and it only exists for the purposes of having internet.

BT have quoted us a reduction on the broadband to £18 per month (that will be infinity) or £10.65 per month with 40GB usage (but still 8mb).

I'm thinking of getting rid of BT Vision because our new TV has freeview inbuilt, and I can't see any point of having Vision to provide us with an unused pause/record facility.

Jackd_2

I recently left BT because of their excessive charges and migrated to Zen Internet. A company I have always heard good things about, also a winner every year over the last nine years of 'Witch' awards.

I now get 5000 mins., of take time included, as I pay a little more so all my call - Weekdays, nights and weekends are included within my charges - Line rental is only £11.22 per month.

They also proved my broadband, 20 gig., download - all with no long-term contract. If I wish to change to another supplier I only need to give one months notice and there are is no penalty, or exit fees to pay.

A first class service at only £36.62 per month, including the line rental charge and ALL my calls. :rotfl:

FreddieM

sarahemmm wrote: »

My mother has to have a BT line for her emergency call button.

She barely uses the phone, and currently does not have broadband; she would be a low user. Plus she lives in deepest Norfolk and doesn't have/won't use a mobile phone. Well, she is 84...

Can anyone suggest good options to get her onto the internet cheaply?

When you say a BT line, BT has a light user option. For her emergency button ( I am assuming your talking about a Lifeline/Careline system), this can be used with any telephone provider but does require a landline of some description

Doc_N

FreddieM wrote: »

When you say a BT line, BT has a light user option. For her emergency button ( I am assuming your talking about a Lifeline/Careline system), this can be used with any telephone provider but does require a landline of some description

Hasn't the Light User Scheme gone, and been replaced by BT Basic (http://www.bt.com/basic), which is limited to certain claimants only?:

You can usually get BT Basic if you're claiming one of these benefits:

• Income Support
• Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance
• Employment Support Allowance (Income related) or
• Pensions Credit (Guaranteed Credit)

purpleotteruk

Hi everyone!

Just to add to the article - EE (Orange) now offer a Line Rental Saver. Normal monthly cost £14; Line Rental Saver £132. Saving = £36!

Sales have no idea about it but when you join but call Customer Services and tell them you want to add it on. Anyone argues with you - the EE Broadband Non-Standard Price Guide* on Page 18 should do the trick.

Add this on to Quidco cashback (£70) and being an existing customer - you can make a substantial saving. :beer:

*Cant add links but you can get it by searching "EE Home Terms and Conditions", scroll down to "+ Home Phone and Broadband Price Guides" and click the Non-Standard Price Guide

chrisr789

Hi there,

I'm considering getting TalkTalk's phone & broadband for 12 months but wondered what happens if/when you want to return to a BT line. I assume to the TalkTalk line is LLU, so does it cost money to switch back to BT at a later date?

billsavings

chrisr789 wrote: »

Hi there,

I'm considering getting TalkTalk's phone & broadband for 12 months but wondered what happens if/when you want to return to a BT line. I assume to the TalkTalk line is LLU, so does it cost money to switch back to BT at a later date?

You should be able to return to doner free of charge. Why Talk Talk ?

Soruk

I'm on Primus Line Rental Saver - but I use Demon Business Unlimited (and I can't fault the service I get, though I'm aware I'm paying a premium for this) for my broadband. I've never made a single chargeable call on my landline phone, instead my home VoIP setup allows me to call UK landlines for 0.5p/min, China (inc mobiles) for 0.7p/min, and UK mobiles for about 2p/min. Yes, the hardware to set this up wasn't that cheap (bought 5 years ago), but since my fiancee calls home a lot, I'm saving a lot over standard rates (and even connection charges, if using 0844 callthroughs).

For those people on Virgin Media, if you're considering using the 0844 override providers, be aware that Virgin charge way above any other provider (and TalkTalk aren't much better!). Matrix Dial have a table of many of the 0844/0871/09 charge bands (but I'm a new user so can't post links so go to www dot matrixdial dot co dot uk, navigate to Landlines, and near the bottom there is a link to show the rates) - while they list their call-through access numbers the table also shows the charge band codes (for example, the 5p/min g6 band, most charge 5.11p/min, but TalkTalk are 6.62p/min and Virgin a stonking 12.41p/min).

chrisr789

billsavings wrote: »

You should be able to return to doner free of charge. Why Talk Talk ?

Thanks for your reply . What does "doner" mean? I was thinking of TalkTalk because it's the cheapest way to get phone and broadband (£13.56/month for 12 months). Is there anywhere to compare the speeds people tend to get with different broadband providers? And have any recent or current Talk Talk customers got experiences to share?