Sky Talk Line Rental?

d18set

Hi All

I currently have my telephone line rental through BT (£10.50 per month) and make calls through Sky as they are cheaper. In order to get the BT 1571 and caller display options free through BT however I have to make 4 chargeable calls through BT per month (to do this I need to enter a code before dialling to override the Sky network). This costs a few pence a month (I make 4 x 1 second phone calls) and saves the £2.75 for 1571 and caller display.

However I have just received a letter from Sky informing me that the override code is no longer available through BT (BT didn't let me know this!), and therefore I will have to pay £2.75 for the additional options making line rental £13.25 a month.

Sky offer a line rental package for £10 per month which includes free caller display and 1571 so sounds a good option. I just wanted to check pls if anyone is aware of any drawbacks from the Sky offer (I can't see any cons but wanted to double check with moneysavers).

Thanks in advance for any help/advice

ellionic

This is what i have been doing all day BT are getting greedy they want money for everything i got the same letter from BT and my bill has an extra £2.55 for 1571 calls so i am also just about to change from Bt on to sky for my line retal as like you i pay for my calls through sky my mam done this and she has had no problems with hers so far so i am just about to ring and set the ball rolling and then doing the same with my broardband from aol onto sky to save a bit more a month.

skintlass

I just got 1 year free line rental from sky when I said I was moving to Virgin - saves me money so hope the service is ok.

jhp

d18set wrote: »

Sky offer a line rental package for £10 per month which includes free caller display and 1571 so sounds a good option.

To get Sky Talk you need at least Basic Sky £17 a month x 12 = £204, which has recently gone up from £16 a month .So its already costing you another £1 a month to get it.

Sky also charge an arm and a leg to call 0845 numbers,should you have to do so.
Sky 7p connection and 6p a minute at all times.:eek:

BT 7p connection . 2p a min daytimes and 0.5p a min evenings/nights.

Sky can also block the likes of 18185 ,BT cannot.

Unless you dial any of the inclusive intl destinations,IMHO BT is a better more flexible option.

BexTech

ellionic wrote: »

This is what i have been doing all day BT are getting greedy they want money for everything i got the same letter from BT and my bill has an extra £2.55 for 1571 calls so i am also just about to change from Bt on to sky for my line retal as like you i pay for my calls through sky my mam done this and she has had no problems with hers so far so i am just about to ring and set the ball rolling and then doing the same with my broardband from aol onto sky to save a bit more a month.

BT getting greedy?

Don't you mean Sky getting greedy, they are the ones switching you to a service that blocks 1280.

This is why many people are dumping Sky line rental, especially when Sky rip you off on non-inclusive call charges.

Lexis200

I read

the override code is no longer available through BT

as BT stopping the ability to use it. Have I got it back to front?

We've just started paying the £5 a month for Sky anytime freecalls after having it free for 6 months, as it works out a damn sight cheaper for us than paying standard call charges through BT. We did a ballpark figure (I'm afraid we're not anal enough to go through every number and work it out exactly:D) and we would spend around £15 a month, so the £5 charge for free calls is pretty good for us (I do realise the fact we're paying means they're not technically free, but you know what I mean:))

As soon as we can we'll switch to Sky line rental too as BT is more expensive there as well.

As for non-inclusive charges - saynoto0870! It's not often I actually have to use an 08 number for anything with that site:)

I think it's really down to the individual - It'll be better for some but not for others. Unfortunately it just means a bit of work going back and forth between the Sky and BT websites to work out what's better for you!

payless

Lexis200 wrote: »

We've just started paying the £5 a month for Sky anytime freecalls after having it free for 6 months, as it works out a damn sight cheaper for us than paying standard call charges through BT. We did a ballpark figure (I'm afraid we're not anal enough to go through every number and work it out exactly:D) and we would spend around £15 a month, so the £5 charge for free calls is pretty good for us (I do realise the fact we're paying means they're not technically free, but you know what I mean:))

As soon as we can we'll switch to Sky line rental too as BT is more expensive there as well.

As for non-inclusive charges - saynoto0870! It's not often I actually have to use an 08 number for anything with that site:)

I think it's really down to the individual - It'll be better for some but not for others. Unfortunately it just means a bit of work going back and forth between the Sky and BT websites to work out what's better for you!

Bt have as similiar call package - from £4.95 pm on top of line rental

jhp

Lexis200 wrote: »

I read as BT stopping the ability to use it. Have I got it back to front?

We've just started paying the £5 a month for Sky anytime freecalls after having it free for 6 months, as it works out a damn sight cheaper for us than paying standard call charges through BT. We did a ballpark figure (I'm afraid we're not anal enough to go through every number and work it out exactly:D) and we would spend around £15 a month, so the £5 charge for free calls is pretty good for us (I do realise the fact we're paying means they're not technically free, but you know what I mean:))

As soon as we can we'll switch to Sky line rental too as BT is more expensive there as well.

As for non-inclusive charges - saynoto0870! It's not often I actually have to use an 08 number for anything with that site:)

I think it's really down to the individual - It'll be better for some but not for others. Unfortunately it just means a bit of work going back and forth between the Sky and BT websites to work out what's better for you!

Unless you avail yourself of the Inclusive Intl Calls,or you make more then 99 peak geographical calls a month,you would be better of using www.18185.co.uk for peak geographical, mobile,and ngn calls, in conjunction with the Sky Talk Free Evening and Weekend 01/02/03 call offer.

beeps_2

jhp wrote: »

Unless you avail yourself of the Inclusive Intl Calls,or you make more then 99 peak geographical calls a month,you would be better of using www.18185.co.uk for peak geographical, mobile,and ngn calls, in conjunction with the Sky Talk Free Evening and Weekend 01/02/03 call offer.

I've just signed up to Sky because I got a free HD box and the minimum subscription to TV (which is pretty useless to me as I have a digital tv with freeview) costs less than I was paying for broadband but I can get broadband base for free with them. But it turns out only to be free if I stay signed up with sky talk. My sky talk started just this week and BT infomed me that I could use a prefix to get calls routed back to them and I had planned to use this for calling my bank, which has an 0845 number. I tried it today and it didn't work. I then tried using a prefix and it worked fine. It appears from the posts I've read that I can still use a prefix for 0845 but now I don't know whether I'm going to be charged a connection fee every time I do this as my husband works abroad alot so most of my phone calls are via a prefix. Lots of times you don't get through and I may risk being charged a connection fee even when I don't get through. Does anyone know whether the 7p connection charge applies to any or all calls made with a prefix or is it that the charge is only made when you're outside of your free minutes?
Also, no-one informed me I wouldn't get 1571 from BT anymore without paying but my phone is still beeping when people leave me messages. Am I now going to be charged by BT for this even though I haven't specifically opted (back in)?
Thanks in advance for any clarifications.

Heinz

Welcome to the MSE forums beeps.

I assume you're on Sky Talk Freeetime. If you're on Sky Talk, using the 1280 prefix to 'hop back onto BT' will not work because Sky has, cleverly, changed to using BT Wholesale's WCLI (Wholesale Calls Line Independent) - which means all your calls are carried on the BT network anyway (but billed to you by Sky).

Hence, even though BT's Unlimited Weeekend calls plan is part of your line rental, you cannot make use of the plan (free weekend UK 01/02/03/0845/0870 calls of up to 60 minutes each) - ALL your calls without a prefix or with the 1280 prefix will be sent via Sky Talk and Sky will charge you their rates (which, for 0845 and 0870, are excessive).

Similarly, as you cannot now make the necessary number of 'qualifying calls' to get free Caller Display and/or 1571, BT will charge you for those features if you use it/them.

The good news is you can use any of the indirect access providers (1899, 18185 etc.) normally. Sky or BT will not charge you a connection fee for using them (although. of course, each of those has its own connection charge). So, for your 0845 and 0870 calls, 18185 or 08081703703 will be your best option.

Update 3-8-09. Sky now includes 0870 calls in its Sky Talk call packages.

http://www.sky.com/Assets/PDF/StaticFiles/5434510.pdf