BT Unlimited Weekend plan - need to make chargeable calls to get it

tiptoe_mouse

I have noticed this on the following BT page:

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayTopic.do?topicId=25499#tab2

Unlimited Weekend Plan. Only £10.27 a month line rental with Direct Debit and paper-free billing (£11.25 from 1st April), for new and existing residential customers making at least one chargeable call a month with BT. No minimum term, unless you order a new phone line or switch your phone line to BT from another provider, where a 12 month minimum term applies to line rental.

I haven't noticed anyone else mentioning the highlighted point, so I thought I would.

Not much of an issue if all your calls go through BT anyway, but if you use a CPS provider like Primus, and are trying to make the 6 calls a quarter with BT (via 1280) needed to get free caller display and 1571, you need to know this. These 6 calls can be chargeable or inclusive, but to qualify for the inclusive calls in the first place, you still need to be making one chargeable call a month with BT.

Something to watch out for.

tiptoe

Quentin

It seems the chargeable call requirement is only for those on the "standard plan" contract as opposed to those on the renewable 12 monthly contracts.

tiptoe_mouse

Quentin wrote: »

It seems the chargeable call requirement is only for those on the "standard plan" contract as opposed to those on the renewable 12 monthly contracts.

Yes - it's just the "Unlimited Weekend Plan" that this applies to, as far as I can see.

JustPassingBy

tiptoe_mouse wrote: »

These 6 calls can be chargeable or inclusive, but to qualify for the inclusive calls in the first place, you still need to be making one chargeable call a month with BT.

Something to watch out for.

This condition dates from February 2008 and was discussed here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=691105

For most months since then my BT bill (Unlimited Weekend Plan) shows 0p for calls made. I'm still on the same Plan and fully expect to remain qualified for it.

tiptoe_mouse

JustPassingBy wrote: »

This condition dates from February 2008 and was discussed here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=691105

For most months since then my BT bill (Unlimited Weekend Plan) shows 0p for calls made. I'm still on the same Plan and fully expect to remain qualified for it.

Thanks - I must have missed that discussion at the time. Very interesting thread.

It's been a while since I reviewed my phone costs, and I have been making 6 chargeable calls a quarter (using Heinz's "Indian takeaway" method ). With the recent hike in call set-up fee I decided it was time to see if I could cut the cost, and came across references to being able to make 6 inclusive calls instead. Then I checked on the BT site and found the info I've posted.

I'm interested to hear that you haven't been charged. My concern is that BT could still choose to enforce this condition, leaving me with a potentially large bill if I start putting calls through them at weekends. My Friday night Indian takeaway calls are usually less than a minute in length. The same cannot be said for the sorts of calls I'd be making at the weekend (hour-long calls to my parents).

The other difficulty I have is in tracking how many calls I have made, to see if I've reached my target of 6. With chargeable calls this is easy - I simply check my BT recent calls list online, then when I've reached 6 I reprogram the Indian takeaway number on my DECT phone without the 1280 prefix (otherwise I'd be making 12 or 13 calls a quarter with BT!). Then when my BT bills arrives online, I program it back with the prefix.

With inclusive calls, though, there doesn't seem to be an easy way of tracking them. So I imagine I'd start making more of them to ensure I meet the 6 call target. Then if BT do decide to charge me for them, it would cost me more than I'm paying at the moment (about 60p a quarter?).

Talk about a quandry!

tiptoe

EDIT: Of course I could save far more than the kind of amounts in question if I just cut down on the takeaways!

gt94sss2

tiptoe_mouse wrote: »

I'm interested to hear that you haven't been charged. My concern is that BT could still choose to enforce this condition,

Just because something appears on the BT website - that doesn't make it T&C.. it would need to be included in their electronic price list..

Regards
Sunil