BT landline & broadband - can we get out of contract?

HARVEYAD

My partner lost his job through redundancy and cannot find more work, I am still working but only just covering the mortgage. We received a bill from BT for £120, which is what we pay quarterly for our landline and broadband. We haven’t been able to pay this yet (bill was dated Jan). We called them and explained that we was struggling to pay this bill let alone any others but they said as we have 3 months left on the contract they was not prepared to cancel the contract but said they'd lower the tariff by £2 but the contract would start all over again - which is obviously going to cost us more in the long run as when it finishes we intend to cancel everything as we just cant afford it for the foreseeable future. Given the state of peoples finances with there being so many job cuts I'd have hoped that a big company like BT would be a bit more sympathetic. I just have no idea how we can pay the Jan bill let alone another one in 2 months time. Is there any way at all out of the contract?

Thanks

Quentin

No way out of the contract, unless you go bankrupt.

See if they will help by taking payment in instalments.

syko29793

if you have just 3 months left on your contract then you can renew at a lower price if in LLU area the price is even better.( check www.samknows.com) market 3 area is
option 1 £7.33
option 2 £13.20
option 3 £15.16

12 month contract

If your in contract renew for 18 month with 6 months free.

anyone can take 6 months free in contract or not

nodor

Sorry to hijack your thread, but I'm in a similar situation. Just lost my job and to cut costs needed to lose my BT phone and internet service(£33/month)
I have been with BT for years and never used any other service.
They tell me I still have 11 months to run on a contract I entered in to, but I know nothing about this. I was told I would have to pay around £200 even if the service was cut. It then turned out my contract had BT vision included just 4 days previously and I know for certain nobody contacted me around that time as they say. This was enough for them to "raise an issue" and look into this further.
How can you be entered in to a contract without signing anything???? Any advice on this would be of great help.

Quentin

"Contracts" don't require a signature.

BT contracts are mainly agreed verbally.

1carminestocky

Verbal agreements need to be proven just like written contracts. Tell BT you wasn't aware of being informed of any minimum contract and could they dig out the tape of your conversation with their sales bod, please?

Redundancy is yet another reason (there are many more, of course) NOT to enter into long, water-tight contracts. Especially with BT as you aren't really getting the best value for signing your life away, anyway. I was on a 'rolling contract' (landline only) with BT which expires in March (awful things, really). I have purposefully cancelled the contract and am gladly paying the £2.65/mth for evenings/weekends calls until I switch away. I won't be going with a company that requires such a long min contract.

Paparika

I've just got out of my BT broadband agreement but i will have to pay the fine for the remainder 2 months. they should of been charging me 22.50 a month for bb, but notice they have been taking a lot more, I have now (yesterday) moved but the only way out is to pay the fine, I told them i couldn't afford their charges, and noticed the bb was getting bad, when i complained i was struggling to understand the call centre staff, who just kept putting me on hold and telling me their systems were down.

I was offered a reduced rate for a year, but i said no as that means another year in a contract, ( I had another bb provider in mind who would give me discount as i had a contract with them already with a mobile, so now will only pay 9.79 a month rather than my last bill of 42.00.


On a side note, BT have just send letters out about new services, and the 0845 0807 free calls check the small print as it does say if you do nothing they will take it as you agree and will be in another 12 month contract. telephone i don't mind but they were ripping me off the bb

topherxp

Paparika wrote: »

On a side note, BT have just send letters out about new services, and the 0845 0807 free calls check the small print as it does say if you do nothing they will take it as you agree and will be in another 12 month contract. telephone i don't mind but they were ripping me off the bb

Thats because your already on a renewable contract.

1carminestocky

IMO rolling contracts are dodgy as hell. Yes, they write to you and warn you it's up for 'renewal' but what if the letter doesn't arrive, it's treated as the usual junk they send? For BT to be doing this sort of thing makes me realise they aren't confident in their prices going forward to risk not getting their punters tied in to a long, impossible to cancel, contract.

jhp

1carminestocky wrote: »

but what if the letter doesn't arrive

You could use the Tart Alert to remind you to cancel the contract.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cards/credit-card-tart

Heinz

jhp wrote: »

You could use the Tart Alert to remind you to cancel the contract.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cards/credit-card-tart

Or googlemail calendar.