Sky Talk Line Rental - any downside?

itm2

I'm thinking of taking up the Sky Talk Line Rental offer of £10 (compared to BT's soon-to-be-introduced rate of £12.50). Does anyone know of any disadvantages?
For example, would it be any more difficult to get another Broadband provider on my phone line if the rental agreement is with Sky instead of BT? (most broadband suppliers will only install onto BT lines)

McKneff

I have Sky plus, tel. calls, broadband, just lately took up the £10 line rental.
No problems at all. The only downside is that o845 and 0870 calls are expensive compared to other providers , but then i dont use these and i am a big fan of saynoto0870, i have never been unable to get a generic number.
With Skytalk you also get free calls to the SKy 0844 number. If you ring SKy about this tell them you are only thinking about it they will fall overbackwards to get you to take it, 6 months free, 12 months half price etc. So haggle.
good luck and let us know how you get on

ACDeag

The main one are how difficult it might be to leave, change your broadband, use override providers etc.

Sky also want to fully unbundle lines later in the year which could make it even harder to leave. Currently if you return from an unbundled line to BT you will have a couple of weeks without broadband as you have to wait until your line appears as a BT line in the systems again before anyone will take your order.

Paying 6p/min for 0845 against BT's including them puts me off Sky's call packages, their 0870 rates are horrendous as well.

McKneff

Paying 6p/min for 0845 against BT's including them puts me off Sky's call packages, their 0870 rates are horrendous as well.

Most companies now are changing their number to 0844 and another one to replace 0870 so the free offer from BT wont mean a thing before long.
Like i say, see an 0845 no. or 0870 look at saynoto0870 site.

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iniltous

itm2 wrote: »

I'm thinking of taking up the Sky Talk Line Rental offer of £10 (compared to BT's soon-to-be-introduced rate of £12.50). Does anyone know of any disadvantages?
For example, would it be any more difficult to get another Broadband provider on my phone line if the rental agreement is with Sky instead of BT? (most broadband suppliers will only install onto BT lines)

To get Sky telephony service you have to be a Sky TV customer so unless you already have Sky TV then there is also the minimum £16.50 per month to add to the line rental charge, so £26.50 per month (minimum)
The BT line rental price after the increase is £11.25 a month if compared to the same Sky product (direct debit & paperless billing )
Sky will provide a paper bill at no charge on request but the 'default' is paperless billing
Sky would be under no obligation to allow connection to other ISP's broadband although thats not to say you wont be able to use the ISP
of your choice, best to check with Sky on that

billsavings

anniehanlon wrote: »

With Skytalk you also get free calls to the SKy 0844 number.

Only when it suits them. See: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1578585

OldGreyFox

itm2 wrote: »

I'm thinking of taking up the Sky Talk Line Rental offer of £10 (compared to BT's soon-to-be-introduced rate of £12.50). Does anyone know of any disadvantages?

Apart from the ones already mentioned.

If you decide to give up Sky TV you cant keep Sky Talk.

They have introduced a 12 month minimum term which applies to new Sky Talk customers and to existing customers taking up Sky Talk Line Rental. Which means if you did wish to ditch it your have to keep your TV until the Sky Talk minimum term ends or incur penalties.

They dont offer alternative payment methods. Sky Talk is only available to Sky digital subscribers paying by Direct Debit/continuous credit card mandate.

They dont have to allow access to the likes of 18185.

They dont offer free texts from your home phone.

Their calls to mobile,s may be dearer as BT introduce Friends & Family Mobile shortly where calls to UK mobiles will be charged at 7 pence per minute at all times.

1carminestocky

It always amuses me when people say the calls to 0845/0870 on BT are free. They are not, they have put their prices up across the board to (over!) compensate. Not to mention the entirely dodgy rolling contracts. The bottom line is what you are paying at the bottom of your bill, not 'marketing initiatives'.

I'm not a Sky fan, either, on account of the min. contract. Any company that is confident in their ability to deliver a decent service shouldn't require locking their customers in for a year IMO.

eslick

they offered me 12 mths line rental for free a few months ago might be worth a try