Home phone for elderly mother

pmlindyloo

Hi
My mother is 87 and has a landline only with BT. She pays £12.50 per month rental. She lives in a care home and money is very tight.
I am wondering if she can get this cheaper. She very rarely uses the phone but her current quarterly bill is £60. I have tried to ring BT but keep getting passed from one automated voice to another! All I want to do is speak to a human being!
Have read Martin's article and done some research. Am I right in thinking that it would be cheaper for her to switch to Primus?
I am confused about whether she would have to continue paying for the BT line at £12.50.
Sorry if this doesn't make sense - am having difficulty wading through all the information.
Many thanks for any help.

macman

What tariff is your mother currently on? BT's line rental is not £12.50, it is £11.25 as long as you pay by direct debit and opt in for paper free billing. With Unlimited Anytime package (£4.95) on top of this, the max you should be paying is £16.20 a month or £48.60 a qtr. Obviously any calls to premium numbers or mobile numbers will be extra.
If she doesn't use the phone much at all and avoids daytime calls, then you could reduce to the Unltd Evening and Weekend package, which is free with line rental on a 12m renewable contract. This would reduce the bill to £33.75 per qtr plus any chargeable calls.
Have you considered getting her a PAYG mobile as an alternative to a landline, though I realise that not all people of this age would be able to work it?

pmlindyloo

Thank you for replying so promptly.
Looking at my mother's bill - her rental charges are £12.50 for Unlimited Weekend Plan including line rental and UK Weekend calls. She does pay by direct debit but likes to receive a bill.
I obviously need to change her package but, as I said, can't find anyone to talk to about this! Have tried all the telephone numbers on the back of the bill but can't get through to anyone, just automated responses!
A PAYG mobile isn't an option I'm afraid - she just wouldn't cope with it! (Hates change!)
Thanks again.

macman

Well it's up to you, but if you register for the e-billing, you can save a further £1.25 a month and just print the bill off for her each quarter-that's what I do for my mum. Her current bill indicates that she is making £22.50 worth of chargeable calls each qtr (£7.50 each month) on top of her package price. So assuming most of these are daytime calls to landlines, you would be a lot better off switching to Unlimited Anytime, which is only £4.95 per month.
You have to go through the automated phone system to get to a human. But if you have, or register for, a BT online account then you can do the whole thing online (i.e. change the tariff and reg for e-billing, view her bills, usage etc). If you already have this for your phone, you can just add hers to it-you just need the account number.

pmlindyloo

Thanks again.
Have just found out about BT Basic (thanks to this forum!) and since mum is on guaranteed pension credit and uses the phone rarely I have applied for an application form.
Have read the threads so am aware of the difficulties people are having and realise she will pay 3 months in advance but am going to give it a try.
All I need to do now is explain that she mustn't make lots of long calls or call premium numbers! (Bless!)

macman

Bear in mind that she is currently using far more than the £4.50 per qtr call allowance that BT Basic gives you. That is only £1.50 per month-she is using £7.50 per month over and above her free weekend calls at present. Once you go over that allowance, you are paying a very high rate per minute for the excess (3p per connection, plus 10p per minute). So for example, if she makes just one 10 minute call per day, that will cost her over £30 per month in excess call charges alone.
This scheme offers a very good saving on the line rental, but if you make more than the bare minimum of calls you could end up paying even more in total. It is intended for people who hardly use the phone at all, but need a line for incoming calls and emergencies. Your mother's current usage does not fit that pattern.

pmlindyloo

You are quite right - her current bill contains 2 premium rate calls at a total cost of £17.63 :eek: (From what she says she was told she had won a prize and to ring...........................:eek::eek:)
Her actual daytime calls only come to £2.49 for the quarter - evening and weekend calls 80p (free weekend calls only go into force this next quarter.)

I went through her bill with a very helpful lady at BT and she did feel BT Basic would be a good option for her.

As I said, just need to explain to her not to ring premium numbers etc.

Wish me luck!

macman

Ah well, that puts a slightly different complexion on it...
In that case BT Basic might be suitable, though she will only get on average 15 minutes of call time a month (30 seconds a day-is that really sufficient?) before it's charged, but I suggest you get them to put a premium number call bar on it so she can't get scammed again.

borosteve_2

pmlindyloo wrote: »

You are quite right - her current bill contains 2 premium rate calls at a total cost of £17.63 :eek: (From what she says she was told she had won a prize and to ring...........................:eek::eek:)
Her actual daytime calls only come to £2.49 for the quarter - evening and weekend calls 80p (free weekend calls only go into force this next quarter.)

I went through her bill with a very helpful lady at BT and she did feel BT Basic would be a good option for her.

As I said, just need to explain to her not to ring premium numbers etc.

Wish me luck!

I'd check with BT to see if you can bar premium numbers, I had this years ago when I had dial up internet as there were a load of "premium diallers" doing the rounds.

macman

BT Call barring explained on this link.
http://bt.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/bt.cfg/php/enduser/cci/bt_adp.php?p_sid=pgxwjejj&p_faqid=8478&cat_lvl1=345&cat_lvl2=350&cat_lvl3=362&p_cv=3.362&p_cats=345,350,362

pmlindyloo

Didn't know about the premium number call bar - what an excellent idea. Thanks.
Think she should be OK with the other calls - the family usually ring her.