BT Charges when moving house

Dan_Appleby

Hi all,

Please help! I have to move out of my flat (I won't bore you with the details..., all you need to know is that I have no choice but to move out), I have been here just over a year. When I moved in I took a 12 month phone and 18 month broadband package with BT. I have just called their customer services to arrange to get my services disconnected to find that they want to charge me £165 for early termination of the broadband account (remaining monthly charges plus a £45 disconnection charge). I presumed that I would be charged something for wanting to disconnect before my contract is over, but not quite this much!

Unfortunately I cannot take my BT services to my new house as it is a shared house and already has a phone line and broadband installed. The letting agent has clearly stated that the phoneline must be disconnected upon leaving the flat, and anyhow I wouldn't want the next tenant to move in and run up a bill on my account... allthough would BT let me change the name on the account to the new tenant when they move in?

Does anybody have any advice on how I could possibly avoid having to pay these extortionate charges? I never remember reading or anyone telling me I would be liable for such charges if I was to disconnect...

Out of interest, what would happen if I was to just cancel the direct debits from my bank account?

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Dan.