Post Office Phones raises its line rental again.

MoneyPenny_2

Post Office phones raised its rental price again this month. This is the second increase in just over six months. It was £9.50 pcm, now it’s £11.75.

I joined PO phones because it had a cheaper line rental as I make few calls.

I wonder if there is any real competition in telephone standing charges now. I have a low income. Can anyone recommend an alternative telephone provider with a notably lower line rental?

Footnote.
I get the impression PO phones has raised its line rental charges to copy everyone else – it’s also made other price increases on the use of the phone to bring it in line with BT. This loss of any real differentiation between alternative providers seems to be what happens whenever market regulation’s aim is not primarily directed towards providing choice.

Something similar has happened in the home energy market which now made up of a handful of large companies whose interests are not served by competing directly for customers. Six years ago there was a range of small energy providers who innovated by competing effectively for customers. So the large energy companies bought them up to stop the slow haemorrhaging of their income and the regulator just let it happen.

utilitybroker

Cheapest line rental supplier i am aware of is Madasafish. They are owned by BT. Line rental £9.75p a month .One month notice to cancel.

But i would hazard a guess they will put their prices up sooner rather then later.

http://www.madasafish.com/talk/

Post Office Homephone is BT rebranded.

1carminestocky

It's certainly a huge rise in %tage terms in such a short period of time. I wonder if their free calls to mobiles at weekends offering is biting into the balance sheet? I've always thought they attempted to get their money back with the lack of a 24/7 calls option and the frankly silly price of the daytime calls but I wonder if people are not calling in the day enough?

Jemma-T

PO doesn't do phone lines, calls, broadband, currency exchange, electricty, gas, pet insurance -or any of the other crap people have to endure while queuing to post a packet.

They resell other people's products so if the price goes up then so will their branded product. PO can't control any prices or reduce their costs very much either. I don't see the attraction of giving them any of my business although their broadband may be good for people who like to pay over the counter (which they pay extra for somewhere of course).

iniltous

If any company want to provide telephone service over BT's lineplant then they have to 'rent' the lineplant from BT and then charge their customer, most Service Providers are going to pitch the line rental at just above what they get charged by BT Openreach ( to cover their admin, sending out bills etc. and a bit of profit)....Openreach charge about £90 a year for the rental of the line ( the wholesale price ) what the SP charges you is that companys retail price, the ones that are slightly cheaper would usually make you take another service from them, like Sky only offer telephony if you take TV, OFCOM set the price Openreach can charge SP's for the wholesale line rental of a line
So say £7.50 to Openreach ,£1.50 SP's admin ( to prepare bills, employ customer service staff etc, ) you are upto £10/month then an element of profit (margin), these copmanys are in business to make a profit, otherwise why be in business at all, so you are never going to get any provider being a lot cheaper that others,

MoneyPenny_2

I switched to PO phones in March 2006 because BT had effectively increased my line rental charge. In October 2008 the PO dropped the Direct Debit Discount, but they were still cheaper. It’s this last increase that’s made me see them as expensive. But for at least two and a half, and possibly over three years, their standing charge was notably cheaper.


As Carmine indicated there are benefits with PO phones, like free calls to landlines and mobile at the weekend and they say they have cheap prices to some countries. They claim that this is what their customers say they want, but they never asked me.


Of course they can make their profit on things other than the line rental, like the cost of calls. Would a small charge like 2p per minute for mobile calls, say, be a real disincentive for people not to use PO phones for calling mobiles at the weekend? I would still think this good value and it would provide additional revenue.

I could ask Madasafish if they intend raising their line rental in the near future. Does anyone have their email address as their contact form doesn’t seem to have a send icon?

KimYeovil

You won't receive much joy from the correspondents here. They have no interest in subsidising scum like you or me. They (and suppliers) are only interested in customers who use their service and spend money. Remember, Post Office also have to subsidise all the MoneySavingExperts who take advantage and abuse their monthly contracts. BT Retail have to subsidise MoneySavingExperts who take advantage of their call-throughs.

The old days of everyone spending an extra ha'penny on a stamp to contribute to a universal service so Granny in Aberdeen can send a card to a niece in Dorset or everyone spending an extra tenth of a penny per minute are gone. It's Readers Digest and credit card mailshot senders who receive a cut price service.

Your quandary is summed up in your second paragraph - "I joined PO phones because it had a cheaper line rental as I make few calls" - if you, who make few calls, were attracted then so would many other similarly unprofitable customers be attracted.

1carminestocky

MoneyPenny wrote: »

I switched to PO phones in March 2006 because BT had effectively increased my line rental charge. In October 2008 the PO dropped the Direct Debit Discount, but they were still cheaper. It’s this last increase that’s made me see them as expensive. But for at least two and a half, and possibly over three years, their standing charge was notably cheaper.


As Carmine indicated there are benefits with PO phones, like free calls to landlines and mobile at the weekend and they say they have cheap prices to some countries. They claim that this is what their customers say they want, but they never asked me.


Of course they can make their profit on things other than the line rental, like the cost of calls. Would a small charge like 2p per minute for mobile calls, say, be a real disincentive for people not to use PO phones for calling mobiles at the weekend? I would still think this good value and it would provide additional revenue.

I could ask Madasafish if they intend raising their line rental in the near future. Does anyone have their email address as their contact form doesn’t seem to have a send icon?

Madasafish are wholly owned by BT so are probably more likely to align their prices more closely to them once they have harvested enough customers (probably disaffected BT punters) with their headline-grabbing cheap line rental deal. How long that will be is the $64,000,000 question....