BT increased DD from £10.50 to £38.50!!!

tishywish

6 months ago I changed back to BT as it looked like they were going to be cheaper for calls and sure enough for my first 3 months, average call costs wwere around £4 a quarter as we hardly ever use the landline.

From 1st October, because the last quarter we made £35 of calls in total over 3 months, they want to increase my monthly payment to £38! :mad: How can they justify a more than three fold increase? And what can I do? I'm on a budget as it is and another £28 per month just for the phone bill is ridiculous.

Needless to say I am looking into how long I have to be on this contract and when it's up I am moving away from BT again.

payless

Well £10.50 was never going to be enough ( line rental only ?) so I guess the increase is to pickup the shortfall accrued on account ( caused mainly by call costs) + the expected call costs for the following 3 months.

Maybe speak to an adviser about a more suitable call package

macman

Which tarrif are you on?
Sounds like you are making a lot of exclusive calls (mobiles, overseas, premium nos. etc?)

tishywish

payless wrote: »

Well £10.50 was never going to be enough ( line rental only ?) so I guess the increase is to pickup the shortfall accrued on account ( caused mainly by call costs) + the expected call costs for the following 3 months.

Maybe speak to an adviser about a more suitable call package

The line rental had gone up, so I know the DD would need to increase to cover that but my account was in credit for ages so there was no shortfall on the account. I can understand them putting it up to cover anticipated call costs but I can't work out how they think I'm going to make £28 of extra calls a month based on one bill of £13 per month?

It's the Friends and Family mobile, for £11.25 per month including line rental - the extra calls were all overseas and needless to say I will be banning DH from making hour long calls :eek: What can men talk about on the phone for an hour, anyway? My phone calls are usually 1 or 2 minutes long In fact, the only calls on the bill are the overseas ones which shows how often I use the phone otherwise!

I've got a few more months of this plan but will be leaving BT again as soon as the 12 months are up. In fact it's almost worth me leaving them now and paying any penalty due.

payless

rarely will Bt be cheap for overseas call ( maybe on certain packages) use a carrier -

take a look at 18185.co.uk

yes other line providers may work out cheaper for certain call classes ( ie inclusive overseas - but don't cut nose off..............

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can't see how you were ever in credit if only paying £10.50pm - as line rental is charged in advance, and would not cover any call costs

macman

If you get an unusually high bill in one month like this, it is worth ringing up and making a one-off debit card payment for the excess, this can be used to dissuade them from hiking your direct debit.
It works on my gas bill anyway...

BT_company_representative

Hi tishywish,

If you PM your account details I will take a look for you with a view to reducing the payments.

Many Thanks
Donna
BT Support

tishywish

Thanks - the reason it was in credit is because it was about £20 or so in credit before I left BT (but they still provided line rental) so my DD was originally covering line rental when it was £10.50 a month and when it went up I still had enough credit to cover the extra without increasing the DD.

Donna, I'll find my account details and PM them to you, thanks.