BT Rolling Contracts

moneysavingkitten

Thanks Quentin, that sounds interesting, I will have a look at that as well

Heinz

moneysavingkitten wrote: »

Heinz: Thanks for the link, I have been checking out 18185, it looks very good. If I understand correctly, UK landline calls are 5 pence for the connection charge then free? I will definately consider this. How's their customer service? Have you had an billing problems with them in the past or is it all good?

The other thing I wondered about 18185 is whether they make the calls through the telephone network, or whether they are actually VOIP calls put through an Asterisk server or similar? Have you noticed any difference in the sound quality of calls or lag when using their service or is it pretty reliable?

Yes, UK 01, 02 and 03 calls via 18185 are 5p connection and 0p/minute for calls of any duration at any time.

You can't talk to anyone; CS and billing is by email only. You have online access to your full calls details 24/7 (calls appear a few minutes after completion). I have never had any billing problems and, in about 5 years using them, I have only had to hang up and redial because of poor call quality 4 or 5 times. To estimate savings, just compare a 10 minute weekday daytime call via BT (53.5p) against the cost of the same call via 18185 (5p).

We call Spain (1p/minute) at least twice a week and call quality is usually excellent. I suppose one in 50 calls shows some evidence of being routed cheaply.

utilitybroker

BT_company_representative wrote: »

Hi Moneysavingkitten I can explain that there is a renewable 12 month contract with the BT Anytime Package, which includes the Friends and Family Mobile Option. The price of this package is £17.45 per month. You do get further discount if you are a direct debit and paper free customer.

If you do not want a contract with the BT Anytime Package then this would cost you £17.45 per month but without the Friends and Family Mobile Option. Thanks Gail

Are you sure that £17.45 is correct. I ask because Line Rental is £14 without discounts for paying by d/d and for paper bill, so that would make the unlimited package £3.45,which does not tie up with your pricing.

BT_company_representative

Hi money...tten. If you don't renew after the 12 months you don't receive the discounts. The Anytime plan (renewable with Friends and Family Mobile) is charged at £12.50 for line rental and £4.95 for the inclusive calls (£17.45 per month, x 3 per quarter plus PPF £4.50). It's £1 extra for none renewable. Inclusive calls count towards to 2 calls per month (6 per quarter) that you need to make in order to receive caller display for free; otherwise you'll be charged £2.50. Paper free discount is taken away from line rental. Therefore, if you have Anytime plan and don't make chargeable calls outside calling plan you will be charged £17.45 per month, plus £1.50 per month PPF (£4.50 per quarter) if you don't have Direct Debit and if you don't make at least 2 inclusive or chargeable calls please add another £2.50 per month for caller display. Also add £3 extra per month for line rental if on none renewable plan.

Unity

I have also just received a letter from BT to say that my rolling contract will be renewed on 14th October, however I seem to be paying £1 more and hope someone from BT might clarify this.

I have the Anytime plan, on a 12 month rolling contract. I have paper free billing and I pay by direct debit, My rental charge is £18.45 - is this correct? Up until my last two bills I was always charged £17.45.

Thanks

moneysavingkitten

BT company representative: Thanks for your reply.

Okay, so I think you answered my question about the Anytime package, but you didn't really answer my questions about the other packages.

So, I'm going to type this out again and if I am wrong, if you could quote me and just fill the figures I have got wrong that would be great.

I really lose the plot when when sentances are that long with little punctuation. Maybe I'm really thick or something, but I had to put what you said into notepad, and break it down into individual points. Because it just didn't make sense when I read it as a whole.

I just want to be clear on these numbers, so I can make a fair comparison.

Anytime Package without a Contract

Line rental: £15.50 a month or £46.50 a quarter
(£15.50 not £12.50 because I have to add £3 for not being on a renewable contract)

Unlimited Call Package: £5.95 a month or £17.85 per quarter
(£5.95 not £4.95, because of not re-newing)

Line Rental and Call Package Together: £21.45 a month or £64.35 a quarter

I am still unclear about what not having paperless billing does to the price. Does the £3 I have added onto line rental cover this?

Payment Processing Fee: £1.50 per month or £4.50 per quarter

Caller ID: Free because I will always make more than 6 calls per quarter.

Total (Excluding chargeable calls): £22.95 per month or £68.85 per quarter

I give up on the evenings and weekend package, I'm just not gonna go there... too much working out

Unlimted Weekend Package (the basic one)

Line rental: £15.50 a month or £46.50 a quarter
(£15.50 not £12.50 because I have to add £3 for not being on a renewable contract)

Call Package: £0 - because there isn't really a call package to speak of with this?

Line Rental and Call Package Together: £15.50 a month or £46.50 a quarter

Paper billing, add anything here?

Payment Processing Fee: £1.50 per month or £4.50 per quarter

Caller ID: Free because I will always make more than 6 calls per quarter.

Total (Excluding chargeable calls): £17 per month or £51 per quarter

So there is £17.85 between the basic call package and the anytime package.

So I could make rougly:

• 357 UK calls a quarter or
• 119 calls a month or
• 29 calls a week, or
• 4 calls a day

with 18185.co.uk or about before it cost the same as using the Anytime package. Hmmm *scratches chin*. Really hope I've understood this correctly this time :eek:

moneysavingkitten

Unity wrote: »

I have also just received a letter from BT to say that my rolling contract will be renewed on 14th October, however I seem to be paying £1 more and hope someone from BT might clarify this.

I have the Anytime plan, on a 12 month rolling contract. I have paper free billing and I pay by direct debit, My rental charge is £18.45 - is this correct? Up until my last two bills I was always charged £17.45.

Thanks

I'm going guess that's because you either have a paper bill, or pay more for not having a 12 month contract. I guess it can't be payment processing fee, because that seems to be £1.50 a month.

I hope you get a reply from BT.

I really wish all the components of the billing were explained properly on the BT website and on the sign up page, when you take out a new plan or change a plan.

Unity

moneysavingkitten wrote: »

I'm going guess that's because you either have a paper bill, or pay more for not having a 12 month contract. I guess it can't be payment processing fee, because that seems to be £1.50 a month.

I hope you get a reply from BT.

I really wish all the components of the billing were explained properly on the BT website and on the sign up page, when you take out a new plan or change a plan.

Unfortunately no, I'm paper free, on direct debit and on a twelve month rolling contract. My contract is up for renewal in October and as I have my tv and broadband wtih Virgin, I'll be checking to see if they can better it.

BT_company_representative

Hi moneysavingkitten,

The Unlimited Weekend calling plan which is our standard line rental package is £12.50 per month or £37.50 per quarter. The Unlimited Weekend gives you inland (local and national) Weekend calls at zero pence for up to an hour per call.

The Unlimited Evening and Weekend calling plan is £15.45 per month or £46.35 per quarter. So this works out at £12.50 for the line rental and £2.95 for the evening and weekend calling plan per month. If you are on a 12 month renewable contract you would get a credit of £2.95 of your line rental each month so you would get the package at £12.50 per month or £37.50 per quarter. The Unlimited Evening & Weekend Plan gives you inland (local and national) evening and weekend calls at zero pence per minute, for up to an hour per call.

The Unlimited Anytime calling plan is £17.45 per month or £52.35 per quarter. This works out at £12.50 for the line rental and £4.95 for the anytime calling plan per month. We do have an offer at the moment if you went onto a 12 month offer you would get the Unlimited Anytime calling plan at £17.45 and included you would get Friends and Family Mobile at no extra cost. The Unlimited Anytime Plan you inland (local and national) at zero pence per minute, for up to an hour per call.

Below applies to any package you go onto with BT;

The payment processing fee applies to you if you do not pay your BT bills by Direct Debt. The charge for this is £1.50 per month or £4.50 per quarter. If you go onto a Direct Debit this charge would not apply to you.

If you are on paper free billing and a Direct Debit you get a reduction of £1.25 of the line rental each month. So this would mean that the line rental would be £11.25 per month instead of £12.50.

Caller Display is free if you make 2 chargeable calls each month.
If you wish for me to apply any of the packages to your account please PM me your account details or send an email to; [EMAIL="forum.moderation.team@bt.com"]forum.moderation.team@bt.com[/EMAIL]
Thanks

Fionnuala

Unity

Hi moneysavingkitten, I found out what has happened by using the new live chat facility BT are trialing. It is great, no more waiting for replies to e-mails or phoning to be held in a queue. It is based in Enniskillen too so no language barrier problems.

The person who had arranged my rolling contract had for some unknown reason put two £1 credits through starting that particular month :rolleyes:. This meant that although my contract doesn't finish until mid October - my £1 credit every month had stopped in July, so I've been paying £18.45 since then.

However as I have my TV and broadband with Virgin, I decided to see what they could offer me for my phone as well. I was quite amazed at their deal as my line rental will be just £4 per month :eek:.

Their evening and weekend talk plan is then just £3.45 a total of £7.45 :T

I made a point of checking that it will be a cable phone line as well, since the normal BT one we have has always been a bit temperamental:rolleyes: .

Virgin Talk Anywhere 24/7 is £7 plus £4 line rental and the deal I have chosen is: 'Talk Anywhere 200mins' which gives me 200 minutes for calls to 0870 and 0845 numbers as well as mobiles. The total cost for this is £13 compared to the £18.45 I pay at present and I usually end up with a monthly bill of around £22 when DS is home and rings his friends' mobiles :rolleyes:.

BT did try and convince me to stay with them, asking if they could quote me for TV and broadband - but as I said, they just can't compare with the download speed of 20mg from Virgin - since my telephone line will only support 2mg and I checked this independently.

It was well worth looking at your thread though as it spurred me on to find out why I was paying more and helped me to ultimately pay a lot less - so thank you :T:T:T.