Trying to help an OAP, can you?

Legacy_user

An elderly neighbour of mine, has a BT landline and he tells me he is on a low user scheme and as such, if he needs to use the phone, he gives a ring three times and then gets whoever it is to phone him back. He also tells me he is lonely.

I've been trying to establish via the BT website, approximately how much he would be paying them and with that information, I thought it might be an idea to enlighten him about their free weekend and evening calls. But to do this, I'd need to have some idea of charges, so I could make a comparison for him.

Having looked at the price comarisson website information on MSE, I see there are companies that would be cheaper than BT, but it would not be an option to get him to go that far.

macman

Is he on BT Basic, or the older Light User scheme, which is being phased out? Assuming the latter, he is paying £4.50pm line rental with £1.50 of inclusive calls. However additional calls are expensive, charged at 10p min plus 3p connection charge.
To get the free evening and weekend calls, he will need to be on the BT Evening & Weekend Plan (12m contract) which is £11.25pm with DD and online billing (which he may not want-without these add £2.75pm)).
So unless he is exceeding the inclusive calls limit by £7 or so per month, he's unlikely to be better off.
If he switches providers from BT, then the most he will save on line rental of £11.25 will be about a pound.

System

Damn!, thanks for that information.

I was hoping to suggest he change tarif so that whenever I call him, he dosen't open each conversation by saying " I haven't spoken to anyone since etc etc". or "I haven't heard my voice since yesterday".

He will only turn the tv on, a minute before the program starts.

I've spotted him using a torch to get round a bedroom.

He sits in the dusk till it's amost dark.

and why ?, because he is reluctant to spend money.

Lord knows what he would be like if he was a member of MSE

macman

You really need to know what tariff he is on, and what his bills are like, to know if an alternative would be better. I am only assuming he is on BT Basic.

System

I've had a chat with him and it is basic that he is on. Say's he's going to think about changing.

Jemma-T

I'd leave him alone unless he specifically asks for your help.

He will have plenty money coming in to pay all his bills and were it not bills he'd find something else to spend his too much free time on. He's just a teenager. But older.