Why is my line rental so expensive?

peterskelton

So I have a BT Phone line, paperless billing but not DD'd yet as due to BT's stupid system they want me to set up a direct debit for £40 a month which is patently ridiculous.

However I cannot fathom why my line rental is so high? There is nothing on the bill that says why it's not £11, and even knocking off the £18pa for DD payments doesn't bring it into line. Any clues anyone?

stokefan

they will be taking calls into consideration, what have your average bills been over the last year??

mrcow

No idea. I'm with Virgin and pay about £43 per month. But that includes my line rental, my XL cable tv bundle, 10Mbit broadband and all my calls 24/7 to other landlines.

I think you need to do some shopping around.

caeler

£40 isn't line rental, line rental is £11.25, £40 will be for the package you've opted for. I am on Unlimited Weekend for phone and Broadband Option 1 and I'm paying £27 for the first 3 months then it goes up to about £35. Admittedly I don't make very many calls on my line so it would be more if I did. Hope this helps.

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayCategory.do?categoryId=CON-BT-BUNDLE-I

Heinz

peterskelton wrote: »

So I have a BT Phone line, paperless billing but not DD'd yet as due to BT's stupid system they want me to set up a direct debit for £40 a month which is patently ridiculous.

However I cannot fathom why my line rental is so high? There is nothing on the bill that says why it's not £11, and even knocking off the £18pa for DD payments doesn't bring it into line. Any clues anyone?

Sounds like you need to switch to Monthly Whole Bill Direct Debit.

That involves setting up a DD to pay what your bill is, not what BT think it may be.

Then, your line rental, after £1.25/month paper-free billing discount and not being charged £1.50/month extra for not paying by DD will be £11.25 if you are on the lowest package - the Unlimited Weekend Plan.

peterskelton

Ooops, forgot to say that BT are listing my line rental as £15.45 in the costs breakdown, which is why I can't understand it.

Heinz

peterskelton wrote: »

Ooops, forgot to say that BT are listing my line rental as £15.45 in the costs breakdown, which is why I can't understand it.

You don't say which Calling Plan you're on but, from the £15.45 figure you now quote, we can extrapolate that you have:

Line rental (before paper-free discount) - £12.50/month.
Unlimited Evening & Weekend Plan (without 12 month 'renewable' contract discount) - £2.95/month.

Changing to Whole Bill Direct Debit is the way to take control (rather than letting BT guess how much your monthly DD should be). You can opt for Quarterly or Monthly but, as each requires payment in advance for the line rental and calling plan (but obviously not for calls made which are not inclusive in whichever plan you choose), I'd recommend the Monthly version.