MSE News: BT cuts 'free' evening calls by one hour

emeraldbugle

musical_norwich wrote: »

Do you have a link to the new terms? I know business lines are 7-7 but can't find any trace of residential changing from 6-6. Thanks.

No Link, but from my email...

Changes to home phone calling plan prices in April 2010.

Daytime and Evening call period.

From 1st April 2010 we will be changing the evening call period: currently from 6pm-6am, changing to 7pm-7am. As a result, calls made between 7pm and 7am will be charged at the evening rate. This change will affect all call types, including calls to mobiles, international numbers and 0845 and 0870 numbers. If you are on the Unlimited Evening & Weekend Plan, your inclusive calls will start at 7pm instead of 6pm.

Call set-up fee.

From 1st April 2010, the call set-up fee for non-inclusive calls from landlines and for non-inclusive Broadband Talk calls will increase from 9.3p to 9.9p per call. The existing call set-up fee of 3p per call for BT Basic, Light User Scheme and In-Contact Plus customers remains unchanged.
Call set-up fees will not apply to:

•Inclusive weekend calls for customers on the Unlimited Weekend Plan.
•Inclusive evening and weekend calls for customers on the Unlimited Evening & Weekend Plan or the Broadband Talk Evening & Weekend Plan.
•Inclusive any time calls on the Unlimited Anytime Plan or the Broadband Talk Anytime Plan.
•Calls to Freephone services and other inclusive calls not mentioned above.
Daytime UK calls.

From 1st April 2010, the cost of UK landline calls made during the daytime will increase from 5.4 pence per minute to 5.9 pence per minute. This change does not apply to BT Basic, Light User Scheme and In-Contact Plus customers. The changes to the evening call period, set-up fee and daytime UK landline call price do not affect inclusive calls of up to an hour made with the Unlimited Anytime Plan.

gram333

Right so obviously this is potential to get our contracts cancelled, but what happens about getting it reconnected with some one else? Will we be fine to say take a full talk package with sky/o2/talktalk?

Also if they do cancel allow my contract to be terminated surely for the likes of me who has bt broadband & bt vision they would have to terminate my full thing?

Sunnyday

I`m more than niggled about this as i`ve recently signed up to the rolling twelve months free evening and weekend call plan :mad:

I`m still not sure whether or not the changes will enable any of us to wriggle out of the 12 month contract without incurring charges, i am thinking of signing up to 18185 and routing all my daytime call through them for free. Each call incurs a set up fee of 5p which compares very favourably with bt`s newly increased prices.

I hardly use the damn thing during the day but lots after 6pm, it will serve them right if they`re expecting extra revenue from calls between 6pm and 7pm, i shall sellotape the 18185 number to the phone.:D

If anyone comes up with a cheaper way please post it

SD

Heinz

Sunnyday wrote: »

If anyone comes up with a cheaper way please post it

Yes, use Primus Saver for free evening (6pm to 8am) and weekend calls - but leave line rental with BT though (i.e. only use Primus as your Carrier PreSelect calls provider) so that you can still use the 1280 prefix to make use of your BT Unlimited Weekend calls plan to make calls to qualify for free Caller Display.

Blondetotty

gram333 wrote: »

Right so obviously this is potential to get our contracts cancelled, but what happens about getting it reconnected with some one else? Will we be fine to say take a full talk package with sky/o2/talktalk??

I'm wondering the same thing. I'd like to switch to sky but was going to wait until my 18 month 'free connection' term was up but am wondering if I am allowed to cancel the BT line now, would I still be able to swap over to sky line rental and talk without having to pay for reconnection to them.

Can't see BT providing an answer to that question when I call them

Hmmmm, can see me getting shafted here

stephenhj

BT's shoved-up charges are simply a racket, designed to make money out of people too old or stupid, like me, to switch to some other supplier. Call set-up will go up by more than 6 percent, cost-per-minute by more than 9 percent. Have your wages/salary (unless you're a high-level banker, of course) or your pension?

(Not to mention, but I will, their grotesque charges for calls to landlines abroad.... even my PAYG mobile is often considerably cheaper, let alone the prices you can get via sundry 0844 numbers, as MSE will tell you).

But the way BT publicise their price-hikes is rather worse than a racket. Ie, they don't, unless you study the small print of a document that comes with some large-print letter puffing some supposed good news (eg, the letter of Feb 2008 telling you about free UK evening calls) but strangely omitting to mention things to your disadvantage (the massive accompanying price rises for other UK calls: plus 23 percent for daytime calls, the-sky's-the limit for evening ones).

Still, if you're selling snake oil I suppose it's natural to use the methods of snake-oil salesmen.

And don't expect that Ofcom will do anything about either BT's price-hiking or its careful (non)publicity.

Bogof_Babe

Has anyone calculated how many pre-7.00pm minutes you would have to use to make it dearer than switching to Anytime?

Sunnyday

Heinz wrote: »

Yes, use Primus Saver for free evening (6pm to 8am) and weekend calls - but leave line rental with BT though (i.e. only use Primus as your Carrier PreSelect calls provider) so that you can still use the 1280 prefix to make use of your BT Unlimited Weekend calls plan to make calls to qualify for free Caller Display.

Thanks for this, i`ve just had a read, i already get the free evening and weekend calls with BT atm so no difference there apart from the times that the calls can be made, soon to be 7am to 7pm with bt and and 8am to 6pm with primus.

Primus saver charges 3p per minute for daytime calls and 18185 charge a 5p connection charge and nothing per minute so a ten minute call with primus durning the day would be 30p (not sure if there are any connection charges with this or not) and 5p with 18185

Primus may be a better option when i reach the end of my bt contract unless i can wriggle out of it. I think that at the moment the 18185 will prove to be a bit cheaper for me based on when i make my calls. I shall put a big note on the house phone so that DH doesn`t use it at the wrong time Once i can get onto the free weekend calls only plan then ì shall look at Primus again and use as you suggest.

I shall try and use my free minutes on my mobile too if i need to make daytime calls as i usually have some left over each month, i get more minutes on my new contract which takes some geting used to as i`ve made myself use it very frugally over the last 12 months, in fact too frugally IYKIM lol.

Thanks for the information.

SD

Heinz

You misunderstand. I was suggesting Primus Saver CPS instead of the BT Unlimited Evening & Weekend Plan (but, as you say, with 18185 used weekdays).

Please click on the HERE link in my signature below.

jem16

Sunnyday wrote: »

Primus saver charges 3p per minute for daytime calls and 18185 charge a 5p connection charge and nothing per minute so a ten minute call with primus durning the day would be 30p (not sure if there are any connection charges with this or not) and 5p with 18185

Why use Primus during the day?

Basically you use Primus for evening calls ( if you prefer to have evening as 6pm to 8am), 18185 for daytime calls and hop back onto BT using 1280 for 0845/0870 and 01/02/03 at weekends to keep Caller Display free.