Struggling to pay your telephone bill?

hannahO_2

Just in case if you didn't know....
For people who are on benefit and struggling with telephone bill, there is service called BT basic. You'll get your usual quarterly bill but monthly line rental is £4.50 incl. VAT plus you will get £1.50 inclusive call time. It's really for emergency purpose to keep the line going but it may help you. After the inclusive call time runs out, you will be charged 3p connection fee and 10p per min flat rate. It takes one month to switch to this tariff as BT must contact DWP to check if you are on certain benefit e.g.

pension credit (guarantee),
income-based jobseeker's allowance,
income-related employment and support allowance,
income support.

More information is at http://www.btplc.com/inclusion/Needhelp/BTBasic/

Or call on 0800 800 864 or 0800 783 1675 to request an application form (delivery time: approx. 14 days).

All the best!

dave4545454

thank you VERY much hannah, i had never heard about BT basic till now and i've just applied to get my phone package changed to that as my last quarterly bill was £46 and i only made £4 worth of calls out of that, the rest was line rental!

you've just saved me roughly £130 a year, thank you

Firey668

Thankyou so sooo much!!

I dont even have a landline phone as only use my mobile phone for all calls as have pay monthly contract,
but have been having to pay BT's ridiculous £12 per month for line rental,
just so i cant get sky broadband!!


So if now i can get the line rental for only £4.50 instead of £12 that will be very nice.

Firey668

Ahhh i just phoned them up but foundout that even though my line rental is through BT, sky are my actual call package provider. (Even though i dont have a landline phone)

And id have to change from sky to bt to be able to get this,
however id then lose my £5 per month discount from sky for being signedup to their free calls package.


So id only be saving £3 per month (for while im on jsa) if i switched, but would likely have to pay a cancellation fee to sky,
plus when i get a job id lose this and wouldn't be able to swicth back to sky to get the discount as BT charge £7.50 per month cancellation feee if you leave before end of 12months contract.



Thanks anyways though OP.

BERFFRO

Firey668 wrote: »

Thankyou so sooo much!!

I dont even have a landline phone as only use my mobile phone for all calls as have pay monthly contract,
but have been having to pay BT's ridiculous £12 per month for line rental,
just so i cant get sky broadband!!


So if now i can get the line rental for only £4.50 instead of £12 that will be very nice.

I quite sure that if you are on BT Basic your line isn't eligible for any broadband service.

KimYeovil

BERFFRO wrote: »

I quite sure that if you are on BT Basic your line isn't eligible for any broadband service.

You are quite wrong.

hannahO_2

Good point BERFFRO.
Just checked the downloadable PDF info and it looks like you can have broadband. If one is allowed to have BT Broadband then why not other service provider!? I'll check it tomorrow and report back though.

Can I have broadband with BT Basic?

Yes. Customers of our new BT Basic service can also enjoy the benefits
of BT Total Broadband. You can take any one of the standard BT Total
Broadband packages, which means you can choose which one best
meets your needs and your budget. If you do take a broadband service,
we will add this to the BT Basic line rental of £13.50 every three months.

dave4545454

i asked that exact question today about whether my internet connection would be affected if changing to BT basic. the very helpful BT lady said it wouldn't be affected.

oh and by the way, i love you hannah


i can't thank you enough for letting me (and the rest of the forum) know about this BT package, you're a star:beer:

KimYeovil

You are allowed whichever broadband provider you like - you just are not allowed to use another service for telephone calls.

Firey668

BERFFRO wrote: »

I quite sure that if you are on BT Basic your line isn't eligible for any broadband service.

I was told that i can have whichever broadband provider i want, (I currently have Sky Unlimited Max BB),
but that you have to have a calls-package (not just line rental) with BT too to be able to get this.

But i currently have my calls-package with sky, as i have sky tv and sky internet, and if you select the free calls package,
you still get £5 off your tv & broadband bill every month.

hannahO_2

Just to confirm, as I said I'd double check with BT today, there should be no problem carrying on with your current broadband service provider. You don't have to notify them because you are not changing your telephone number.