Year contract with BT for line at £12.50 a month, overnight increase to £18 a month?

tiedyet

Can anyone give me some advice before i phone BT and tell them how furious i am? I agreed on a 12.50 a month line rental for 12 months. Having now just gone through my last 3 months bank statements (delayed as working every hour to try to make ends meet), i find that BT, WITHOUT GIVING ME ANY NOTIFICATION WHATSOEVER, have taken £18 for the last 3 months instead of the agreed £12.50. My partner has phoned but it is not a mistake. Even though i have a years contract at £12.50, they say and i quote 'due to the governments rise in tax BT has passed this increase on to the customers'. How can they be able to increase my line rental BY 50%? HELP?
Tie dye T

Mark_In_Hampshire

Did you not notice the amounts on your BT bills before now?

If you have online billing, you *have* been notified of the change of amount -via those bills.

It isn't necessary for BT to formally write to you about a change as such, the bills suffice as notice.

If you have a "monthly payment plan" and pay by direct debit, you might think that what you have authorised is as verbally agreed.

It is not. What you have authorised is the debit of unspecified amounts on unspecified dates, which is what's happened.

The only way to pay a fixed amount on a fixed date every month is to make the payment yourself manually, or set up a standing order.

Having said that: an increase of 50% does not represent the changes to VAT from 15% to 17.5%, so that isn't the explanation for the change.

medic1978

How long have you had the BT line for?

I seem to remember that the minimum they set your monthly direct debits for at the start is £18/month to cover the costs of any calls. After a few months, if you're not making any calls and your only costs are the £12.50 line rental then they reduce the direct debit to £12.50. This means that you'll be in credit after a few months and they may even give you a few months of paying nothing.

This is what happened to me a couple of years ago. They couldn't/wouldn't set the DD to £12.50 when I first signed up and said something about covering call charges etc....

Ypaymore

Ask them to put you on Whole Bill Monthly Direct Debit and you only then pay what you owe.( No payments on account.)

tiedyet

Thankyou everyone for your help. After ringing BT, the person i spoke to said he didnt understand either why my monthly line rental had been increased from 12.50 to 18.50, and would return it to 12.50 immediately, as my account was in credit (i dont even have a phone plugged in to the line, its just for my free orange broadband.) Compare this with the previous person at BT who said it was due to the governments tax increase and if i didnt like i should leave. I would still very much like to! Just gotta work out where to go next? Primus?

seaniboy

NO stay put with BT, and here is why....you can route calls over BT per call & take advantage of the best of ALL world$, I do this with the exact same set up as you.....BT for £5 Orange Broadband

http://callchecker.moneysavingexpert.com/

Heinz

Anyway, your line rental should be £11.54/month (if you pay by DD and opt for the paper-free discount).

You are on that ridiculous pay monthly scheme and need to change to Monthly Whole Bill Direct Debit.