BT anytime calling plan

Stephen66

Hello,

I'm wondering whether to sign-up to BT's anytime plan. As I understand it, for £4.99/month I would get free calls (up to one hour) to a UK land line (excluding Channel islands*) any time of day, any day of the week. The obvious weakness is mobile calls would be chargeable.

When I have looked into this previously (a long time ago), the advice
was to use 18185 or primus.

I don't think we are heavy phone users and yet we still seem to pay
£5/month to 18185. Which must mean we make at least 3 land line calls per day, if I've done my maths right?

As we pay a minimum of £5 per month on 18185, would it be best to
switch to BT? That way our bill would be capped at £5.

That still leaves mobile phones. I suppose that using the BT tariff
would still allow us to use services like 18185, so we could use these
services for cheaper mobile calls?

If we do go with the unlimited plan, I guess that would prevent us
from using primus cps? From what I have read, there seem to be
complaints about primus and some uncertainty whether the cheap mobile tariff is still available, so perhaps we are best to avoid them?

I've also heard you can pay your BT line rental up front (pay one year as a lump sum) and save that way. Are there any catches to doing this?

Any other advice?
Thanks,
Stephen.

*I don't know anyone in the Channel islands, so that's not a problem
for me.

Heinz

On the face of it, it is possible to have a CPS calls provider whilst on any of BT's 3 standard calls plans - although most of us are on the (free) botton-of-the-shop Unlimited Weekend Plan because that's the obvious choice.

BT's £4.99/month Unlimited Anyime plan is excellent value for those who make weekday 01, 02, 03, 0845 and 0870 calls and, if your £5 or so per month 18185 bill is exclusively (or almost exclusively) for such calls, you must be on the right track (100 calls @ 5p each = £5). You would be able to continue to use 18185 for calls to mobiles and/or overseas calls).

The immediate loss of the £1.25/month paper-free billing discount instantly reducing the alleged saving by £15 is what has prevented me going for the Line Rental Saver option. Worryingly, there's no mention of whether it would be possible to get back onto that after the year is up and, additionally, there's no mention of whether Line Rental Saver will be available in future years.

Ypaymore

As the first 3 months are free on the anytime plan you effectively only pay an average of approx £3.75 a month in year 1 for the inclusive not free calls.;)

Tell BT Customer Options Team that you are considering leaving and their probaly also give you at least a £24 credit on your bill.:D

HappyMJ

You need to read the 18185 invoice carefully. Any calls over 1 hour would have been charged by BT. Did you call using 18185 on the weekend when BT would have been free anyway? So 100 calls a month is actually 5 calls or more per weekday to make a saving.

Heinz

HappyMJ wrote: »

You need to read the 18185 invoice carefully. Any calls over 1 hour would have been charged by BT.

What?

If you make a call using the 18185 prefix, it's 5p (regardless of its duration) and BT cannot charge for it (in fact, cannot have any knowledge of it).

apple111

Ypaymore wrote: »

As the first 3 months are free on the anytime plan you effectively only pay an average of approx £3.75 a month in year 1 for the inclusive not free calls.;)

Tell BT Customer Options Team that you are considering leaving and their probaly also give you at least a £24 credit on your bill.:D

Can we get over this "inclusive not free" rubbish please?

This does not help anyone, and this pedantic point is to me at least, an extreme irritation, showing idiotic technicalities in use of vocabulary.

Cash has been paid that includes an allowance of calls. Call them inclusive or free, who cares, we all know what you mean, and those that keep posting this rubbish should not post at all if you cannot be helpful.

Ypaymore

apple111 wrote: »

should not post at all if you cannot be helpful.

I was being helpful pointing out the reduced cost of the call bundle and a possible credit to the poster, trying to help them save money,which i believe is the main purpose of this site.

Why not try it yourself sometime instead of whinging !

brewerdave

Stephen66 wrote: »

I don't think we are heavy phone users and yet we still seem to pay
£5/month to 18185. Which must mean we make at least 3 land line calls per day, if I've done my maths right?

Can I suggest that you actually check your detailed breakdown of calls from 18185 BEFORE you jump?? There could be errors in the invoice, has been known - its easy to look at the calls awaiting charging online.:T

apple111

Ypaymore wrote: »

I was being helpful pointing out the reduced cost of the call bundle and a possible credit to the poster, trying to help them save money,which i believe is the main purpose of this site.

Why not try it yourself sometime instead of whinging !

And did defining the calls as "inclusive" rather than "free" make any difference to the poster? No it didnt, apart from to show your idiotic pedanticism.

Inactive

apple111 wrote: »

Can we get over this "inclusive not free" rubbish please?

.

Why should we? I agree with Ypaymore, they are " inclusive " and they are not " free ".

Free, means without charge, inclusive means just that, they are inclusive.

This abuse of the word " free " is misleading and only serves to help companies get away with using it incorrectly.

HappyMJ

Heinz wrote: »

What?

If you make a call using the 18185 prefix, it's 5p (regardless of its duration) and BT cannot charge for it (in fact, cannot have any knowledge of it).

I'm terrible at forum posting.:o I meant had the calls been made free using BT's anytime calling plan then only the calls under 1 hour would be free. The calls over 1 hour would be charged. Yes, I know hang up and dial again...