New house, new start...best way to do it?

crafty*kate

Hi, I wondered if anyone had any advice.

Currently I have BT line rental and their evening calls plan...pay around £15pm. I have Plusnet for internet and pay £6.

I move soon to a new rented property. There's no line at the moment and BT are quoting £130 to put one in. Ouch!

BT will offer me free connection if I take their Total broadband 1 package - £13.60 line rental, broadband £7 for the first 3 months then £14 (18 month contract).

Do I HAVE to have a BT line? Or are there other providers I should look at? What do you think would be the cheapest way to do this?

Jo_Mc_2

You don't have to have a BT line, I'm about to move house and Virgin are charging me £40 to connect the phone line (it's a new build so there's not currently an active line although the sockets are in place) and then I'll pay my line rental to them. According to their website you can just take out a line on it's own from them without having their broadband, phone or TV packages.

Unfortunately though I was told that all providers use Open Reach so there's a LONG wait time to get connected. Virgin haven't yet got back to me with a connection date as the order can't go through until BT have disconnected the line which won't be until we move at the weekend, but had I gone with BT the connection date they gave me was March 22nd!

crafty*kate

Bloomin' heck, nobody mentioned that! I'll check out Virgin, thanks. Why does everything have to be so complicated?!

Jo_Mc_2

I wish I knew! I spent half the morning trying to sort out the line connection, and obviously if we've no phone line we've got no broadband either. I thought it'd take a few days for BT to come out and then we'd have to wait a week or two to get the broadband back on...but two months???

crafty*kate

That's ridiculous! I'm sure I didn't have to wait that long last time I moved (about 2 years ago). Do you know if that's just your area, or everywhere?

So far, TalkTalk are looking like the cheapest, only £79.99 connection plus I can possibly get cash back through Quidco. However the chap on the phone was so aggressive it really put me off!

I've also sent an email to (nicely!) ask my new landlord if he would contribute to the costs. It doesn't hurt to ask!

Owain_Moneysaver

Some of the delay can be reduced if you deal with an ISP who understand "simultaneous provide"

This means that the broadband is set up concurrently with the telephone side being set up, rather than waiting for a working phone line then starting the broadband process.

Jo_Mc_2

crafty*kate wrote: »

That's ridiculous! I'm sure I didn't have to wait that long last time I moved (about 2 years ago). Do you know if that's just your area, or everywhere?

I'd assume just about everywhere. The bad weather is being blamed, and we didn't have it too bad where I am!
Someone else on another thread on here (about Sky) said they'd been given March 21st as their connection date but I don't know where they live.

Stuart_W

crafty*kate wrote: »

So far, TalkTalk are looking like the cheapest, only £79.99 connection plus I can possibly get cash back through Quidco. However the chap on the phone was so aggressive it really put me off!

If you're after nice, helpful people on the phone, that you can actually get hold of, you could try the Phone Co-op. New line connection currently £80.75, and although certainly not necessarily the cheapest prices, I have been driven insane in the past trying to get hold of other telecoms companies. I'm happy with their all-in package for £23.95 (with off peak beginning at 6pm and ending 8am unlike BT). Looks like that is a couple of quid a more each month than your current BT/plusnet setup.

https://www.thephone.coop

crafty*kate

Thanks Stuart, that looks good.

I have just discovered that Plusnet also do phone as well as internet (didn't realise that before) and they are not charging me any installation, or tying me in to a contract - £11.99 a month for line rental inc evening & weekend calls, and then continue with my £5.99 broadband. I've been really happy with my service from them so far so I am going to stick with what I know (and am very grateful to have avoided TalkTalk!)

Saeed

crafty*kate wrote: »

Thanks Stuart, that looks good.

I have just discovered that Plusnet also do phone as well as internet (didn't realise that before) and they are not charging me any installation, or tying me in to a contract - £11.99 a month for line rental inc evening & weekend calls, and then continue with my £5.99 broadband. I've been really happy with my service from them so far so I am going to stick with what I know (and am very grateful to have avoided TalkTalk!)

are you sure there is no contract as new lines usually have contract so they can re-coup their install costs???

Mark_In_Hampshire

Saeed wrote: »

are you sure there is no contract as new lines usually have contract so they can re-coup their install costs???

Post Office, Zen, BE, IDNET (not exhaustive list) are all one month minimum term.

That's why they don't discount the so-called "set up" fee.

That said, the PO charges about £119 I think and the others £85, which is less than BT's £129 anyway.