I think we're paying too much - BT home phone and broadband

[Deleted User]

Hi there,

As the title suggests, I think we are paying too much for our home phone and broadband - I read the debt free wannabee boards quite a bit and when people put their SOA's up, they are often told they are paying too much for their home phone and mine seems a lot more expensive. So, I was wondering if there are any bods out there a lot more clued up on this than I am (we have been on this package for years...). So, detailed below (very lengthy so huge apologies) is last quarter's bill. If you get to the end of this and still want to help me, THANK YOU. I think it is due for renewal again in April and I am determined to get a better deal, if there is one to be had.

How we worked out your bill

Carried over from your previous bill

£ 12.66

Your payments

- see summary on the right - £ 150.00 (£50 a month dd)

We take this amount off what you owe
Total credit carried forward to this bill

= - £ 137.34

Line rental and other basic charges
Phone line
Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan

4 Jan-5 Jan 11 - £ 0.76

This is made up of:
Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan

- £ 1.05

This is a refund of the price of your calling plan (which includes line
rental) at £16.28 per month which you paid in advance up to 5 Jan 2011
Evening Calls + Friends and Family Mobile Deal -

£ 0.29 4 Jan-5 Jan 11

Because you did not pay the full price for the service, we need to charge
you back some of this amount

Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan

4 Jan-5 Jan 11 £ 0.78

This is made up of:
Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan

£ 1.07

This is the cost of your calling plan (which includes line rental) up to 5 Jan 2011 at £16.60 a month
Credit: Evening Calls + Friends and Family Mobile Deal

- £ 0.29 4 Jan-5 Jan 11

You get your calling plan at a special rate. We show this on your bill by giving you a refund of £4.50 a month

Line rental and other basic charges continued
Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan

W6 Jan-5 Apr 11 £ 36.30

This is made up of:
Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan

£ 49.80

This is the cost of your calling plan (which includes line rental) at
£16.60 a month, charged in advance from 6 Jan 2011 to 5 Apr 2011
Including UK landline and 0845 / 0870 numbers within plan*
Credit: Evening Calls + Friends and Family Mobile Deal

- £ 13.50 W6 Jan-5 Apr 11

You get your calling plan at a special rate .We show this on your bill by giving you a credit of £4.50 a month
Discount for Evening and Mobile call deal 12 month renewing contract
Friends and Family Mobile

4 Jan-5 Jan 11 £ 0.00

Friends and Family Mobile

6 Jan-5 Apr 11 £ 4.50

This is the cost of your Friends and Family Mobile charged in advance at £1.50 a month
Calls from your landline to UK mobiles from 7p per minute
Calling Features Pack

4 Jan-5 Jan 11 £ 0.00

Calling Features Pack

6 Jan-5 Apr 11 £ 8.10

This is the cost of your calling feature(s) charged in advance at £ 2.70 a month. Your chosen feature(s): Caller Display.

Broadband
BT Total Broadband Option 3

W4 Jan-5 Jan 11 £ 0.04 Our prices have changed, any credits due and recharges at new rates are shown here

BT Total Broadband Option 3

- £ 1.48 W4 Jan-5 Jan 11 This is a refund of the price of your Broadband at £22.99 per month which you paid in advance up to 5 Jan 2011

BT Total Broadband Option 3

£ 1.52 W4 Jan-5 Jan 11 This is the cost of your Broadband up to 5 Jan 2011 at £23.60 a month

BT Total Broadband Option 3

W6 Jan-5 Apr 11 £ 70.80 This is the cost of your Broadband at £23.60 a month, charged in advancefrom 6 Jan 2011 to 5 Apr 2011

Includes download allowance, online security and 24/7 support
Total line rental and other basic charges = £ 119.76
What you used
Phone usage

W See page 6 £ 51.11 You made 166 calls - 43 were free

= £ 51.11

Credits and discounts
Paper-free billing discount

W10 Jan 11 - £ 3.75

VAT Credit - Advanced rental

- £ 0.05

Total credits and discounts = - £ 3.80
TOTAL including VAT = £ 29.73
This amount will be carried forward to your next bill

Call Summary
Type of call No of calls Total duration Cost
To a UK phone line 109 12:19:15 £ 35.460
To a UK mobile 48 1:06:36 £ 12.440
To an 0845/0870 number 7 35:32 £ 1.240
To an international number 1 12:57 £ 1.600
Other calls 1 3:27 £ 0.370
Totals 166 14:17:47 = £51.110

Heinz

I assume you need BT Total Broadband Option 3 rather than one of their cheaper options - so I'll concentrate on voice telephony costs.

£35.46 of call costs "To a UK phone line" is your problem.

These 109 calls must have been outwith your Unlimited Evening & Weekend calls plan (because you've been charged for them) and, because you made those calls via BT instead of via 18185, you will have to pay BT nearly £30 more than the £5.45 that 18185 would have charged.

You could also save on those 48 calls to mobiles (18185's price is 5p connection + 6p/minute weekdays and you're paying BT 11½p call set-up fee + 7p/minute at the moment). The connection charges you paid BT for those 48 calls amounted to £5.52 and would have been more than halved (£2.40) if you'd used 18185.

You could also stop paying BT £1.50/month for the F&F Mobile option.

BTW, change to Monthly Whole Bill Direct Debit too - and pay what you owe each month not a fixed monthly amount which may or may not be enough.

[Deleted User]

Heinz wrote: »

I assume you need BT Total Broadband Option 3 rather than one of their cheaper options - so I'll concentrate on voice telephony costs.

Thanks Heinz - now I am going to sound like a real idiot, so sorry. The thing is, I don't know if I need Broadband Option3, as I don't understand the options available, so need to do some homework. We need broadband - but how do I know what level I need???

We both use internet at home in the evenings and weekends, varying degrees from 30 mins to an hour a night, plus I think the Playstation uses it too??

I think the real problem is that I don't understand what I actually need in order to get the right deal.

[Deleted User]

Heinz wrote: »

I assume you need BT Total Broadband Option 3 rather than one of their cheaper options - so I'll concentrate on voice telephony costs.

£35.46 of call costs "To a UK phone line" is your problem.

These 109 calls must have been outwith your Unlimited Evening & Weekend calls plan (because you've been charged for them) and, because you made those calls via BT instead of via 18185, you will have to pay BT nearly £30 more than the £5.45 that 18185 would have charged.

You could also save on those 48 calls to mobiles (18185's price is 5p connection + 6p/minute weekdays and you're paying BT 11½p call set-up fee + 7p/minute at the moment). The connection charges you paid BT for those 48 calls amounted to £5.52 and would have been more than halved (£2.40) if you'd used 18185.

You could also stop paying BT £1.50/month for the F&F Mobile option.

BTW, change to Monthly Whole Bill Direct Debit too - and pay what you owe each month not a fixed monthly amount which may or may not be enough.

OK, now I need to know what 18185 is?

ERICS_MUM

I switched in Dec 2009 and save myself a fair bit every month.

I had my phone with BT, for which I paid £30 per month by direct debit which just covered my quarterly bill. I had my broadband / wifi with Orange at £19.99 per month -total monthly bills of £49.99.

Moved to TalkTalk, including line rental and I pay on average £28 a month for phone line, calls and broadband. Local calls are free anytime and I get a reduction for numbers in my "calling circle", including mobile nos.

I use the internet and e mail for 2 - 3 hours daily and their "normal" package is fine. I paid a £30 switching fee which included a router. I an have upto 5 e mail addresses.

So far, in 15 months of being with TalkTalk I've had no probs (touch wood and fingers crossed etc), and save £12 every month - every little helps !

Heinz

www.18185.co.uk - recommended on here by Martin for a considerable time.

With regard to broadband, you are on the top BT offering which allows 'unlimited' data use. Typically, those who download films or are avid online gamers need that.

BT Total Broadband Option 2 offers 40GB/month and Option 1 offers 10GB/month.

I have the 10GB flavour and only very rarely do I get a warning that I'm getting close to my monthly limit.

[Deleted User]

OK, all signed up to 18185, so can't wait to see what difference that makes over time and am about to drop to Option 1 on Broadband and see how that goes (£10/mth vs £23.50) - thank you for all your help/advice I have already made significant savings.

ERICS_MUM

goochie wrote: »

OK, all signed up to 18185, so can't wait to see what difference that makes over time and am about to drop to Option 1 on Broadband and see how that goes (£10/mth vs £23.50) - thank you for all your help/advice I have already made significant savings.

It's amazing how a few minutes research can really pay dividends isn't it? I review all my bills etc every so often and I can usually save a few quid - every little helps as Mr T says !

Tupperware_Queen

if you do online billing with BT you can check your broad band usage, to see if you can safely downgrade.

Both myself and ES use Iplayer a lot, he uses online gaming, and if i work from home the work laptop communicates with the server constantly, so when I check (every couple of months or so) I am usually near the top end of the allowance, hence I have the unlimited option, as the charges for over use would make it more expensive if I was on option 2 and went over.

Heinz

Tupperware_Queen wrote: »

if you do online billing with BT you can check your broad band usage, to see if you can safely downgrade.

Thanks. How long has that been available? I've never seen that before (I just get an email - only had it twice - telling me I'm getting close to my limit).

2½days to go and only 5.58GB used. Time for some iPlayer viewing I think!

Interestingly, it's shown me too that the limit is based on a lunar month and not my billing date (which is the middle of the month).

strewth71

I have been with BT for a year and on the unlimited broadband option after getting a bill for going over my 10G allowance due to using the xbox 360 (cost a fortune so won't risk that again). I asked today how much we've been using and it's over 200G a month due to laptops, xbox and pc we also download music and films.

Anyway, we were paying (rough figures):

Phone line £13.60
Anytime calls 5.00
Unlimited broadband 24.00
Bronze TV pack 15.00
Total £57.60

I decided to look for a cheaper supplier and phoned BT to cancel today, they asked why and I explained that they are too expensive so wanted to switch. They said they could bring down the prices to keep my custom to:

Line rental, unlimited broadband and anytime calls £26.60
Gold TV pack 7.50 for first 3 months then £12.50 a month
Total £34.10 then £39.10

A huge difference, well worth the phone call. Getting more for less - I don't really see why they charge what they do in the first place if they can then drop the prices by so much when you consider leaving them but I'm more than happy with my revised prices and will now be staying with BT - well for at least another year.