BT new phone line credit check

mstar

Hi Guys

i just wanted to share if this is normal... I want to have the BT line activated in my new appartment, so i ring BT... the BT representative goes to do this they perform a credit check, i was puzzled and i was wondering as my credit card is expirying soon i dnt want credit searches on my record am i being paranoid :-( or should i let my wife do the BT credit check so i can continue my new credit card application for balance transfer?

any help much appreciated guys & girls

hurrah

Its normal business practice for BT, and other suppliers to carry out a credit check.

mstar

thanks hurrah, is it a hard one to pass?? i.e i never had a phone line in my name not sure previous owners of the flat. is it as hard as applying a CC ?

50_percent

I've just gone through this tonight. Depending on the outcome of the credit check, you will either be given the go-ahead, be charged a £25 "deposit" or be charged a £50 "deposit".
I've been charged a £25 "deposit", that is on top of a £125 connection fee :eek: - the boxes are already in the flat so why they need to charge such an extortionate fee is beyond me - and to top it all...'we won't be able to connect you until the 23rd January' :mad:
Oh yeah and their so-called deposit cannot then be used towards your connection fee or future bills - so why don't BT just call this "deposit" what it really is:
A charge for failing their credit check

hurrah

50_percent wrote:

I've just gone through this tonight. Depending on the outcome of the credit check, you will either be given the go-ahead, be charged a £25 "deposit" or be charged a £50 "deposit".
I've been charged a £25 "deposit", that is on top of a £125 connection fee :eek: - the boxes are already in the flat so why they need to charge such an extortionate fee is beyond me - and to top it all...'we won't be able to connect you until the 23rd January' :mad:
Oh yeah and their so-called deposit cannot then be used towards your connection fee or future bills - so why don't BT just call this "deposit" what it really is:
A charge for failing their credit check

The reason the connection fee is raised when approriate is discussed here.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=211879

The £ 25 is a returnable deposit,nothing else.

ahrimaniac

'A charge for failing their credit check'

Well yeah, of course it is. They run a check to make sure you're capable of regular payments and not a shyster, you failed it, so they've taken a deposit.

timberflake

My girlfriend and I have just moved into a newly built apartment. I have an IVA so thought it best to have everything in her name. Until a month ago, she'd never had a credit card, has always had money in the bank and savings. What I'm trying to say is that when she phoned up to have us connected, because she's good with money she was told there was a £50 deposit that they would keep for 12 months and use on our bills after. Add to that the £125 connection and line rental we were charged thats £200!!

Also, call me synical, but I have a feeling that after 12 months they're going to say "what £50? We don't know what you mean."!! Good job we're the kind of people that keep every scrap of paper!!

jhp

Why is it that people can afford a new apartment with all the costs that involves , but view payment for a telephone line too much?

Heinz

New customer?

£50 deposit is (IMHO, understandably), standard.

£124.99 is the standard charge for a new installation.

timberflake

jhp wrote:

Why is it that people can afford a new apartment with all the costs that involves , but view payment for a telephone line too much?

Because your actually buying something tangable for that money. When I sign up for BT's SERVICE, if anything I want them to give me something!! I'm the one that's saying I will commit to paying you x amount a month for AT LEAST 12 months!

Maybe I could understand that a deposit is required if you have CCJ's or a history of bad debt, but because my girlfriend does not want debt in her life she has to suffer!!? Its basically saying you must have debt or you have to pay extra!

As for the £125 connection charge, all they do if flip a switch......thats it!! We were told we would have an engineer call to connect us, but when no one turned up but the phone seemed to be working fine I rang BT and they told me they'd done it from the exchange. I don't care what anyone says, it does not cost £125 for an engineer to go to a telephone exchange and switch us on!! Especially when you live in the city and the BT office is next door to your local exchange like us!!!

Also, why is it free is the house has previously had a BT line fitted?? If you ring up and say "the people in the house before us had a BT line", there's no connection charge but they still have to go to the exchange to switch you on!

THATS IT, RANT OVER:p

Hazzanet

timberflake wrote:

As for the £125 connection charge, all they do if flip a switch......thats it!! We were told we would have an engineer call to connect us, but when no one turned up but the phone seemed to be working fine I rang BT and they told me they'd done it from the exchange. I don't care what anyone says, it does not cost £125 for an engineer to go to a telephone exchange and switch us on!! Especially when you live in the city and the BT office is next door to your local exchange like us!!!

Also, why is it free is the house has previously had a BT line fitted?? If you ring up and say "the people in the house before us had a BT line", there's no connection charge but they still have to go to the exchange to switch you on!

THATS IT, RANT OVER:p

In a new build, the wiring would be complete up to a junction box in the street. The engineer would have to go to the junction box in the street and identify the pair of wires that connects your property to the junction box.

He would then need to locate a spare pair of wires that connect the junction box to the exchange and connect your wires to them, and then he would need to identify the pair where they terminate at the exchange.

When identified, he would need to either extend the cables to a spare line-card or if there is no spare card available, install one at the exchange. Once this is done, they can give the circuit a number and 'flip the switch'. The whole process would take between 1 and 2 hours of an engineers time.

In a property where there has been a previous BT subscriber, all of the connections between the property and the exchange would be intact and connected to a line card. Where there is a BT point, but no subscriber has had a line there for some years, sometimes you find that the 'dead-pairs' of wires between you and the exchange are cannibalised to put other people on the network, and then the £125 fee would be charged for reconnection, as the identifying of the cables and reconnecting to a line card would need to be re-done.

The reason I know this is because I had a new line fitted at Hazzanet heights. There is a 5-pair cable for the two semis here, and the engineer followed one pair back to the junction-box in the ground about 500m away, and then another about 200m away, and then had to find the pair at the exchange. All the wiring was in at my house, but the whole process took about an hour and a half before my box was up and running.

It's not always as cut and dried as flipping a switch.