MSE News: BT to end paperless billing discount

jrawle

Hurdler wrote: »

I found when moving house and more recently leaving my job after redundancy and setting up a limited company/bank accounts - it is very hard to get through the paperwork without official paper bills from banks/utilities - so even though it costs me more - I have stuck with paper bills for everything. Until printed bills are widely accepted as proof of address etc, it is simply not worth the hassle!

I agree about needing some proper paper bills. However, I have always gone paper-free when it saves money, and kept the paper bills when there's no discount. So I had electronic bills from BT (and still will as I'm on Line Rental Saver) but my water bill is paper, despite them heavily promoting going paper-free, as there is no financial advantage in doing so.

It's better for the environment to do away with paper bills, and better for security too. But as you say, there are still occasions where you need to produce bills, and while that's the case I'll continue to choose to receive some.

jrawle

jrawle wrote: »

I just looked, and it seems they have removed this feature.

Having said that, you could try e-mailing [EMAIL="residential.billing@bt.com"]residential.billing@bt.com[/EMAIL] which is where the replies came from. However, I somehow doubt that will work.

Tharweb

jrawle wrote: »

Having said that, you could try e-mailing [EMAIL="residential.billing@bt.com"]residential.billing@bt.com[/EMAIL] which is where the replies came from. However, I somehow doubt that will work.

Thanks for replying. I will try the email method first and see what happens. At least I have the text of the web chat as proof.

art_for_arts_sake

I've tried signing up for the Line Rental Saver online but it just takes you to the most expensive contract they offer, Unlimited Anytime with no sign of the promised Line Rental Saver to sign up for. Has anyone been misled into thinking they had signed up for Line Rental Saver who's ended up paying for a different contract instead? Phoning them up was just as useless too. No wonder they have lost so many customers.

jonnywells

I Got an email today regarding this.

Been wanting to change to sky/sky broadband for a while now and called up BT a couple weeks ago and my contract auto renewed so ive got another year (renewed on 09/11, they normally send me a letter reminding me its renewing but nothing this time)

Can i use the price rise to get out of my contact early?

I_luv_cats

jonnywells wrote: »

I Got an email today regarding this.

Been wanting to change to sky/sky broadband for a while now and called up BT a couple weeks ago and my contract auto renewed so ive got another year (renewed on 09/11, they normally send me a letter reminding me its renewing but nothing this time)

Can i use the price rise to get out of my contact early?

Millions of BT customers will be hit by price rises in December, but there's a way to escape contracts for a cheaper deal penalty-free if you act in time.
Most contracts lock you in for 12 months and if you leave before it's up, you're charged £2 per remaining month on basic line rental packages, more on other packages.
Key Points

• BT customers hit by rises can escape expensive contracts
• Must inform BT within 10 days of hike notification
• Slash costs to sub-£7 per month

Yet a clause in BT's terms means you can leave early without paying when it hikes prices, though you must tell the telecoms giant you want to switch within 10 days of being informed of the hike.
BT's terms state: "If BTPS (British Telecom Payment Services) makes a change to your material disadvantage, you may terminate your BT Telephony Services, BT Total Broadband or BT Vision agreement.
"You will not then have to pay a charge, provided you let BT know you want to end the agreement within 10 days of having been informed of the change."
A BT spokesman confirms the company will abide by its conditions.
He adds: "If a customer feels these changes will put them at a significant disadvantage, we have provisions in our contract that address that situation. Customers should get in touch with us to discuss their situation."
How to escape your contract
BT says it won't cancel your contract penalty-free until you are officially notified of the price rises. As soon as that happens, call BT to tell it you want to leave. This must be within 10 days of notification. Here's how BT is notifying customers:

• Receive bills by post? You'll get details about the price changes in the BT Update magazine between September and November.
• Opted out of marketing mail? You'll get a letter with your bill between September and October.
• Billed online? You will be emailed in October and November.

BT has also confirmed if you're in the middle of a contract, it will allow you to switch to its Line Rental Saver, which costs £10/month when paid up-front, without a penalty but you will start a new 12-month contract.
How to beat price hikes
Once you've escaped your contract penalty-free you can switch.
To halve the cost of line rental, unless you've a cable or Kingston Communications line, you can get Primus's Line Rental Saver, which is currently £6.79 per month for a year without any inclusive calls.
Alternatively, Primus's Home Phone Saver is £7.99, including landline, evening and weekend calls.
Also, check whether you can sign up to a no-frills 'override' calls provider, such as 18185, which, when dialled as a prefix, will allow you to cut the cost of daytime calls to landlines to 5p per call or 1p/min from a Sky or Virgin landline.
In addition, 18185 charges a 5p connection fee then from 6p per minute to call mobiles, although the per minute price is higher at weekends.
Comment/Discuss

Discuss this MSE news story: Escape BT hikes

Mark_In_Hampshire

jrawle wrote: »

Unfortunately mobile internet simply isn't up to scratch if you are anything other than a light user. Usually there are low usage limits, and streaming at a quality that's watchable on a standard-sized screen isn't possible.

< coughs quietly in the corner



That said, the chances of many people getting these speeds are pretty remote. In our case, ADSL is too slow to stream much anyway. Most people with high usage are going to find ADSL much cheaper, whether quicker or not.

And since contention on the 3G network can't be managed, it's a shared bandwidth service, if enough people move over to it the attainable speeds will drop to next to nothing especially in densely populated areas.

Mark_In_Hampshire

Kite2010 wrote: »

They will probably change to giving a discount for paperless billing to charging ~ £1.50 a month to provide paper bills.

Indeed. Give it a few months for this particular furore to die down first.

Mark_In_Hampshire

jonnywells wrote: »

I Got an email today regarding this.

Been wanting to change to sky/sky broadband for a while now and called up BT a couple weeks ago and my contract auto renewed so ive got another year (renewed on 09/11, they normally send me a letter reminding me its renewing but nothing this time)

Can i use the price rise to get out of my contact early?

Line rental rise = yes, because it's a price rise

Removal of paper free billing discount = no, because it isn't a price rise. It's the removal of a voluntary discount which they weren't obliged to give anyway.

Just my take, welcome other opinions.

Mark_In_Hampshire

Just one word of warning to those who pay by direct debit and are switching to paper based billing only - there's no particular minimum notification period required between telling you the amount and taking it out of your account. The notice period is "up to 10 days". Which is actually meaningless.

When we last had a BT account the bills were "generated" on day 1 and arrived on day 8 or 9 due for payment (we don't use DD) on day 10.