Problem with Bt

beckseven

I am currently paying a £52 direct debit every month for bt broadband and landline. This has sharply risen since I foolishly took out a contract with them in July. I've emailed and got no response from them. I have an unlimited calls package after 7pm as well as broadband-we in no way are excessive phone users-my husband mainly uses his mobile. I've just rang the customer services number and found out i'm £135 pounds in credit with a new bill due on 9/1/12. The guy I spoke to agreed to reduce my dd to £35 but I'm still no clearer about what will happen with the money I'm in credit. I really couldn't get any real answers from the guy in customer services and felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall. unfortunately I'm stuck with them until July...I really can't afford £52 a month as I've just been made redundant. Surely noone else pays this much for a bog standard package...

MissKeith

I'm assuming you're on a monthly payment plan. The way this works is you pay an exact amount on the day of the month of your choosing every month towards a quarterly invoice. This is separate to your rentals. If you use more than you're paying, BT increase your payments and vice versa. How much you pay is reassessed every three months so I would check your last three bills to check a) how much your rentals actually cost and b) are you in debit/credit. Now, if the BT rep lowered your payments to £35 and your rentals are say £40, the credit you have will be swallowed up in time. Alternatively, you may be in credit because your quarterly invoice may be due soon and the credits you hace in account are to go towards that.

Ultimately, you need to check your bills. Once you have an idea of what you're actually being billed for, I might be able to help you more.

macman

Switch to whole bill direct debit, that way you neither owe BT money, nor they you.
You were not paying £52pm, you were paying £52 towards your bill.
If you are spending more than £5.15pm on chargeable calls to landlines, then switch to an Anytime package.
Rather tricky to help you, since you don't give any indication of what your actual tariff rate is.

beckseven

Hi-I have checked and I am on an anytime package-due to me working crazy hours with a three hour commute for the past three months everything sort of fell apart and I haven't been keeping an eye on things. I will swap to whole bill direct debit-don't think this option was ever offered to me. Thanks very much for taking the time to reply to me as it has made a lot more sense than the customer services rep I was talking to yesterday who just fell silent when I asked questions!