Home phone calls subject to connection fee.

sannesley

It's that time of year again when we al look to tighten the purse strings and try and make the money stretch a little further.

As part of this process I decided to investigate combining my Broadband with my home phone into one monthly payment cheaper than paying each separately.

When I checked out what was on offer, with help from MSE of course, I noticed something new and surprising to me. I was looking at the Talk Talk offer and came across this "All chargeable calls are subject to 13.87p connection fee." This charge is applied to all calls made during peak hours.

Is this practice of charging a connection fee a common practice among the Telecom providers or unique to Talk Talk?. Obviously it pays to read the small print

jhp

Landline Suppliers have been raising a call connection charge on chargeable calls for years,and each year they have been increaseing the charge,s and it always gets lots of publicity.(They are sometimes called call set-up fees or minimum call charges.)

Note call connection charges are not applied on inclusive/free calls. So it can to some extent be avoided if you purchase an appropriate call bundle.

The latest round up of price increases is here http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/phones/2013/01/beat-the-bt-sky-talktalk-and-virgin-media-price-hikes?utm_source=MSE%2BNewsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=02-Jan-


This article will give you an idea of what the charges were a couple of years ago. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1313682/Landline-levy-Charges-soar-phone-lines-millions-switch-mobiles-internet-calls.html

Cheapest Broadband/Homephone bundles can be found here : http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/home-phone-calls#bundle

macman

Not a problem if the calls you make are inclusive in your tariff. Anytime tariffs start at around a fiver, so if you spend more than a fiver a month on exclusive landline calls, it's time to upgrade your tariff.
All providers have levied a connection charge for years now.

Stuart_W

A connection charge for non-inclusive calls can be avoided, but as has been said a connection fee is pretty much standard.

The Phone Co-op offer a Caller Plus tariff which unusually features no inclusive calls whatsoever, but no connnection fee either, and a minimum call charge of 1p+VAT. However, line rental is £120/year or £12.50/month so any saving made on connection fees could be lost depending on what other tariffs you are considering.

You could also avoid hefty connection fees on non-inclusive calls by using an indirect phone service. This way the phone call doesn't appear on your phone line provider's bill. You make a freephone call to access your account with another company. Use 18185 to call via 0808 1703 703 for 1p/min to landlines with 5p connection fee or use telesave via 0800 066 2266 for 1.5p/min to landlines with no connection fee and a 4p minimum. The cheapest indirect supplier for mobile calls that I've found is Savacalldirect offering 4p/min calls via 0800 077 1000. With Savacalldirect and Telesave, you do need to prepay first, but I've used both for a long time with no problems.

Hope that helps.