BT Landline - Charges rounded up to the nearest minute.

Edbiker

This may be old news to some, but it's news to me.

Looking at my phone bill today I noticed that I was being charged 23p for calls that last no more than a couple of seconds. This didn't seem right to me, as I am on the BT Unlimited weekend tariff and according to BT there is a 13.87p setup fee per call with calls costing 8.41p/min thereafter, so I expected a call of 3 or 4 seconds to cost 14p or 15p after rounding.

Generally calls on mobiles are charged to the nearest second and I assumed that BT did the same on their landline calls. I spoke to BT who told me that BT charges on landlines are rounded up to the nearest minute no matter how little of that minute you have used. What this means is that the instant a call is connected you are charged a 13.87p 'connection' fee and 8.41p for the first minute of your call. Having already rounded your call charge up to a minute, they then round the total cost up to 23p. (That's a lot of rounding up!) This is the minimum that the call will cost no matter how quickly you hang up.

Equally if you are on the phone for 1 minute and 1 second BT charge you for 2 minutes of call.

This is extremely misleading (I suspect intentionally). BT quote 13.87p connection charge, but the reality is 23p connection charge including up to 1 minute of call time. The fact that they charge you in whole minutes seems to be very carefully hidden. I can't find this in any of the small print in their 'Tariff Guide for residential customers'.

It may seem like a small point, but quite a large number of the calls I make end up being connected by BT but are then routed through to an answerphone or voicemail, so I often just hang up. Looking at my bill about 50% of the call charges are made up of calls lasting 2 or 3 seconds at 23p per call. For each one of these, I've paid for a minute of call that I didn't use and I'm very annoyed about it.

I will be moving my calls to another provider now I've worked out their scam, but wanted to raise the issue in case it helps anyone else.

Stompa

Edbiker wrote: »

This is extremely misleading (I suspect intentionally). BT quote 13.87p connection charge, but the reality is 23p connection charge including up to 1 minute of call time. The fact that they charge you in whole minutes seems to be very carefully hidden. I can't find this in any of the small print in their 'Tariff Guide for residential customers'.

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumer/assets/downloads/BT_PhoneTariff_Residential.pdf

Page 3

Duration Rounding - All Residential Customers
The duration of the following call types will be rounded up to
the next whole minute.
.....


Seemed pretty easy to find to me.

Edbiker

You're right it is there. I missed it even though I was looking for it! But the fact that I can't read properly doesn't diminish the issue.

On average BT will bill customers with half a minute of unused call time for the chargeable landline calls they make. I thought it was something worthy of bringing to the attention of others. It seems I was wrong.

DonnyDave

You will have to look carefully for a provider that does not do this. TalkTalk, Sky Talk, Virgin Media and Orange pay as you go all do this.

The whole minute billing by BT came in at the same time it brought in the Call Set-up fee, which has been steadily rising.

Inclusive packages and inclusive bundles are the way these days. Call charges outside times of inclusivity are expensive and are really penalty charges. An inclusive package is now no longer a luxury; only a very small number of call need be made to break even. As a result, the standard incidental charge for geographic calls is now zero.

You may find that some of the smaller providers are different, but the above is certainly the way with the big players. We may accept it if there were still clockwork exchanges, but now their motivation is profit and they are allowed to get away with it.

If butchers rounded up the weight of meat to the next 500g or 1kg, no doubt Trading Standards would take action. Telephone providers should have to provide per-second billing for calls.

Stompa

Edbiker wrote: »

On average BT will bill customers with half a minute of unused call time for the chargeable landline calls they make. I thought it was something worthy of bringing to the attention of others. It seems I was wrong.

I'm not suggesting that you're wrong to bring it to peoples attention, merely that it is mentioned in that document.

Personally, I avoid BTs high charges by using 18185 for any non-inclusive calls that I make.

Edbiker

DonnyDave wrote: »

If butchers rounded up the weight of meat to the next 500g or 1kg, no doubt Trading Standards would take action. Telephone providers should have to provide per-second billing for calls.

Thank you for putting this so eloquently. My point exactly.

DonnyDave

We must remember that there was a minimum charge of 5 pence for all BT calls, but this is long gone. The minimum charge on many types of call is now the Call Set-up fee plus the first minute.

BT publishes call charge and duration rounding in its Price List here.

The charge for each individual call is now rounded up to the next whole penny, rather than to several decimal places.

I wouldn't be surprised if the other providers — the big players at least — do it this way. They are, after all reacting to the competition. Another provider with a higher call-rate charged per second may well be cheaper over all.

SpanishBlue

Stompa wrote: »

Personally, I avoid BTs high charges by using 18185 for any non-inclusive calls that I make.

That's precisely what I do (use 18185 for my non inclusive calls from my BT landline).

Unfortunately, many people are not aware of the much cheaper alternatives to BT's calls, and therefore are effectively getting ripped off.

Buzby

I'm old enough when BT announced the ending of unit charging, and introduced 'per second billing' - you only pay for what you use.

That lasted for 14 years, and then the rounding up to the next minute was introduced so they could make a greater profit. Forgetting that their network had been charging unfairly previously because the technology wasn't there to allow it.

It is now, but now they don't. Go figure!

Lynn_S

I have just spoken to BT about varying per minute call charges to mobiles on my bill.

Call charges (after deducting the quoted 13.87p connection charge) were working out at between 13.8 and 21p per minute (with an average charge of 17p per minute. With their 'Special Low Price Anytime Plan', our calls to mobiles during the day are supposed to be 11.30p per minute.

Having asked why I was being charged more than this I was told about the 'rounding up' of seconds to the nearest minute. Ok... but even allowing for that, one example (of many) on my bill still worked out at just over 16p per minute. Unable to expalin this, I was then told that call charges are also 'rounded up' so that my quoted cost of 11.30p per minute is actually charged at 12p per minute.

I then asked WHY BT are quoting one price on their advertising and not telling people that this per minute cost will also be rounded up. HOW CAN THEY GET AWAY WITH THIS?
Even taking all rounding up into account, it didn't explain the many calls being charged at 15p+ per minute. The gentleman I spoke to had nothing to say about the overcharges, other than to offer yet another add on at a further £7 per month to reduce the per minute charge to mobiles to 6p (but with a connection charge rise to 22p per call). Perhaps if I opt for this I might actually get charged 11p per minute.

We returned to BT a year ago after being with a much cheaper supplier. We will therefore be protesting with our feet and doing an about turn.

littleboo

Why did you return to BT if you had a much cheaper supplier ?