We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum. This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are - or become - political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
What happened to free evening and weekend calls? And wow the bill will increase!

Vlad001
Posts: 2 Newbie
in Phones & TV
I've been looking to sign up to a new phone and broadband deal but I'm shocked to find that no one seems to be offering an unlimited broadband with evening and weekend calls package anymore. BT, Sky, EE all seem to be doing inclusive weekends only. What surprises me more is that this doesn't seem to have been picked up by anyone on the internet, despite the difference to the phone bill this can make.
I did a comparison between my current Orange broadband with evening and weekend calls deal (which I get cheaper as an Orange mobile customer) and the absolute best deal I can see on Uswitch for EE (who as Kevin Bacon will tell you now own Orange and T-Mobile) and it's not good news. Including monthly line rental I currently pay £18.75 a month, whereas the shiny new EE broadband and weekend calls package comes in at an average of £18.50 a month over the 12 month contract. Yes that's 25 p cheaper but with 60 hours less of inclusive calls throughout the week! Looking at the last six months of phone bills, the change this makes to my costs is astonishing. My phone bill would be nearly £72 higher, averaging nearly £12 more a month! This is not helped by the fact that EE now charge a flat rate of 7.95 p for all calls to landline whether they be daytime, evening or weekend, plus a 13.5 p connection fee.
So it looks like I'll be forced to take an anytime calls deal, which seems daft considering no one is in the house during the day anyway. Again a look at the best deal from EE reveals a monthly charge averaging £23.25 a month over 12 months, that's £4.75 or an incredible 25% more than what I'm currently paying per month! Now I admit that the anytime deal also includes calls to mobiles and some international numbers - but I never asked for these "bonuses". It just doesn't seem reasonable that I should be forced to accept a 25% price hike as the lesser of two evils and pay for a load of services I won't use. (Though EE would rue the day I did accept as I would have a sudden and unexpected need to maintain daily contact with the Marsupial Society of Australia).
The big problem I find is that all the major providers seem to have removed inclusive evening calls from their broadband tariffs, so anytime calls appear to be the only viable option. The possible exception here is Talk Talk Essentials which may be offering broadband with evenings and weekends calls. I say may because confusingly one Talk Talk webpage said the broadband was unlimited whilst another said there was a 40 GB download limit! So not sure what to make of that one, plus I'm wary of Talk Talk due to the very mixed customer reviews and feedback from friends and family I've heard.
Has anyone else spotted this change in broadband/phone deals or even better found a decent deal somewhere? I'm eager to maintain unlimited broadband but I'm not liking the restrictive and in my opinion underhand changes that have been made to the cost of using a landline.
I did a comparison between my current Orange broadband with evening and weekend calls deal (which I get cheaper as an Orange mobile customer) and the absolute best deal I can see on Uswitch for EE (who as Kevin Bacon will tell you now own Orange and T-Mobile) and it's not good news. Including monthly line rental I currently pay £18.75 a month, whereas the shiny new EE broadband and weekend calls package comes in at an average of £18.50 a month over the 12 month contract. Yes that's 25 p cheaper but with 60 hours less of inclusive calls throughout the week! Looking at the last six months of phone bills, the change this makes to my costs is astonishing. My phone bill would be nearly £72 higher, averaging nearly £12 more a month! This is not helped by the fact that EE now charge a flat rate of 7.95 p for all calls to landline whether they be daytime, evening or weekend, plus a 13.5 p connection fee.
So it looks like I'll be forced to take an anytime calls deal, which seems daft considering no one is in the house during the day anyway. Again a look at the best deal from EE reveals a monthly charge averaging £23.25 a month over 12 months, that's £4.75 or an incredible 25% more than what I'm currently paying per month! Now I admit that the anytime deal also includes calls to mobiles and some international numbers - but I never asked for these "bonuses". It just doesn't seem reasonable that I should be forced to accept a 25% price hike as the lesser of two evils and pay for a load of services I won't use. (Though EE would rue the day I did accept as I would have a sudden and unexpected need to maintain daily contact with the Marsupial Society of Australia).
The big problem I find is that all the major providers seem to have removed inclusive evening calls from their broadband tariffs, so anytime calls appear to be the only viable option. The possible exception here is Talk Talk Essentials which may be offering broadband with evenings and weekends calls. I say may because confusingly one Talk Talk webpage said the broadband was unlimited whilst another said there was a 40 GB download limit! So not sure what to make of that one, plus I'm wary of Talk Talk due to the very mixed customer reviews and feedback from friends and family I've heard.
Has anyone else spotted this change in broadband/phone deals or even better found a decent deal somewhere? I'm eager to maintain unlimited broadband but I'm not liking the restrictive and in my opinion underhand changes that have been made to the cost of using a landline.
0
Comments
-
Yes Sky and Plusnet also appear to have pulled them to new customers.
Scroll down here http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/home-phone-calls to bottom and your find calls with Broadband it appears that TT,and Tesco still offer offer inclusive E&W calls.0 -
As do Utility Warehouse of course plus no min. term tie in unless you need a new line installing.0
-
Hi, and thanks for the replies
Unfortunately Tesco don't own the lines where I live so their evenings and weekends deal would work out more expensive than the EE anytime deal. From the big providers it looks like Talk Talk are offering the best deal out there for what I want, though the amount of trouble they've had with consumer reviews is still a concern
Utility Warehouse is interesting, I'd not heard of them before. The lack of a contract is very attractive, though I notice that if you choose to take a new router an 18 month contract does apply. Is there any overall agreement on the quality of their service? I've looked at reviews online and all seem very polarised to say the least, more so even than reviews for the big providers.
I should add that I'm currently on a rolling contract with Orange since my old one expired, so I still get the evening and weekend calls (for now), though I'm getting daily phone calls from EE trying to get me to switch to one of their new deals. Does anyone know if there is a minimum amount of warning they have to give before either forcing me off this or changing it?0 -
They can't force you off it. If you do nothing you will remain on it on 30 days notice.No free lunch, and no free laptop0
-
Hi, and thanks for the replies
Unfortunately Tesco don't own the lines where I live so their evenings and weekends deal would work out more expensive than the EE anytime deal. From the big providers it looks like Talk Talk are offering the best deal out there for what I want, though the amount of trouble they've had with consumer reviews is still a concern
Utility Warehouse is interesting, I'd not heard of them before. The lack of a contract is very attractive, though I notice that if you choose to take a new router an 18 month contract does apply. Is there any overall agreement on the quality of their service? I've looked at reviews online and all seem very polarised to say the least, more so even than reviews for the big providers.
I should add that I'm currently on a rolling contract with Orange since my old one expired, so I still get the evening and weekend calls (for now), though I'm getting daily phone calls from EE trying to get me to switch to one of their new deals. Does anyone know if there is a minimum amount of warning they have to give before either forcing me off this or changing it?
The only time there will be any sort of min term contract with Utility Warehouse is if you need a new (subsidised) line installing. Then it is 12 months max. You get a free wireless router included with their no min term contract phone and broadband. I think you may be getting this mixed up with their fibre offering. UW seem to be the only company doing no min term contracts as standard on both phone and broadband. One of the areas where they get criticised is their £1.50/mth club fee but (much to my annoyance as an existing customer who still has to pay this every month lol) they are waiving this fee for life to people who join in July (in fact the much better £2.50/mth with monthly paper billing, freephone CS and tech support and free accidental death insurance is also free for life!)
As regards service, I can only speak for myself and say the BB has been very reliable and the UK call centre is a boon if anything does go wrong. If their service was poor there is nothing stopping people moving on penalty free at any time so it's very much in their interests to give a good service. It genuinely makes me shudder when I see threads on here from posters who are tied into 12-18 month contracts and are stuck with a rubbish service. You are effectively a captive once you sign on that dotted line.0 -
MillicentBystander wrote: »As do Utility Warehouse of course plus no min. term tie in unless you need a new line installing.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2473547Time has moved on (much quicker than it used to - or so it seems at my age) and my previous advice on residential telephony has been or is now gradually being overtaken by changes in the retail market. Hence, I have now deleted links to my previous 'pearls of wisdom'. I sincerely hope they helped save some of you money.0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

Categories
- All Categories
- 348.3K Banking & Borrowing
- 252.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 452.4K Spending & Discounts
- 240.9K Work, Benefits & Business
- 617.1K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 175.6K Life & Family
- 254.1K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16K Discuss & Feedback
- 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards