MSE News: Sky to hike line rental and home phone prices, but you can beat them

diamonds

knobbly wrote: »

How will this affect the recent half price line rental +£100 credit offer?

I've just signed up to Sky, and get connected tomorrow (Thurs 8th Oct). Will my line rental increase by 50% of the increase?

Thanks

Yes, 50p from Dec.

diamonds

milgo wrote: »

Looking for opinions please on my cunning plan! I am looking at taking advantage of the Sky price increase to move to BT Infinity 2 because of a good cashback deal currently on offer with Quidco. The deal expires in 11 hours so I will need to move fast. Can I cancel my current contract with Sky if I have not received an email or letter from them advising of the price increase? If the answer is no, then could i sign up for the BT deal with installation planned for early November by which time I should have received notification from Sky of the price increase. Hope this makes sense. Thanks.

order now, if you login to Sky billing you will find a link to here

http://help.sky.com/articles/sky-comms-price-and-package-changes-for-2015?DCMP=afc-skycom:nc_price_change

diamonds

Tyler_Durden_UK wrote: »

Do you have to have been away from BT for a certain time before going back to them as a new customer. I've been with Sky for a few months now, but would drop them in a flash if I could sign up for BT again and get the quidco / signup bonuses.

No thats only Sky, order BT

hubb

The BT Infinity offer isn't coming up top in Martin's cheap broadband section though.

Ian011

Offering inclusive calls to premium rate 0845 and/or 0870 numbers is driving up the price of line rental, call packages and non-inclusive calls.

For every thousand minutes of calls made to 0843 and 0844 numbers, the caller's provider has to pay out up to £70 in Service Charges. These calls are non-inclusive, they reclaim this by charging the caller.

For every thousand minutes of calls made to 0871 and 0872 numbers the caller's provider has to pay out up to £130 in Service Charges. These calls are non-inclusive, they reclaim this by charging the caller.

Where inclusive calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers are offered, the provider still has to pay out the same amount as for other 084 and 087 numbers but as the caller paid nothing for the call, the cost of other stuff has to increase to cover it.

datlex

just rang Sky to check what would be happening to my charges. I have line rental, broadband and freetime talk package. Currently costs £16.40. For the same package, they are increasing it to £21.40 nearly a third more. They said you get up until 29/11 to cancel for free if your increase is over 10%. Will be investigating my options.

hubb

datlex wrote: »

just rang Sky to check what would be happening to my charges. I have line rental, broadband and freetime talk package. Currently costs £16.40. For the same package, they are increasing it to £21.40 nearly a third more. They said you get up until 29/11 to cancel for free if your increase is over 10%. Will be investigating my options.

Did you manage to find any other deals ?

[Deleted User]

Just rang Sky to check what would be happening to my charges. I have line rental, broadband and freetime talk package. Currently costs £16.40. For the same package, they are increasing it to £21.40 nearly a third more. They said you get up until 29/11 to cancel for free if your increase is over 10%. Will be investigating my options

Exactly the same position as you so last night I started a switch to BT.

Upfront Line rental & Broadband = £21.20pm but with £35.35 TCB & £75 Sainsbury voucher from BT I'll be £5ish pm better off. Plus a 12m contract so none of this free for 12m, big ££ for the last 6.

I did consider the EE deal that is currently the MSE best buy but I could find not one ounce of good feedback on either this forum or on a Google search and sometimes it just wasn't worth the hassle.

jem16

[Deleted User] wrote:

Upfront Line rental & Broadband = £21.20pm but with £35.35 TCB & £75 Sainsbury voucher from BT I'll be £5ish pm better off. Plus a 12m contract so none of this free for 12m, big ££ for the last 6.

Pity you hadn't used Quidco for cashback as opposed to TCB as Quidco was offering at least £60 cashback and for some people £210.

datlex

[Deleted User] wrote:

Exactly the same position as you so last night I started a switch to BT.

Upfront Line rental & Broadband = £21.20pm but with £35.35 TCB & £75 Sainsbury voucher from BT I'll be £5ish pm better off. Plus a 12m contract so none of this free for 12m, big ££ for the last 6.

I did consider the EE deal that is currently the MSE best buy but I could find not one ounce of good feedback on either this forum or on a Google search and sometimes it just wasn't worth the hassle.

I am still deciding what to do. Like you I am reluctant to go with EE. People seem to have a lot of hassle with their broadband service. Even though they would be a lot cheaper than I am paying now.
I had thought about Talk Talk, but I know people who have had really bad experiences of them.
Though to be honest it seems like most providers have quite a few negative reviews. I guess that is because people are inclined to post online their displeasure but not be concerned to comment when things are working as they would like. We are more likely for example to complain on facebook when our broadband is down than to state each day it is working fine.

My concern is that who ever I swap to if they use BT Open Reach Network, I am then limited by the restrictions of that network. Where I am the best speed you can get is 6Mbs, not even the 17Mbs they say in advertisements ADSL should be capable of. (To be fair they did not say my specific line would achieve that speed).

I spoke to Sky Cancellations team. You could tell they are getting a lot of calls, Normally they are keen to keep customers and offer them a good deal to stay. The most the guy I spoke to was prepared to offer was a reduction of £2 on the call package. I would still be paying £3 a month more for the same service. I have been advised I have until 29th November to decide what to do. Need to clarify with them whether that means would be giving a months notice from whatever date or wherever due to the increase it would be a instant cancellation.