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

Jo4

Does anyone know if Sky are moving customers who are on "Sky Talk Anytime UK" which currently costs £5 a month to "Sky Talk Anytime Extra" which costs £8 a month?

teddysmum

Jo4 wrote: »

Does anyone know if Sky are moving customers who are on "Sky Talk Anytime UK" which currently costs £5 a month to "Sky Talk Anytime Extra" which costs £8 a month?

The person 'manning' the pop up question box,on the Sky site, told me that existing customers will be allowed to keep their £5 Anytime , but according to the Sky forum, people are getting emails (all due this month) saying they will be transferred to the £8 package, unless they opt to downgrade to £4 e&w or PAYG.

o_c99

I've just received a letter regarding the price increases. We originally signed up to the MSE offer in June where there was a £100 credit, half price line rental and free weekend calls. I presume that if we don't do anything, this will add £35 (7 x £4 for calls + 7 x £1 for line rental) to our costs and will make the overall cost for the contract for the year £40.35, assuming we don't incur any fees for using the phone during the day?

Jo4

teddysmum wrote: »

The person 'manning' the pop up question box,on the Sky site, told me that existing customers will be allowed to keep their £5 Anytime , but according to the Sky forum, people are getting emails (all due this month) saying they will be transferred to the £8 package, unless they opt to downgrade to £4 e&w or PAYG.

I renewed my parents telephone, phone & tv package with Sky at the end of last month. I logged into their account before I posted on here and it is showing that they will be charged £5 in Novembers payment but £8 in Decembers payment. They do use 18185 for calling UK mobiles and the least that bill has ever been is £13 but can be anything up to £35 so I was wondering since the "Sky Talk Anytime Extra" has UK mobile phone calls would it be cheaper for them to pay the extra £3 rather than paying 18185 £13+?

diamonds

Jo4 wrote: »

I renewed my parents telephone, phone & tv package with Sky at the end of last month. I logged into their account before I posted on here and it is showing that they will be charged £5 in Novembers payment but £8 in Decembers payment. They do use 18185 for calling UK mobiles and the least that bill has ever been is £13 but can be anything up to £35 so I was wondering since the "Sky Talk Anytime Extra" has UK mobile phone calls would it be cheaper for them to pay the extra £3 rather than paying 18185 £13+?

Looks like Sky is the best option, now Sky have inclusive mobile calls on all bundles the market will react, thus when the contract is complete better options with providers may be available.

Ian011

teddysmum wrote: »

...they will be transferred to the £8 package, unless they opt to downgrade to £4 e&w or PAYG.

If you downgrade to the £4 per month option, you will be paying 16p per call plus 10p per minute for your calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers during the daytime on weekdays. Two chargeable calls per week, each just four minutes long, will result in spending more than the Anytime package costs.

Ian011

Jo4 wrote: »

I renewed my parents telephone, phone & tv package with Sky at the end of last month. I logged into their account before I posted on here and it is showing that they will be charged £5 in Novembers payment but £8 in Decembers payment. They do use 18185 for calling UK mobiles and the least that bill has ever been is £13 but can be anything up to £35 so I was wondering since the "Sky Talk Anytime Extra" has UK mobile phone calls would it be cheaper for them to pay the extra £3 rather than paying 18185 £13+?

Yes. Paying £3 per month extra to Sky will cost ten pounds per month less than paying £13 per month to 18185.

Once you have the anytime package you can make as many calls as you like to geographic numbers starting 01 and 02, non-geographic numbers starting 03 and mobile numbers starting 071-075 and 077-079 at any time of the day or night on any day of the week (as long as each call is less than 60 minutes long) without incurring any extra charges.

Jo4

Ian011 wrote: »

Yes. Paying £3 per month extra to Sky will cost ten pounds per month less than paying £13 per month to 18185.

Once you have the anytime package you can make as many calls as you like to geographic numbers starting 01 and 02, non-geographic numbers starting 03 and mobile numbers starting 071-075 and 077-079 at any time of the day or night on any day of the week (as long as each call is less than 60 minutes long) without incurring any extra charges.

Thank you for confirming what I thought. :T

It isn't often that a price increase actually saves money. :money: I will explain the price increase to my parents when they get home from their latest break.

Ian011

Make sure they are clear that for long calls they must hang up and re-dial before 59 minutes has elapsed otherwise they will be paying more than £6 per hour for these calls.

The idea should be to have an inclusive call plan that covers all of the calls that you make to geographic numbers, 03 numbers and mobile numbers such that you incur no extra charges over and above the line rental and monthly call plan price.

Obviously, calls to 084, 087 and 09 numbers will result in an increased bill, but most organisations no longer use these numbers. Likewise, it is easy to avoid calling 118 numbers.

Jo4

Ian011 wrote: »

Make sure they are clear that for long calls they must hang up and re-dial before 59 minutes has elapsed otherwise they will be paying more than £6 per hour for these calls.

The idea should be to have an inclusive call plan that covers all of the calls that you make to geographic numbers, 03 numbers and mobile numbers such that you incur no extra charges over and above the line rental and monthly call plan price.

Obviously, calls to 084, 087 and 09 numbers will result in an increased bill, but most organisations no longer use these numbers. Likewise, it is easy to avoid calling 118 numbers.

I will stress to them that they need to hang up after 59 minutes and redial. I will also tell them that the changes will take effect on 1st December so they need to continue using 18185 until then.