Cheapest way to keep a number following a bereavement?

Pendrive

My mother has recently died, and her line rental / broadband contract with Plusnet has just expired. At present her estate is still being sorted out, and so no one is living in the house. I want to keep her phone number, which she had for almost 50 years, and which everyone who knew her, far and wide, has as their contact for her. Many people have that number as a UK contact for myself also, since I have worked abroad a lot.

Plusnet apparently can't put the account on hold in cases of bereavement (they couldn't do anything about a contract either except let it expire at the usual time), and the cheapest they can offer, to keep the account open - which is apparently the only way to keep my mother's number - is a charge of £27.99 a month for 'line rental and free broadband'. This seems quite excessive for, effectively, nothing, since no one is actually in the house and using anything during this period.

Is there a cheapest way to retain a number for a house while an estate is being administered? It seems if I'm not to lose the number, I either have to pay Plusnet that amount, or move the account to somebody else. Does any company do anything which might seem a bit more reasonable in these circumstances?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions or advice on this...

forgotmyname

Line rental will need paying to keep the number active.

Several deals free broadband or free line rental but the end result is usually a similar price

Drop the broadband and just take the phone line. approx £15 per month?

Pendrive

Hello, forgotmyname - thanks for the very quick reply, which is much-appreciated. The broadband is apparently 'free', and so presumably wouldn't make any difference if it could be dropped, which Plusnet say isn't possible in any case, for whatever reason. I know line rental will need to be paid, but almost £30 per month seems steep for that. £15 would be quite a bit better, and I'd prefer to move the account from Plusnet too, since they have been so unhelpful in a case of bereavement. So if some other company offers that kind of pricing for just line rental, I would be happy to hear about and look into it.

onomatopoeia99

You can certainly get line rental without brodaband. I have it from BT, as I use a separate ISP for broadband.

Cypherite

You could move to BT. Line rental is £18.99 although if you expect to need it for 12 months then Line Rental Saver may be cheaper as you'll save 10% by paying in advance.

Alpha_5

Hi Pendrive, I'm sorry for your loss.

You could transfer the number to a Voip provider for much less than you've been quoted by plusnet.

I'm with Vonage for calls and ported my number from Virgin Media for free. I now pay £8 per month to Vonage for anytime calls to landlines. You just plug your handset into an adaptor that then plugs into your existing broadband. It then works just like a regular phone.

I believe there are cheaper options with other Voip providers that involve calls to the number being forwarded to an app on your mobile.
Although a little more expensive, I found Vonage to be a simpler process to transfer to.

mac.d

Transfer the landline to another provider, and request to keep the number. You'll just need to make sure its not one that is a new 12-month contract if you just want a temporary solution while things are being sorted out.

If Alpha 5's Voip suggestion doesn't suit you.... I've no idea about either of the following companies but for a temporary solution, you could try:

Vivaciti, landline for £11.40 on a monthly contract.
http://www.vivaciti.net/package/view_details/22

Or Aquiss do the same for £13
http://www.aquiss.net/phone_line_rental.php

J_B

Would it be best for 'the estate' to just bite your tongue and stick with plusnet till everything is sorted.
Then thereafter you can surely please yourself

teddysmum

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

You can certainly get line rental without brodaband. I have it from BT, as I use a separate ISP for broadband.

PlusNet no longer have the line only option on the website and the 'free' broadband is a few pounds dearer than the free broadband when line and internet were separate (ie the all-in price is more than the old line rental plus free broadband).

benjus

Another VoIP option is Gradwell - https://www.gradwell.com/calls/voip-add-ons/keep-your-number/ - my father had his number ported to them from BT a few years ago and it all went very smoothly.

If you don't want to mess around with VoIP clients on your phone/PC, you can always just set it up to forward all calls to your own number (you'll be charged the per minute rate to your VoIP account to receive forwarded calls).

darren72

If VOIP is an option Sipgate will do this for a one-off cost of £30 (port the number over to them). They don't have a monthly fee for their sipgate basic account.

See: https://basichelp.sipgate.co.uk/hc/en-gb/articles/204155912-Porting-my-existing-telephone-number-to-sipgate-basic