MSE News: BT to hike prices in January - watch out for a letter

Former_MSE_Megan_F

BT has warned it's putting up some landline, broadband and BT Sport prices in January next year...

Read the full story:
'BT to hike prices in January - watch out for a letter to see if you're affected'

Click reply below to discuss. If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply.

Ectophile

When I left BT at the beginning of the year because of a price rise, I was given a pro-rata refund of the line rental saver I had already paid.

Enough people had complained that keeping the line rental saver was an unfair penalty for leaving early that BT backed down and gave refunds.

Mchambers

With luck, Sky will be increasing prices soon. I can then see what Ttalk will charge for bband and phone. If they don;t compete, I will say bye bye lol !

Kite2010

Everybody paying for the football!

JAG

Kite2010 wrote: »

Everybody paying for the football!

And the forced reduction in line rental BT can charge for landline only customers.

They need to recuperate those lost profits.

liviboy

The Guardian and Ofcom seem to suggest that you ARE ENTITLED to a pro-rata refund of advance line rental payments...so the comment "sadly you won't get" would appear to be wrong...

Can we have some clarification please

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/feb/22/bt-refuses-refund-prepaid-line-rental-cancel-service ‽‽‽‽‽‽

Caddyman

Perhaps if BT stuck to providing Telecoms instead of involving themselves in super expensive sporting sponsorships, then line rental and broadband would be much cheaper for everyone???

I'm betting that within 5 years, we'll see standard fibre broadband and line rental package at around the £70 to £80 a month mark for everyone, and that doesn't include those subscribing to any sports packages. The only way for line rental and broadband, is up, and I doubt there will be much to stop it. It's like Council Tax, you'll never see a reduction, just an ever increasing annual bill. Depressing isn't it?

Uxb

Well you lot want ever more speed, ever more services, more fibre direct to homes, ever quicker repairs, better call centres - so the money for this investment has to come from somewhere...........

For year BB has been sold in the UK on the basis of who can do it cheaper, made worse by BB prices being kept artifically low at the expense of other parts of the telephony service package.

So yes as you say the era of the race to the bottom of price cuts is over.

phillw

Ectophile wrote: »

Enough people had complained that keeping the line rental saver was an unfair penalty for leaving early that BT backed down and gave refunds.

ofcom told them all that they had to, although somehow the message didn't always get through to the customer service reps (convenient eh).

liviboy wrote: »

The Guardian and Ofcom seem to suggest that you ARE ENTITLED to a pro-rata refund of advance line rental payments...so the comment "sadly you won't get" would appear to be wrong...

You are entitled to a refund of line rental.

When I phoned to leave plusnet they told me that I would receive a refund, a month later I had only been refunded for part of a month. It then took another month and two cheques for them to refund the correct amount. I always used the magic words to get the customer service reps to agree, but the accounts department (who you couldn't talk to) were a law unto themselves.

Uxb wrote: »

Well you lot want ever more speed, ever more services, more fibre direct to homes, ever quicker repairs, better call centres - so the money for this investment has to come from somewhere...........

I don't want more services & I refuse to pay the premium for fibre/cable so I'm getting 2mb/s (which is just about bearable).

Uxb wrote: »

For year BB has been sold in the UK on the basis of who can do it cheaper, made worse by BB prices being kept artifically low at the expense of other parts of the telephony service package.

That was the only way they could grow the broadband business. Whether you have the internet or not, you use services that rely on the internet. So it's like taxation, where you don't necessarily use the services yourself. You might not have been to the doctors for years, but the postman who delivers your mail doesn't need to be paid enough to pay for BUPA because he has access to the NHS.

Freeserve in the 90's and free router and free/cheap broadband were instrumental in removing friction in internet take up and you need volume to keep the price down. In the past I've given a lot of money to internet and phone companies (first quarter bill was £400 in the early 90's and I was paying £30 a month for ADSL with line rental on top ten years ago) so I don't feel so bad about getting cheap/free/profitable line rental & internet now. I understand it's not sustainable, prices in general are on the rise but that means we need to be ever more vigilant.

BT won't be increasing my price if they know what is good for them.

miller

What is the point of letting them know your are leaving due to a price increase? Any penalties should be waived when the gaining provider gets in touch to arrange the transfer without another unnecessary phone call.

In the past I let Sky know I was leaving due to a price increase (within the 30 day timescale they quoted) and they still charged an early termination fee which I had to claw back.

[Deleted User]

miller wrote: »

What is the point of letting them know your are leaving due to a price increase? Any penalties should be waived when the gaining provider gets in touch to arrange the transfer without another unnecessary phone call.

Except that you'd have to make another unnecessary phone call to cancel down the 2nd provider. You'd probably have to pay for that phone call too unless on a call package whereas your own supplier is usually a free call.

I called Sky last March(?) when they increased the phone costs and got credit and the LR cost discounted back to what it was. Apparently the LR discount is good until August next year although I couldn't tell you why. They'll put the price up again early next year anyway now BT have.

Edit: Just checked and it was early February not March which makes more sense although I'm still surprised they did it for 18 months.