BT and BT Connect Telecom

Pashmina

I think we are being a bit dim. We use a BT landline and BT Infinity Broadband. We also use 18185 as a prefix before all our phone calls (Billed as Connect Telecom) I think we used to get a reasonable deal. A recent query about something made me go back through the last quarter. It turns out we have paid £309.49 for our landline phone and internet uses: around £74.00 pcm to BT with Connect Telecom picking up various monthly amounts between £20.89 and £42.28.

We are a couple in our early 60s. We don't do a lot of hefty downloading or streaming on the internet, although we use it every day for emails and general social media mainly. I think we use our landline more than a lot of people these days - we may make several calls a day to the UK - but usually these are fairly brief. We also have basic pay-as-you go mobiles which we use less.

I think 300+ quid is a bit much for a quarterly internet/landline bill?? Also I am not sure how much value we are getting out of 18185 these days. We've used it for years but they've stopped doing free landline calls and now charge 1 p per minute.

However, we like being with BT - we like the BT callminder, which also means landline calls can be picked up from anywhere, and we like the excellent quality of BT Infinity. (We tried being with TalkTalk for a bit and found the attitude generally unhelpful and the service appalling.)

We used to sort our parents out with these things. Now starting to feel embarrassingly doddery and confused ourselves. Any thoughts though anybody? Is our phone/internet quarterly bill reasonable or are we fast turning into a ripped-off elderly couple?

JJ_Egan

BT line rental and broadband circa £35 pm .
Calls extra and other services .
Compare your phone costs pm against BT cost pm and see what you save .

Pashmina

Thanks, but if that's your basic line rental and broadband payment, what are you actually paying for the usage?

macman

As above. You are overpaying by more than 350%. If you like BT, then switch to Plusnet (same company, better service). If your daytime calls are costing more than £8 a month, switch to Anytime. ADSL broadband, line rental and Anytime will cost you £26.99pm at present rates, and that includes unltd landline and mobile calls. Or £18.99pm with E&W calls only.
You are also probably paying extra for quarterly rather than monthly DD, and possibly excess data charges on an old capped broadband contract?

macman

Pashmina wrote: »

Thanks, but if that's your basic line rental and broadband payment, what are you actually paying for the usage?

That's the point we are making. You should be able to get line rental, ADSL uncapped broadband and Anytime calls for well under £30. See my other post.
You appear to be on an old and very expensive legacy tariff, and you are racking up huge unspecified additional charges.

macman

Sorry, just realised that you have FTTC broadband, not ADSL. That would add £5pm with Plusnet, but you'd still be paying only £32.99pm.
Given your modest broadband usage, do you actually need FTTC anyway, unless you are streaming for catch up TV etc?
Still not clear how you are spending £100pm though, please post a full breakdown of your last bill and tariffs.

JJ_Egan

Pashmina wrote: »

Thanks, but if that's your basic line rental and broadband payment, what are you actually paying for the usage?

Thats what i pay per month + whatever charges for calls i make ( not many and free at weekends ) .

Ian011

You'll pay for line rental, a call package and for internet access.

Taking the call package part, around £8 per month can get Unlimited Anytime calls (as long as each call is less than 60 minutes duration) to UK landline numbers starting 01 and 02, non-geographic numbers starting 03 and UK mobile numbers starting 071-075 and 077-079.

BT is now the ONLY major landline provider to NOT include calls to UK mobile numbers; all the others do now include them.

Avoid calling premium rate numbers starting 084, 087 or 09. In any case, their usage is now banned for most purposes. Most organisations previously using them changed their numbers several years ago.

Sparx

Wow! OP you are being royally fleeced by BT!

Please renegotiate or switch you are paying WAY too much.

Plusnet Fibre (38Mb) and Anytime UK & Mobile Calls
Will cost you £31.99 a month (18 month contract)

Same service just much cheaper and part of the BT Group for what it's worth.