Is it worth swapping line rental ever from BT?

scoobie

Homecall are trying to get me to change my line rental from BT to them for £9.99 per month. Is it worth it do you think? Is it ever worth moving line rental from BT or are the savings too small do you consider?
They reckoned I'd make savings of £28 per year, but thats wrong by my calculation as I only pay £10.50 per month, they said it would be 12.50 per month with BT currently.
Am I right? Who should I report this to?

Heinz

I think you've answered your own question there.

Personally, Homecall telling you that BT are currently charging £12.50 per month for line rental when we all know it's £10.50 for the vast majority of us on BT Together Option 1, has enabled me to decide whether to change my line rental 'supplier' to Homecall.

Edinburghlass_2

Thread here regarding Homecall. Barge poll and don't touch seem to be the answer

pricefighter

In yesterdays Mail on Sunday,Money Mail. there was a big article about Cauldwell Communications(Homecall) misselling etc etc.BT have issued a writ against them in the High Court.Report it to BT they have had lots of complaints about them.

They are to Customer Service what the Titanic was to Winter Cruises!!!

andy88_2

I don't think BT would be the only ones. Just make sure they don't have any of your details for any other contracts eg mobile, as you could become a customer without knowing.

andy88_2

scoobie wrote:

They reckoned I'd make savings of £28 per year, but thats wrong by my calculation as I only pay £10.50 per month, they said it would be 12.50 per month with BT currently.

I wouldn't trust anyone to calculate my savings if they suggested 12 x £2.51 = £28

bbb_uk

andy88 wrote:

I wouldn't trust anyone to calculate my savings if they suggested 12 x £2.51 = £28

I wouldn't mind it if they calculated my pay on a similiar formula though.

dag_2

You need to be very careful about switching your line rental to another telco.

Carrier Pre-Selection (CPS) is when you still pay your line rental to BT, but pay someone else for calls. When you pay both calls and line rental to someone else, that's called Wholesale Line Rental (WLR).

If you use CPS but still pay your line rental to BT, you can carry on using indirect access codes - so you'll still be able to use 1899 or 18866.

By contrast - WLR services can block indirect access. So no 1899 or 18866. But you'll still be able to use callthroughs like Telediscount, Telestunt, Telesavers and Budgetcom.

Callthrough services like Telediscount usually have 0844, 0845, 0870, 0871 or premium rate access numbers - and BT is usually cheaper than any other telco for calling these access numbers. If you use CPS, you can dial 1280 before the callthrough service number, to ensure you pay the BT rate, and not the CPS rate.

However, WLR services can also block the 1280 override. So, you will be forced to pay the WLR provider's rates for special or premium rate numbers.

To sum up - CPS can never block indirect access or 1280, but WLR can. They don't have to - but they can. You therefore need to be much more careful about signing up for WLR than CPS - especially if it's a long contract, and there are early exit penalties.

You would be well advised to ask WLR telcoes if indirect access or 1280 is allowed before signing up with them - and get it in writing. If they refuse to do this - then don't touch them with a barge pole.

pinkonion

If a WLS did allow 1280 overide calls how would BT charge you as you'd no longer be a customer of BT?

dag_2

by the way ... when i said WLS - I means WLR. Whoops. I've edited it now.

If a WLS did allow 1280 overide calls how would BT charge you as you'd no longer be a customer of BT?

Exactly.

Of course - some will say that's no different to the cable companies like NTL and Telewest. You can't use indirect access or 1280 on them either. Some people believe that their bundled services seem to offer good value for money - however, I would advise people to be very careful about switching to cable services for the same reason.

I'm jumping the gun here - but maybe in the future, WLR services might be offered as a bundle with something else - such as digital TV, DVD rental, ADSL, or even gas and electricity - in an effort to capture the market of BT line customers who might otherwise consider switching to cable. That would complicate it slightly!

But until they do - I'd definitely stay well clear of any stand-alone WLR services, and be very cautious about bundled packages.