1.3m BT landline customers face bill hike of up to £54/yr - MSE News

JJ_Egan

For me with BT price rises over the years its always been a way to cut a better deal .

spenderdave

It does seem confusing. I renewed my contract earlier in the year and moved from the free weekend option (NLA) to 500 minutes for £5 extra - or unlimited for £10, or PAYG for no extra but new 24 month contract. They now seem to have introduced yet another tariff scheme with unlimited and 700 minute options and no PAYG but also no new contract. Is there not the option for those receiving these new emails to re-contract at the PAYG/500m/unlimited tariffs?

boatman

If you only took up BT in the last couple of months, will this affect you?

cllrknight100

 When are the emails being sent out about BT moving 1.3 million home phone customers into its 'Unlimited Minutes' calls plan in September. I have not received an email yet?

JJ_Egan

Last week they started rolling out .

Barnsley_Taff

"You honestly think managers individually send out emails? 🤣 Go online and read the terms and conditions. They say prices may change. All companies do it. So no need to be a drama queen about it."

First point: Previous emails about my account have ALWAYS had the name of a person within BT as the originator of the email.

Second point: My contract was agreed by an exchange of emails between myself and a named person within BT described as "Executive Customer Relations". Nothing in the emails contains any mention of a price change, (or any other change), during the period of the contract.  I am not being a "drama queen".  There is a principle involved here.  A contract was agreed by email which was for a fixed term at a fixed price.  That being the case neither I nor BT have a legal basis on which to make changes unless those changes are agreed by both parties.  If the "Executive Customer Relations" wanted to include the option to make changes to the contract that should have been stated in the emails.

I have lodged a formal written complaint with BT and I am awaiting a response.

JJ_Egan

<First point: Previous emails about my account have ALWAYS had the name of a person within BT as the originator of the email.>

But now they are Your BT Team .

EssexExile

According to the email there would be a £4.50 increase from my present calling plan, which costs £10.11p, to the new plan which costs £12! I've gone for the fee 700 minutes which is £7, I wait with interest to see my new bill.

Connie

If I'm understanding the MSE article correctly, the figure of £4.50 is based on BT's estimate that most customers currently spend at least £10.50 on calls per month, and as the new Unlimited Minutes plan costs £15, it will cost them £4.50 extra.

I assume therefore that if you normally pay, say, £12 on calls, the price rise will only be £3 extra.

But if you normally spend, say, £3 per month on calls, the new plan will presumably cost you £12 extra, and so on.

For years I've had Unlimited Anytime bundled in with my broadband package, so haven't paid anything extra for calls unless I've called a service number, or have gone over the 60-minute limit for any one call  (though I dare say an amount for calls has been included in the package cost).  This means I've only spent £2.08 on calls outwith the plan  in the last year.

The new plan will therefore presumably cost me about £178 extra per year, or over £14 extra per month.

Based on the number of minutes I've spent on all calls in the last year, it looks as if PAYG will be the cheapest option for me, although still approx £4 more per month than I've been used to.

(The BT Consumer Price Guide  says, confusingly, re the £15,  "This is a maximum price; some customers may pay less".  What does that mean?!  https://www.bt.com/assets/pdf/BT_PhoneTariff_Residential.pdf  -  see page 25.)

oldandwizend

Connie said:

If I'm understanding the MSE article correctly, the figure of £4.50 is based on BT's estimate that most customers currently spend at least £10.50 on calls per month, and as the new Unlimited Minutes plan costs £15, it will cost them £4.50 extra.

I assume therefore that if you normally pay, say, £12 on calls, the price rise will only be £3 extra.

But if you normally spend, say, £3 per month on calls, the new plan will presumably cost you £12 extra, and so on.

For years I've had Unlimited Anytime bundled in with my broadband package, so haven't paid anything extra for calls unless I've called a service number, or have gone over the 60-minute limit for any one call  (though I dare say an amount for calls has been included in the package cost).  This means I've only spent £2.08 on calls outwith the plan  in the last year.

The new plan will therefore presumably cost me about £178 extra per year, or over £14 extra per month.

Based on the number of minutes I've spent on all calls in the last year, it looks as if PAYG will be the cheapest option for me, although still approx £4 more per month than I've been used to.

(The BT Consumer Price Guide  says, confusingly, re the £15,  "This is a maximum price; some customers may pay less".  What does that mean?!  https://www.bt.com/assets/pdf/BT_PhoneTariff_Residential.pdf  -  see page 25.)

Unless you were offered Unlimited Anytime free in your contract, which I very much doubt, your calculations are flawed.
If you look at your bill breakdown you will see the Unlimited Anytime Add on is currently billed at £10.50 so to retain Unlimited you will be paying an extra £54 (12 x £4.50) annually. Whether it is worth it is all down to how many calls you make, who to and how long they are. You can download call information from your BT account and physically work out what you would have spent in the past 12 months on PAYG to see if Unlimited would save you money - very time consuming unless each month is much the same in which case just do last month and mutliply by 12. I suspect that there a lot of BT customers who originally opted for the Unlimited Anytime Add on but now have mobile contracts with unlimted calls; in which case it is time to ditch BT's Add on and train yourself to use your mobile!