Plusnet trap

ashpan

i signed up for a 2 year deal with plusnet where I paid my line rental upfront and then paid £6 for broadband monthly
apparently they discontinued their line rental deal earlier this year (they say the emailed me but I didn't see anything) halfway through my deal so my monthly payment has now gone up to £26 which, with everything else going up,  I will struggle to pay
I feel trapped as if I leave ill have to pay their cancellation fee of £100 plus
I can get better deals elsewhere but they say they wont be able to re-negotaite my deal
Can anyone help me with suggestions as to what to do?
thanks in advance

JJ_Egan

Did the deal actually include advanced line rental year one and also year two .More to the point do you have actual evidence .

What is the difference in ALR compared to monthly usually around 10% .

ashpan

I need to find that evidence i think, as far as I recall it was for the two years but they changed this after less than a year
I'm not sure what ALR means?

Broadsword66

If they change the contract then the cancellation charge doesn’t apply, according to Ofcom rules. You should find a new deal and switch without paying a cancellation fee.
For more info search for “ isp changes deal cancellation “ .  Good luck!

Carrot007

Broadsword66 said:

If they change the contract then the cancellation charge doesn’t apply, according to Ofcom rules. You should find a new deal and switch without paying a cancellation fee.
For more info search for “ isp changes deal cancellation “ .  Good luck!

if you do it within X days of the notification otherwise you have accepted the new terms as OP has. I remember the email and I did not even take the offer!

elsien

JJ_Egan said:

Did the deal actually include advanced line rental year one and also year two .More to the point do you have actual evidence .

What is the difference in ALR compared to monthly usually around 10% .

Probably not. I recall having a conversation with Plusnet about the line rental being for a year and the BB contract being for longer and the risk of being tied in and paying more expensive line rental. Line rental was only ever for 12 months at a time for the deals I was looking at regardless of how long you signed up to Broadband for  - chance you take. 

JJ_Egan

Yes exactly the same for my two year contract with BT  .In fact ALR was not part of the original contract , but was factored in to the total price .

Second year OP has an increase of something like £1.50 a month over current cost .

OP  = original post / poster .

ALR = advanced line rental

Neil_Jones

ashpan said:

i signed up for a 2 year deal with plusnet where I paid my line rental upfront and then paid £6 for broadband monthly
apparently they discontinued their line rental deal earlier this year (they say the emailed me but I didn't see anything) halfway through my deal so my monthly payment has now gone up to £26 which, with everything else going up,  I will struggle to pay
I feel trapped as if I leave ill have to pay their cancellation fee of £100 plus
I can get better deals elsewhere but they say they wont be able to re-negotaite my deal
Can anyone help me with suggestions as to what to do?
thanks in advance

The line rental saver was discontinued in February but if you'd already paid it by that point it was still valid until it ran out.  Your deal would have been for your broadband (£6 per month), not your line rental.

Neil49

I'm a former Plusnet customer and paid for the advanced line rental up front but this was only ever available to be paid one year at a time. 

I think the OP needs to find out how much they paid for ALR as this should show the period covered (which I'm pretty sure will be 12 months). 

iniltous

I have never seen a deal where you can pay two years line rental upfront , if you had a 24 month deal, and paid ALR up front and then only had to find £6 for broadband , chances are the  initial advance line rental ( ALR ) was for 12 months , but when you took the deal there probably was the option to do ALR again for months 13-24, with another up front payment to be made.
The key to this will be how much you paid up front , this should give an indication if it was for a year or 2 years …if they have now removed ALR ( some company’s call it line rental saver , LRS) then although you have to pay more per month, you don’t have to find a years rental in advance , probably more than £150 in one go, so if you will struggle to pay more per month, how would you be able to pay a years rental in advance ?

If you did pay for 2 years line rental in advance then obviously you shouldn’t have to pay it again , you would just pay the broadband as you did for the first 12 months.

If your argument is that because the option is no longer there to pay a years line rental in advance, you should be able to cancel penalty free ( so you are not disputing how much has been paid etc ) I doubt you would be successful as the ALR/LRS is not likely to be part of the 24 month deal , it was just a way of saving a small amount on ‘line rental’ by paying up front.
FWIW, the total difference between ALR/LRS and paying monthly for a year is likely to be £15-£20 , so it’s hardly a massive amount over 12 months.

MSE_Chris

ashpan said:

i signed up for a 2 year deal with plusnet where I paid my line rental upfront and then paid £6 for broadband monthly
apparently they discontinued their line rental deal earlier this year (they say the emailed me but I didn't see anything) halfway through my deal so my monthly payment has now gone up to £26 which, with everything else going up,  I will struggle to pay
I feel trapped as if I leave ill have to pay their cancellation fee of £100 plus
I can get better deals elsewhere but they say they wont be able to re-negotaite my deal
Can anyone help me with suggestions as to what to do?
thanks in advance

Hi Ashpan,

As previous forumites have said, ALR only ever covered a 12 month period. If you've taken out a two year deal with Plusnet, you'll now pay line rental monthly after your ALR ran out (for the remaining months 13-24).

Over a year, it'll likely cost you around £2.50/mth (£30yr) more by paying monthly, as opposed to ALR.

You can find more info on the changes here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/02/plusnet-line-rental-saver-axe-price-hike/ 

I hope that's useful.

MSE Chris