Plusnet annual line rental cancelled

Surfer01

We are in an 18 month contract with Plusnet for phone and fibre broadband which finishes in Feb 2023.  Apparently we will no longer be able to pay annually for our line rental upfront and this is one of the reasons or incentives why we stayed with Plusnet.   It is more the convenience of keeping down costs over the year and not really the discount.  At present we pay on average £21 a month for broadband and unlimited calls however line rental will push this up to about £40 a month.  Unfortunately as we live in a rural area with very poor mobile reception we have no choice except to keep the landline.

I am not sure if this change to annual line rental would allow us to move to another supplier without penalty? Can anyone advise?  Thanks.

Aylesbury_Duck

I wouldn't have thought so, but check the wording of the contract or ask them.  As you say, it was an incentive for you but probably wasn't a contractual obligation for them for the term of your contract.  Virgin did the same a while ago and it wasn't a change that provided a free exit point.

PeterGr

Having contracts with different terms (ie 12month for line rental saver and 18 montth broadband)  makes renewal tricky.  You've now paid line rental to around August 2023, so have avoided the price increase in April.   Try calling PN when your LRS ends and see if you can negotiate a new contract.  I got a better discount from my monthly line rental than I did from my LSR when I renewed in December.

BUFF

Surfer01 said:

 It is more the convenience of keeping down costs over the year and not really the discount.  At present we pay on average £21 a month for broadband and unlimited calls however line rental will push this up to about £40 a month. 

The discount for annual line rental prepayment v paying monthly should not have amounted to ~£19/month. The discount for annual line rental prepayment was ~£30/year. 

Neil_Jones

Surfer01 said:

We are in an 18 month contract with Plusnet for phone and fibre broadband which finishes in Feb 2023.  Apparently we will no longer be able to pay annually for our line rental upfront and this is one of the reasons or incentives why we stayed with Plusnet.   It is more the convenience of keeping down costs over the year and not really the discount.  At present we pay on average £21 a month for broadband and unlimited calls however line rental will push this up to about £40 a month.  Unfortunately as we live in a rural area with very poor mobile reception we have no choice except to keep the landline.

I am not sure if this change to annual line rental would allow us to move to another supplier without penalty? Can anyone advise?  Thanks.

No it doesn't.

The line rental saver was discontinued February last year so the last of those will expire within the next four weeks.

Your discount as above was closer to £30 a year, IIRC it was something like 10-15%. discount.

PeterGr

Yes, Line Saver in 2021 of approx £30 a year (12.5%), and Line Rental discount offered in 2022 of approx £39 (15%), and applied for the length of the broadband contract.    I assume OP's £21 per month doesn't include the line rental that's been paid in advance?     Downside is now mid-contract price increases will apply.

Neil_Jones

Well when my line rental saver expired (I paid it in September 2020 but for some reason the system decided it expired in November  2021 but who am I to argue ) I had a bump in the monthly debit the next month to £27, and then it dropped to £21.  My contract was 18 months, expires in April.

I was on a fibre deal for £2 a momth (sans line rental, but I think the rental saved expired  mid cycle so presume the extra was to bring it back to a month in advance) and to be honest I can't really complain I've had it for relative peanuts (net below the new customers offers anyway) for best part of the last few years.