Am I eligible for BT's Landline Only Contract?

Cloth_of_Gold

We have a BT landline that we want to keep and are not currently on any package as until recently we had free calls from our ISP, which was not BT. We have recently moved to another ISP (also not BT) to get fibre broadband. This company does not offer any packages including calls and I have been thinking that we need to do something about this. By coincidence BT has just written to us saying that we can continue with our landline-only package costing £23.05 pm or move to a package that includes 700 minutes of calls for an additional £7.50 pm or unlimited calls for an additional £12.50 pm. The 700 minutes would suit us as we don't make that many calls and so this would be £30.55, including the line rental.

I discovered on another site, however, that these prices assume that you take BT broadband and if you don't then the cost is reduced by £11.32, so for the 700 minutes this would be £19.23 pm, which is less than we are paying now just for the landline. I checked BT's website again and found that this is indeed true but it seems to suggest that, for a reason I can't fathom, these discounts are only applicable if you don't have broadband at all, regardless whether or not it is with BT. Does anyone know if this is the case or can you have these discounts if you have broadband with a non-BT provider, as we have?

Neil_Jones

Most providers now insist you have line and broadband with them,so I presume you have a legacy arrangement where you could have the line with BT and the internet with somebody else (or vice versa), so if you do move away you're probably not going to get that arrangement again.

Personally I wouldn't take the content of "another site" over the BT one, so best you speak to them.  Because you already have broadband it probably wouldn't apply.

iniltous

The no landline from anyone is correct , if ( for example ) you had broadband from Virgin and for some reason wanted telephony, but not from VM , then the reduced BT line rental strictly speaking is not available, that doesn’t just include VM , it’s any fixed or wireless broadband provider , mobile phone broadband is a grey area , how BT check ( if they check at all ) is unknown, but officially to get the reduced line rental you shouldn’t have broadband, not just from BT , you shouldn’t have broadband, full stop.

Cloth_of_Gold

In the end we went with Home Saver 2020, which is £21.99 per month ( just over a pound less than we are paying for the line rental only at the moment) but it gives unlimited calls to UK landlines, regardless of the time of day. Despite what the BT website says, the person I spoke to at BT said that the free calls are no longer for an hour at a time, you can stay on as long as you want.

This seems a reasonable deal, paying less to get more lol, but wasn't mentioned as an option in the letter that BT sent us and is rather hidden away on their website. Clearly they are not keen on people knowing about it. It's an 18  month contract and the cost goes up in April each year by inflation plus 3.9%, which is  a bit much given how high inflation is, and likely to stay, but that seems to be a common money-making ruse amongst telecoms suppliers these days.

southsidergs

Cloth_of_Gold said:

 the person I spoke to at BT said that the free calls are no longer for an hour at a time, you can stay on as long as you want.

You may want to double check that with them & on any order confirmation as the stuff from their own help pages says different - Learn about Home Phone Saver Plan | BT Help

iniltous

There is no 60 minutes  time limit on the new BT 700 mins or BT unlimited calls packages,and they include calls to mobiles , not just BT Mobiles,  but the Home Saver 2020 is something of a legacy package , and I too would be a little circumspect when it comes to making calls longer than 60 minutes , regardless of what the representative said , it’s the T&C’s that should be read and understood.
Although it may seem unfair , inflation affects business as well as consumers , most Telcos include a CPI based annual increase in the T&C’s , that should mean no surprises, you know the increase is coming , if a company guarantees no in term price increases , self evidently they must be charging more at the start of the contract than they need to , to make up for the inflationary cost increases , as they  cannot be immune from inflation.