BT new price increases. From a Pensioner.

Mywings

Just received an email from BT saying they are increasing my package by £6.40 a month. This is for 700 calls ( non negotiable used to be 500, but that package dropped) , Broadband and BT Halo. My contract is for 2 years and is called BT Halo 3.
I followed the offer to ..see what we can do to help you if you are struggling.. If you do ..you will only receive help if you are on Guaranteed Pension Credit..not if you are on Pension Credit.
I ask if I can have Halo element taken off. No .part of contract .
The earliest I can change my contract is June next year..if I leave now it will cost me £279. I pay £44.75 a month.
How can they increase your agreed contract during its lifetime? 

I am trapped with their increase until next June unless I pay THEM £279.
I am on a State Pension living in social housing, and moved in last June…before the big energy issues. I also had not spent a winter in my new home. My current heating costs for winter are around £200 a month. I can’t switch off my heating or ‘wrap up warm’ because I have severe COPD and need warm air that is consistent. My Air Source heating system loses its gains by having an old poorly insulated property
Long story I know …but ..why can’t BT recognize elderly customers who may not qualify for Guaranteed Pension Credit, but do receive Pension Credit. Single pensioners are having a hard time ! 

My increased SP is being cancelled out by these companies who are able to play around with ‘fixed’ agreements , unlike energy or mortgage companies. 

Anyone else having this problem? 

Do you think Martin could do his magic and get BT to stick to existing contracts until they end without putting up prices? 

MorningcoffeeIV

Mywings said:

How can they increase your agreed contract during its lifetime? 

It's because you agreed to the increase when you took out the contract.

If you don't want mid-term increases, you need to get one that doesn't have it, but is more expensive from the start.

Martin can't get you out of your contract.

Neil_Jones

Mywings said:

Just received an email from BT saying they are increasing my package by £6.40 a month. This is for 700 calls ( non negotiable used to be 500, but that package dropped) , Broadband and BT Halo. My contract is for 2 years and is called BT Halo 3.
I followed the offer to ..see what we can do to help you if you are struggling.. If you do ..you will only receive help if you are on Guaranteed Pension Credit..not if you are on Pension Credit.
I ask if I can have Halo element taken off. No .part of contract .
The earliest I can change my contract is June next year..if I leave now it will cost me £279. I pay £44.75 a month.
How can they increase your agreed contract during its lifetime? 

I am trapped with their increase until next June unless I pay THEM £279.
I am on a State Pension living in social housing, and moved in last June…before the big energy issues. I also had not spent a winter in my new home. My current heating costs for winter are around £200 a month. I can’t switch off my heating or ‘wrap up warm’ because I have severe COPD and need warm air that is consistent. My Air Source heating system loses its gains by having an old poorly insulated property
Long story I know …but ..why can’t BT recognize elderly customers who may not qualify for Guaranteed Pension Credit, but do receive Pension Credit. Single pensioners are having a hard time ! 

My increased SP is being cancelled out by these companies who are able to play around with ‘fixed’ agreements , unlike energy or mortgage companies. 

Anyone else having this problem? 

Do you think Martin could do his magic and get BT to stick to existing contracts until they end without putting up prices? 

No because that's what you agreed to when you took it out.  You would have been told that (either on the phone, the email/screen or a letter) at the time.

Regardless, do you really need or use the features of Halo 3?  Its main selling point seems to be automatic switch to mobile data if your connections is off-line.  Bearing in mind providers are obliged to pay you £8.40 per day if your service packs up as it is...

There are other providers who will take Pension Credit as a qualifying benefit for a social tariff.

Re: the housing...  complain to the housing department of the council.

badmemory

When did the 500 minutes finish?  I haven't heard anything yet! 

iniltous

Basically the 500 mins included package is now 700 mins and has been for quite some time ,  when they replaced 500 with 700 mins the price didn’t change , if someone was is 500 I don’t know if they are automatically upgraded  , presumably they could simply call change up to 700 mins , or do it on line , because AFAIK, calls packages don’t have minimum terms , you can swap between them at will , FWIW , if someone exceeds 500 mins it doesn’t matter , but if they exceeds the limit twice in consecutive months , the rules state that they can be moved onto unlimited minutes ( which costs more ) but would advised about it, if they exceed 500 but stayed under 700 mins , they obviously should ask about moving onto that 

giraffe69

"How can they increase your agreed contract during its lifetime? "

A lot of sympathy ends there. You chose not to read or understand your contract.

Do you need the calls package? I ended mine and now use a mobile which has unlimited minutes anyway, not that I use that many. If you do that you can still receive calls via your landline if that's what you want.

If you end up going to someone else it is very likely that they will also increase prices once per year although let's hope CPI has come down by next year!

badmemory

My account still says 500mins & has been for a couple of years now.  Does anyone know when that is likely to change.  Yes I have checked each bill has a little picture of a circle with 500 & how many minutes I have actually used.  Just in case I am too stupid to read the 500 on there.  Whilst my contract does say the increase in prices it does not say a change to the number of minutes.

poppasmurf_bewdley

For virtually everybody, BT's Halo is a con. They keep pushing it because it's pure profit for them. Just go for straight broadband without the embelishments. 

badmemory

I think it depends if you need the speed.  Our latest is 140 but I think it does still depend on where you are.  For some reason despite not living in the centre of anywhere we have always had better speeds that some centres of population.