''BT Chargecard Prices''

karin

Today we had a letter from BT which initially was very confusing.

It said that ''your chargecard call costs are being reduced''.

I had not even realized we HAD a BT chargecard.

Farther on it stated that though call costs were going down we would have a £1.18 per quarter charge levied wether we used the card or not.

It said if we preferred we could stay on the original tariff and not pay the quarterly charge if we rang to inform them.

As I didn't think we even had a card I rang on 150,(free), to enqire.

It seems that the card in question is the ''call home '' card we got for our son back in 1992 when he went away to college so that he could keep in contact with us,(before the time of universal mobiles).
I had not realized it was still in force.

I had completely forgotton about this and have no idea what happenned to the card itself as Stephen moved to Australia about 5 years ago.
WE have certainly no use for it, but if I had not cancelled it today would have cost more than £4.72+17% VAT per year for a long lost and forgotton card.

Thought you all out there should know about this if you had a card back in the time of Maureen Lipman's ''Beatty''. Be sure it is now cancelled or it could be soon costing money.

AP

Another BT's stealth price increase! I wonder how many customers are still renting a telephone from them and just forget about it.

nlamont

On the letter they give a number to ring if you *don't* want to be upgraded to the new quarterly-charge tariff. That number is always busy, with a message telling you to email them. Again they probably hope you'll give up and forget.


I've tried emailing them so will wait a day for a reply then try 150 as you did.

nlamont

Well I tried the email address given and it bounced. I tried 150, went through a dozen menus and held for 10m, got a guy who said I only had one chargecard (not true) but he couldn't check for any more or cancel it. He gave me another number - 'direct number to the dept that deals with them' 0800 345 144.

I gave up after 15m.

I hate BT!

karin

If you give up that's
- £1.18+17.5% v.a.t. - per quarter.

That's £4.72 + 87p v.a.t.= £5.59 each year just for nothing.

Don't let them have it!!!

pricefighter

If you have a problem with BT and you are getting no where fast call them at H/O on 0207 356 5000 ,and the customer service people that answer that no will usually get someone to ring you back, and resolve the issue.

FJSRiDER

Just called them on 0800 783 7792.

Had a few attempts as there was a message that said they were busy. Eventually it was answered, I was held in a queue for @6 min and spoke to an operator who asked my 'Account number' (on the letter - not your usual BT account reference) and confirmed my surname and cancelled the card.

Not that hard. :rolleyes:

feijoa

Letter from BT received today re new BT Chargecard prices. Haven’t used our 3 Chargecards for years, since getting mobile phones. In fact, I’d forgotten we still had the Chargecards – and was just about to shred the letter as being no longer relevant to us – until I read it through and discovered that BT is about to introduce a new quarterly fee of £1.18 per Chargecard. These new quarterly charges will be effective from 8 August and will be billed retrospectively on BT phone bills from November.

The important point here is – YOU MUST OPT OUT of this scheme in order not to be automatically debited for this charge. Call 0800 085 0968 before 1 August with your BT Chargecard numbers and the telephone number to which your BT Chargecard account is billed. I had no difficulty in getting through to this number – it is an automated service – and just opted out of the scheme. I’d earlier tried the other number given (0800 783 7792) which is to answer questions about chargecards – and kept getting “number engaged” – so decided to make sure I opted out of BT’s EXTORTIONATE scheme/scam! I can always cancel the cards later, but thought it vital to opt out of the new charges!

I wonder how many BT users will have done as I so nearly did – discarded the letter as no longer relevant, without reading through the thing. The new fees don’t exactly hit you in the eye!

JimArnold

Finally (40 minutes!) managed to cancel my chargecard - interestingly only 1 out of our families 4 cards was still active - the BT chap claimed they would be deactivated if not used - so don't worry if you've an old one you can trust BT not to bill you

***sarcasm mode off *****

To me the worrying bit of the letter is actually the line "Calls from BT payphones will now incur a surcharge" which applies even if you opt out of the new billing/charging procedure

I am sure everyone here will be appalled at the idea of agreeing to an unknown cost

Wish we had a real choice to move away from BT