MSE News: BT to raise prices AGAIN - how to beat the hikes

JJ_Egan · 3 July 2018 at 9:00AM

Why on earth are you still using a paid for ISP Email .

Its not an abuse as BT are not a majority player in the email market .

mije1983 · 3 July 2018 at 1:49PM

Ewe121 wrote: »

it cannot be costing BT anything to provide the service?

How do you come to that conclusion?

coopertrooper38 · 4 July 2018 at 10:59AM

Just got off the phone to BT explaining that I wanted to leave due to price hike, and that I'd seen a better offer with Vodaphone.

Amicable conversation but had to wait out awkward silences, keep my nerve, not accept first offer and ask lots of questions and write down sums in order to work out whether what I was being presented with was actually as good as they were making out!

All in all, I have saved £166 this year alone with a 10-minute phone call, and assuming I wouldn't have changed my contract at the end of the year, I'll be paying £338 less next year as well - meaning a total saving over the 18-month period of £504.

PS. The person on the phone tried to tell me that I would lose my Line Rental Saver that I had already paid upfront, so watch out for that - I explained that I'd read that this would be part-refunded, and she moved on quickly!!!

jjay13 · 4 July 2018 at 11:22AM

Can anyone advise about our situation? We live on a new development with Superfast Broadband (Fibre To The Premises) but BT are the sole provider. The cost for landline and broadband has already increased twice - we started on £29.99 a month and it’s now up to £51! Including line rental in advance and anytime calls (We’ve no interest in having BT Sport)

We’ve checked for alternatives but nothing is available for our postcode. Surely it can’t be right that BT has this monopoly?

It seems our only alternative would be to use mobile WiFi through our phones , but the signal’s just not good enough.

Would welcome any ideas or advice, particularly from others in the same situation

Roger1 · 4 July 2018 at 11:32AM

We're with BT, current contract due to expire 1st week in August. We received the latest price increase info today.

In the first half of 2017 (so over a year ago), our area was extensively cabled for Virgin Media with the promise that we would 'soon' receive special VM offers. None has appeared to date. The MSE checker doesn't show Virgin for us and VM's website doesn't cover us for cable. So no VM.

Using the checker, I'm impressed by the NOW and Vodafone offers (but we're not yet VF customers).

A question about the checker:
- when there's an offer that includes 11/15/whatever channels (usually Sky), are Freeview channels still available?
- when would be the best time to say goodbye to BT?
- we have recently started to receive CNN International on Channel 339. Is that a Freeview or BT TV channel?

Many thanks.

DoaM · 4 July 2018 at 12:56PM

I've recently (about 2 weeks ago) renegotiated Infinity 1 + LL + Entertainment Plus TV + BT Sports for £31.49 per month on a 12 month contract. I then received the BT price increase email which will increase my costs by £4 per month.

I contacted BT (via their forum - I have a contact I have been dealing with) and they offered to credit my account with £72 to offset the increase. (That's 18 x £4 ... I haven't pointed out that it's 12 month contract I've moved to - which I have in writing).

DoaM · 4 July 2018 at 12:57PM

Roger1 wrote: »

we have recently started to receive CNN International on Channel 339. Is that a Freeview or BT TV channel?

Check the channel details on your TV box ... if it's a BT channel it'll most likely be an Internet channel.

DebzHyden · 4 July 2018 at 1:37PM

BE WARNED - BT will still try to con you into paying early termination and equipment charges!
I just switched to Virgin because of the price hike, but gave BT a chance to see if they could match the deal I was getting (£42 per month for 100Mbps download, All inclusive anytime landline calls and a sim with 2gb data, unlimited texts & 1500 minutes of calls). BT chap was very pleasant, but couldn't beat or match the Virgin deal (Best he could offer was £45 for 70 Mbps with £7.50 on top for anytime calls and extra £5 for 500GB data sim.
I was explicit in telling him I was terminating because of the price increase. Two minutes later I get this in an email from BT
"Your outstanding charges
As you're still within the minimum term of your contract, you'll have to pay a charge for each month you've got left. We expect this to be £97.72 by the time you move.
You'll also need to pay: £65.00 for broadband equipment charges.
If these charges don't look right, call us on 0800 028 3098. Please do that by 2pm on 13-Jul-2018. "

I called them & explained what happened and referred to an earlier post on this forum which clearly stated no charges are payable in these circumstances. He soon said all charges would be wiped once I mentioned the word SCAM!
I'm just wondering how many people will end up paying this as a result of cancelling their contract under similar conditions.

mije1983 · 4 July 2018 at 1:46PM

jjay13 wrote: »

We've checked for alternatives but nothing is available for our postcode. Surely it can't be right that BT has this monopoly?

The fact they have a monopoly is not BT's fault. It is the other ISPs you should be annoyed at. They have the ability to offer FTTP, but for their own reasons they decide not to. They can't be forced to provide it.

There are a few niche providers who also offer it, but if you are not happy with £50 a month then they will probably not be suitable for you either.

make_the_change · 4 July 2018 at 5:38PM

I have been notified of the latest BT broadband price increase and contacted BT on Friday about giving them notice to leave penalty free. The man on the phone told me I have a right to leave and to do this I was to find another provider who will take over.

I done this straight away and then had a letter saying I had been hit with over £250 worth of charges for leaving. I just come off the phon to BT and was informed I have a right to leave within 30 days of the email however if I wish to join a new provider, the new connection must be live within 14 days of the email and mine isn’t. Therefore I can not leave them for 30 days from notification and my line must be fully cut before I join someone new otherwise face the charges.

Can someone please clarify? I’m so angry with the patronising gentleman today and lack of information being given from my initial contact with BT.

Thanks!!

MSE News: BT to raise prices AGAIN - how to beat the hikes

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free