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BT drops its package prices
BT (www.BT.com) has announced new price cuts to its telephone packages bringing its Option 3 package from £9.95 to only £7.95, which will come into affect 1 August. It has also reduced its Options 1 and 2, bringing Option 2 down to only £3.45 a month, from £3.95, and capping Option 1 evening and weekend calls at 4.5p, previously 5.5p.
Both Options 2 and 3 are also subject to introductory offers giving Option 3 customers three months for free, while Option 2 customers signing up to 18 month contracts can get an impressive 12 months for free.
Are they more competitive now?
Unfortunately its not all good news. Some of their costs have also gone up. Options 2 and 3 customers will now pay a 6p set-up fee on all calls (except free numbers). This means that even a one second call will be charged at 6p, doubling from its previous cost of only 3p.
BT is also scrapping its separate daytime, evening and weekend rates on calls to mobile phones and non-geographical numbers starting with 0845 and 0870 in favour of just daytime and evening rates.
This means that the cost of calling a mobile phone during the day at weekends will jump from only 5p to 12.5p per minute - a huge increase.
Chris Eagle, HomePhoneChoices.co.uk commercial manager, said: “Customers need to be aware of both the price cuts - which are heavily publicised - and the increases that receive less exposure.
“For example, call costs to mobile phones at peak times are going down by half a penny a minute, but at the same time, they are jumping by 150 per cent at weekend daytimes. While BT says that its customers make most of their calls to landlines in the evening, when the cost of a call up to an hour in length will drop to 4.5p on Option 1, other phone calls could end up costing a lot.”
What to consider
“Because BT is restructuring costs rather than simply lowering prices, customers need to think carefully about their calling habits and change tariffs or provider if necessary,” said Mr Eagle.
When thinking about home phone providers, consumers need to think about more than just the headline package cost - and be aware that the cheapest competitor to BT’s Option 3 is only £4.99 from YourCalls (www.YourCalls.net). They also need to think about call costs and the fact that they can even make savings on line rental costs.
“Customers are no longer bound to BT in having to pay its £11 line rental. Line rental from YourCalls is £9.99 a month, while Toucan's (www.Toucan.com) line rental is only £8.99 - and YourCalls doesn’t have a call connection fee.
“While this might not seem like a substantial saving, over the course of the year, and combined with call charge savings and a cheap package, customers can save a significant amount,” he concluded.
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