Home phone Guides

How to get free line rental

By Becca Talbot - becca.talbot@consumerchoices.co.uk

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Everyone has to pay line rental, whether you use your home phone for calls or just for your broadband connection. So how can you get “free” line rental? (Updated 07/01/10)

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Free line rental

No providers currently offer “free” line rental, however, some home phone suppliers offer “inclusive” line rental instead.

LLU broadband providers such as TalkTalk are able to offer much cheaper bundle packages, sometimes including line rental in the monthly cost. This is because they install their own equipment in the local telephone exchange, allowing them to bypass BT and run their own network - passing the savings on to you.

Line rental costs

BT (www.bt.com) is the UK’s biggest telecoms provider. It currently charges £11.54 a month for its line rental, if you pay by direct debit, with online paperless e-billing. This increases to £12.79 if you choose a paper bill, and £14.29 a month if you don’t want to pay by direct debit.

Some other providers, including TalkTalk (www.talktalk.co.uk), charge £11.49 a month, while Sky (www.sky.com) and Virgin Media (www.virginmedia.com) both charge £11 a month.

However, switching home phone provider can get you cheaper line rental as well as better value calls.

Saving on your line rental

Opting for a bundle package isn’t the only way that you can save on your line rental. There are lots of providers that offer cheaper line rental than BT and the other big suppliers.

For example, Primus Saver (www.primussaver.co.uk) currently offers the cheapest line rental in the UK for just £9.15 a month if you sign up using Homephonechoices.co.uk. Alternatively, YourCalls.net (www.yourcalls.net) offers line rental at £9.25 a month and Direct Save Telecom (www.directsavetelecom.co.uk) at £10.63 a month.

Compare call costs

When assessing your home phone costs, you also need to think about how you use your home phone. Consider the kind of calls you make and the time of day you make the majority of them. Then compare call costs and packages from different providers.

For example, if you make a lot of calls to friends and family abroad, you should look for a package with very cheap, or inclusive, international calls. Alternatively, you could make big savings with a provider like TalkTalk if the majority of your calls are made to local numbers. These calls are free to all TalkTalk customers.

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