BT line rental and calls

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BT (www.bt.com) charges some of the most expensive line rental and calling charges in the UK, so if you’re looking to save money on your phone bills, switching to another provider with cheaper line rental may be a good idea.

Read our guide cutting the cost of your line rental for an overview of who offers the cheapest rates in the UK.

The table below shows BT’s prices, and below that are ways of reducing your bills if you don’t want to or can’t switch away from BT:

Paying BT bills by direct debit

The way that you pay your bills will affect the amount that you have to pay. If you can’t pay by direct debit, or choose not to for budgeting reasons, then BT will charge you an extra £1.80 a month, or £5.40 per quarter - a total of £21.60 a year more than direct debit customers.

Switching to pay your bills by direct debit will help reduce your home phone costs.

BT line rental charges

Even though competitors like TalkTalk (www.talktalk.co.uk) and Sky (www.sky.com) offer cheaper line rental, BT has increased its line rental to £14.60 a month. This is the price you'll pay if you pay by monthly direct debit and take paperless online billing.

BT line rental went up on the 4 January 2011, from £13.29 to £14.60, in line with the government VAT increase.

BT call costs

BT has also increased its call charges for customers who make calls outside of their calling plan.

The telecoms giant offers free UK local and national landline calls at the weekend free as standard, however customers that aren’t on the unlimited anytime calls package will be charged 1p per minute for evening calls and 7p a minute for calls made during the day.

Each call made outside of your BT price plan is also subject to a call connection fee of 13.1p per call.

BT calling features

The prices of some of BT’s extra calling features, such as “anonymous caller reject” and the call reminder service, have also increased:

• 1471 call return - While the price of calling 1471 to get the number of your last caller remains free, the call return service, where you dial 3 to call them back, now costs 10p per use.
• 1571 voicemail - As long as you make at least two chargeable calls from your BT line a month, this service will remain free. However, if you don’t make enough chargeable calls, BT will charge you £1 a month for the standard 1571 service. Using the call return service, where you dial 1571 followed by 0 to return the call, now costs 10p per use.
• Ringback - Using the ringback service to let you know when an engaged number is available now costs £2.70 a month.
• 3 way calling - Talking to two other people at the same time will now set you back £2.70 a month.
• Anonymous caller reject - The service to stop calls from withheld or anonymous numbers costs £4 a month.

Have you considered switching?

If you’re unhappy about BT’s price increases you should consider switching home phone provider.

Many of BT’s competitors not only offer cheaper monthly line rental but lower call costs too, so why not compare home phone providers today to see how much you could save.