Home Phone Providers

BT line rental

By Becca Talbot - becca@consumerchoices.co.uk

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Are you looking to come back to BT? See what’s included in BT’s line rental, and is it good value compared to competitors? (Updated 1/4/10)

BT (www.bt.com) is the UK’s biggest telecommunications company, offering consumers phone packages, a digital TV service and a variety of broadband deals. It has over 20 million customers and provides over 25 million line exchanges.

What is BT line rental?

Line rental is the monthly charge you have to pay to your home phone provider to use your landline. BT increased its charges on 1 January 2010, and line rental with the company currently costs £11.54 a month.

Switching your line rental and calls both to BT means you’ll only receive one bill each month, and will only have to pay one supplier, making things a little easier.

If you’ve just moved into a new house or have a cable phone line with Virgin Media and are looking to switch back to BT, installing or reconnecting a BT phone line is really easy, though it will cost around £127.99.

All BT packages come with free weekend calls, and there is the option to sign-up to free evening and daytime calls as well, with BT’s Unlimited Anytime Plan, which only costs £4.99 a month.

Paying for BT line rental

If your home phone service is provided by BT, the way you choose to pay for it could dramatically impact the amount you’re charged.

Signing up to receive paperless e-bills (bills that are emailed to you rather than sent in the post) and paying by either monthly or quarterly direct debit is the cheapest way to get BT line rental. If you receive e-bills and pay by direct debit, BT line rental costs £11.54 a month.

To receive paper bills in the post costs an extra £1.25 a month. And if you pay by any other method other than direct debit, BT will charge you a processing charge of £1.50 a month. So, signing up to paperless billing could save you £15 a year, and paying by direct debit will save you a further £18 a year.

Alternatively, you could get BT Line Rental Saver and pay one year's line rental in advance for even bigger savings. BT Line Rental Saver is available with all BT calling plans and packages.

BT calling features

It is possible to tailor your BT home phone service with calling features such as Call Divert and Call Barring.

Some of these services are free, while others are charged either monthly or per use. Anonymous Caller Reject, for example, costs £4 a month, while Caller Display costs £2.59 a month with BT.

Calling feature prices vary between companies, so if you regularly use these add-ons it may be worth comparing prices from several home phone providers to see if you could save money on your phone bills by switching your line rental.

For more information, read our guide on how calling features are priced.

Can I get cheaper line rental?

There are plenty of home phone providers in the UK that offer cheaper line rental than BT, such as Primus, Direct Save Telecom (www.directsavetelecom.co.uk) and cable home phone provider Virgin Media (www.virginmedia.com). Switching your line rental and home phone service to another provider could save you a considerable amount on monthly phone bills over time.

Primus currently offers the cheapest line rental deal in the UK (available exclusively through Homephonechoices.co.uk, at only £8.99 a month for its Home Phone Saver package. This deal includes free unlimited evening and weekend calls.

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