Home phone Guides

Should I bundle my services?

By Seamour Rathore - seamour@consumerchoices.co.uk

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Do you want to save money on your landline and other services, such as broadband and digital TV? A “bundle” package may be right for you… (Updated 21/1/10)

Nowadays, you can get your broadband service and digital television subscription in a bundle with your home phone service. Some home phone providers, such as Virgin Media (www.virginmedia.com) and BT (www.bt.com), offer some great money-saving packages for those that want to take all their services from one supplier. And others, such as O2 and Orange (www.orange.co.uk) let customers bundle their mobile phone and mobile broadband contracts too.

But is bundling best, or should you look for the best deal for each individual service? Our guide helps you compare home phone bundles, explains the benefits of bundles, and aims to help you save money on your home phone bills…

What type of home phone bundle do you need?

When it comes to choosing a bundled package, the first step is to consider how you use each of the services individually. Ask yourself the following questions:

• How much do you use your home phone? - Do you make lots of international calls to family abroad? Do you barely use your landline and rely on your mobile instead? Do you sometimes work from home and make some calls during the day?
• How much do you use your broadband? - Do you download lots of music and films? Do you just use the web for a little surfing and emails? Are you an avid online gamer? Consider the broadband speed and download limit that will suit you best.
• How much TV do you watch? - Do you want to watch premiership football or international tennis tournaments? Do you just watch the main terrestrial channels and a few of the popular digital channels available on Freeview such as E4, Living and BBC3? Or does your family watch lots of different programmes from kids, to sport and lifestyle?
• Do you need mobile broadband? - Mobile broadband is revolutionising personal broadband usage and means you can get online from your laptop anywhere where there service provider has a mobile phone network. Will you need this kind of access?
• Do you want to get a mobile phone? - You may already be tied into a contract with a supplier, or you may be able to benefit from the big savings available by going for a “quadplay” bundle, by switching to a new mobile provider.

The advantages of bundling your services

There are three main benefits of bundling:

1. Saving money - Suppliers offer discounts to customers that take more than one service from them.
2. Less paperwork - You will receive less bills as it’ll come from just one supplier, and all your services will be paid for in one monthly sum.
3. Introductory offers - Suppliers offer discounts for new customers taking a bundled package, such as three months free broadband, or free evening and weekend calls.

A basic bundle consists of home phone with broadband, and many internet service providers now include line rental as part of their bundle.

Taking bundling a step further, the bigger suppliers also offer digital TV as part of a bundle too. These include Sky, Virgin Media (www.virginmedia.com), and TalkTalk (www.talktalk.co.uk).

Beyond that, Virgin Media also has the option of an additional Virgin Mobile contract with one of its bundles.

The advantages of taking your services from separate suppliers

After reviewing your household’s needs, if you want the best value broadband, television and phone services, you may find it better and more cost effective taking separate providers for all three.

There are several reasons why this might be in your best interests, such as the cost of making a call outside of your calling plan.

Virgin Media, BT and Sky, for example, charge quite a lot for calls outside some plans. Therefore, you could save money by making sure you have a home phone supplier that better suits your needs.

For example, if you rarely use your home phone, want a high speed broadband package but don’t want to pay a monthly subscription for your TV, you could be better off with a low-price phone package, such as that from Primus Saver, broadband from a provider like Be Broadband and the free digital TV service, Freeview.

If you spend hours on the phone, then you might be better off getting a call package and even line rental from a cheaper provider, making a saving on overall costs.

What home phone bundles are available?

There are loads of great bundled deals on the market - several of which could be right for you and could help you cut the cost of your home phone.

Compare phone bundles using our online postcode checker to see what’s available in your area, then switch your service to start saving money.

In addition, you might want to check out Broadbandchoices.co.uk for the best deals on separate broadband packages, as well as broadband with home phone bundles.

And there’s also Digitalchoices.co.uk for the best digital TV products, including bundles.

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