Home phone News

TalkTalk hikes line rental and call costs

Monday 9 August, 2010

By Becca Talbot - becca@consumerchoices.co.uk

TalkTalk is following in the steps of rival provider BT and hiking its line rental and daytime call costs this autumn.

TalkTalk (www.talktalk.co.uk), one of Britain’s biggest home phone and broadband suppliers, is set to increase its line rental charge by 55p a month, from 1 October.

Line rental with TalkTalk will cost £12.04 a month - the same price BT will charge from 1 October - if customers pay by direct debit and sign-up for online paperless billing.

TalkTalk is also increasing some of its call costs from 1 October:

• The cost of weekday daytime calls for customers on TalkTalk’s Talk UK Evening & Weekend call plan will increase from 5.8p to 6.4p per minute
• The call connection fee - a one-off charge for each call made outside of your inclusive calls - is increasing from 9.9p to 10.9p per call
• The Mobile Extra call plan add-on is increasing from 45p a month to £1.46 a month, which TalkTalk said is “in line with BT’s equivalent service”.

A spokesman for TalkTalk told the The Telegraph: “We don’t like raising prices, but we need to from time-to-time. We are at the value end of the spectrum and still pretty confident we offer great value.”

TalkTalk is also increasing some of its international call rates, but said that customers who had inclusive free calls to some overseas destinations would be unaffected by the changes.

Simon Piper, business development manager at Homephonechoices.co.uk, said: “While these increases are disappointing news for TalkTalk customers, they do not come as a shock. It is not surprising to see TalkTalk following BT’s lead, and other suppliers will undoubtedly follow before long.”

Piper added: “In light of these increases, anyone looking to reduce their phone bills should consider switching to a provider like Primus Saver or YourCalls.net, both of whom offer cheaper line rental and call costs.”