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Get cheap line rental

By Seamour Rathore - seamour@consumerchoices.co.uk

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If you’ve never switched home phone provider, now is the perfect time - you could save loads by signing up for paperless bills and paying by monthly direct debit. (Updated 13/4/10)

These days you don’t have to take your home phone line from BT (www.bt.com) - there are plenty of alternatives available such as Primus (www.primus.co.uk), who currently offer the cheapest line rental through Homephonechoice.co.uk. Some even run their own networks like TalkTalk (www.talktalk.co.uk). You could also get a cable landline through Virgin Media (www.virginmedia.com).

Whatever option you're considering for your landline and line rental, you should check that your call charges will be lower under your new provider, too. Compare line rental charges for the best deals.

Line rental options

You don’t have to stay with BT, you can get line rental - as well as a call service - from other suppliers such as TalkTalk (www.talktalk.co.uk), Orange (www.orange.co.uk) and Primus (www.primus.co.uk). As a result many suppliers have since lowered their line rental charges, so your bill may come down too.

Even if you get your line rental from a company other than BT, you can keep your existing phone number and you won't need an engineer to visit - switching really is that simple.

If you get your home phone via a cable landline from Virgin Media (www.virginmedia.com), you won’t be paying BT as you won't be using its copper wire network. Virgin Media has its own network of fibre optic cables laid across Britain. If you don't have a cable connection at your house though, you will need to get one set-up.

Telephone line rental costs

All phone line providers (except Virgin Media) use copper wire (ADSL) lines. Recent years have seen a host of competitor companies spring up in the home phone market offering cheaper line rental and often more competitive call charges.

Several companies now offer free call charges - within a monthly package - if you sign a contract for their line rental. Primus offers one of the cheapest deals at £8.99 a month, which includes free calls at the evenings and weekends to UK landlines.

With many companies, you can make further savings by bundling your broadband and home phone services.

TalkTalk (www.talktalk.co.uk) offer great bundle plans which include broadband, free evening and weekend calls and line rental, or broadband, anytime calls plus line rental.

Look at your complete range of options using our home phone price comparison service.

The future for line rental

Many people have landlines in order to get broadband, but you currently can’t get broadband-only packages unless you have cable. In the US however, you can purchase pure broadband without a home phone connection, known as "naked ADSL."

Communications regulator Ofcom allows suppliers to choose whether or not they want to offer this service and as yet in the UK, none do. However, naked ADSL could have a massive impact on the future of line rental.

There has also been a rise in mobile broadband recently, which is totally separate from your home telephone line. Orange (www.orange.co.uk), 3, O2 and others offer mobile broadband on a contract and pay-as-you-go basis. To find out more read our guide to mobile broadband.

Line rental - top tips

You shouldn’t switch to a new home phone provider just because they have cheaper line rental as the most you will save is around £3 a month. However, combined with the cheaper call charges offered by many companies, you can make huge savings. Check out our best buy tables for a quick idea of who offers the most competitive home phone price packages.

Also, if you don’t already pay by direct debit and are able to, you should definitely do so as this can save you as much as £5 a month with some suppliers. And find out if your provider offers paperless billing, as it’s good for the environment and will usually earn you a discount too.

Think about the kind of calls that you make, how long they are and where they’re to. If you only have a phone line for your broadband connection then maybe moving to Virgin Media would be a good idea - they also offer free digital TV with some phone packages.

If on the other hand you make daily calls abroad, then one option is to go for a provider who offers cheap line rental and low international rates such as 24Talk (www.24talk.com) or TalkTalk (www.talktalk.co.uk). TalkTalk offers its Evening and Weekend and Anytime phone customers unlimited calls to 36 international destinations, with countries including France, the US and the Republic of Ireland.

You should also look into making international calls over the internet, this is known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) .

Keeping your needs in mind and thinking about the way that you use you telephone is the best way to guarantee that you get the best value deal.

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