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BT Price Hike.
[Deleted User]
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As so many of us are I am on limited income and have the minimum package to enable me to keep up with the World.
I very occasionally use an extra gb on my broadband service, till now I have been charged £1 for that misdemeanor.
After careful reading of the latest missive from the suits at BT, I now find that if I do that in future it will cost me £5.
It seems that they are taking the lead from the Banks and penalizing those least able to afford it.
I look forward to the day my local exchange is unbundled, then at least there will be some fair competition.
I very occasionally use an extra gb on my broadband service, till now I have been charged £1 for that misdemeanor.
After careful reading of the latest missive from the suits at BT, I now find that if I do that in future it will cost me £5.
It seems that they are taking the lead from the Banks and penalizing those least able to afford it.
I look forward to the day my local exchange is unbundled, then at least there will be some fair competition.
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Comments
Have a look around at providers who are 'unlimited' or who don't charge you if you go over.
Plusnet might be a good one to look at, or ditch BT and get the whole package from the PO like I did. line rental, calls (even to mobiles at weekends) and unlimited B/Band all in for £25/month.
If you're on a low income then yes you need to be more aware of what you spend. So ensuring you don't go over the limit should be your first step.
Just live within your means an you canhave a perfectly acceptable standard of living.
So if you're going to go over by 1GB then you might as well use another 4GB
Thank you for your unnecessary advice, I do live within my means, I am not, and never have been on benefit of any kind. My post was to underline the changes that BT have made to their charges and point out that those changes impact on the poorer end of the customer base.
I feel that the changes are a deliberate attempt, as they have done with the Phone charges, to encourage more people to take up unlimited contracts.
Would you apply the same logic if your Greengrocer decided to do the same with the price of his potatoes, I doubt it, you would probably use a different Greengrocer, as I will with BT.
I can second that as I did exactly the same, I ditched BT and got the whole package from the PO and and my monthly bill is nearly 50% cheaper than what I used to pay to BT, more or less, for the same service.
I used to pay £24.99 just for BT broadband now I pay £25 including the line rental!
As well as free calls to mobiles, you also get free international calls up to 40 countries at weekends.
Thanks Appleseed and Young Turks, Just off to the Post Office.
Good point well made. What is your current DL allowance from BT may I ask?
I am on Option 1 which has a 10gb allowance.
Then why mention that OP is on low income and then yak on about hitting the ones on lowest income.
Virtually all telecoms and TV companies are offering some sort of bundle these days, if you have services else where it will be worth at least looking at them.
Who's 'yakking' on, I didn't mention a thing about the OP's income.
OP - To force you to take an extra 50% of your DL allowance is a bit OTT, I've noticed that other ISPs are selling extra DL allowance in blocks rather than per GB as used to be the norm.
Please note in my original post there is no mention of low income, it says limited, there is a difference, it also fails to mention poor, it says those that can least afford it.
My main interest is value for money, and an uncomplicated price structure.
So what is the difference between poor and those least able to afford it ?
Anyway, have you looked at my query on the next post ?
Sorry, replying to the wrong post.
Hey arirsole - what are you getting charged for option 1 ?
According to the Bt site Option 1 seems to be
£14.49 with weekend calls
But for £3 extra you goto 40gig usage and probably no worries about running up bills. Just a suggestion. Looks like you are tipping the scales of being a light user so maybe better to get peace of mind ?
Many thanks for your suggestion, I have just come off the phone after a long conversation with a BT and have been advised that as I get my present BB1 package for £12.99 after various discounts, they can only upgrade me to BB2 at £20.99.
An increase of £8.00.
The convoluted way these charges are arrived at only reinforces my wish for a more transparent pricing structure.
But the Standard Post Office Broadband which is about the same price as BT only allows you 5GB download. So you will end up in the same boat.
For someone on Value that's almost doubling your price...
At the moment for 10gb and phone I pay BT £25.69
PO offers unlimited BB and phone for £25.50.
If I want 40gb and phone from BT it will cost £32.78.
The PO contract is 12 months, the BT contract is 18months.
Sadly I am in contract with BT till April next year, but I will use the remaining time to research further.
Plusnet also charge £5.00 if you go over the usage allowance.
And? Unless you're into anything illegal there's nothing to worry about is there?
I once asked what the limit was on 'unlimited' and was told that once you exceed 100GB for a 2nd time in a six month period they send you an email suggesting that you might perhaps want to ease up a bit.
I've had no problems of any kind and I've had a flawless service with a steady speed of just under 7Mbit
With BT at the mo, have a MAC, not certain where to go
exchange only has the standard ADSL no LLU's etc