I receive my phone and broadband services from British Telecom. I am on the unlimited evening and weekend plan, paying £15.45 per month for calls and on Broadband Option 2, paying £19.56 per month, for internet usage. Earlier this week I received my quarterly bill from BT for £143, of which only £8.00 was made up of call charges.

I am keen to save money and wonder if there is an alternative phone provider who can give me the same package at a lower cost. Presumably, I will need to retain my BT line and pay them the line rental and subscribe to another provider for calls and the internet.

Can anyone suggest a cheaper package?

I have exactly the same problem - we barely use our phone at all alnd are being charged £160 per quarter for line rental and internet.

It depends If you live in an LLU area (people like talk talk) can give you amazing deals.

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/se...xchange-search

type the name of where you live here and it will give you a list of (if any LLU's)

LLU's are companies that have setup hardware at the exchange and totally bypass the BT system MOST offer the complete range of services MUCH cheaper than BT

If you don't use the phone much during the day (and based on some quick maths on your numbers) moving to "Unlimited Evening & Weekend Plan" would save you about forty quid per quarter.

Something odd there. BT's most expensive Calling Plan plus Line Rental only comes to just under fifty quid per quarter, which means your Broadband is costing more than thirty pounds per quarter more than BT's most expensive Option (Three).

Hi chunkymagmonkey

I'd like to offer some assistance with your bill could you drop me a pmm, on reply I can offer some further assistance.

Stuart

Happy to do so. How do I contact you? Sorry to show my ignorance, but what is a pmm?

I am sure he means a pm

I've given up asking BT for explanations re the billing .... done it twice now recently and have recieived answers (over a week later) but they are so convoluted, they are incomprehensible

Still, once I decide which mobile phone I want I will be moving mobile and shortly after probably my internet ...

Hi Tomorrow

Sorry to see that your questions have not been answered successfully in the past, I have pm'ed you. I'd like to try to help if you reply.

Stuart

Congratulations tomorrow - you're lucky! I have been waiting for 4 months for an explanation re their billing charges..... and am still waiting.

Sounds like your on the wrong plan.

Line Rental paid by DD is £11.25 per month with paper free billing.
Evening and Weekend calls are free if you agree to be on on 18 month contract.
24.46 per month for option 3 broadband. obviosley less for option 1 or 2.

Therefore it should be around £107.50 per quarter if you don't make any other paid for calls or add £15 for the unlimited calls option.

So unless you ring mobiles or premium rate lines no one should be paying more that around £122.50 per quarter for unlimted calls at any time and unlimited broadband at anytime.

Maybe not the cheapest but their broadband connection is very reliable.

Wow not too sure why you've been waiting so long for a response Lullaby08, would you be able to PM me again and I'll look into this? I am sorry I didn't respond sooner.

You two need to move your phone & broadband services to Post Office. I used to get a quarterly bill of £160 from BT as well and I am now paying only £28-£29 a month + I get free international & mobile phone calls over weekends!

Amazing how much you can save when you shop around!

£160 v £85 no brainer, just switch and save.

Ok, but does the price from the Post Office include all line rental & broadband charges? How much does the Post Office charge for after 6pm calls during the week, cos my existing package gives me free calls to national, 0845 & 0870 numbers during this time frame, when we make most of our calls.

Is there a price comparison website for different the landline providers?

Yes PO price include all line rental, broadband charges and free evening and weekend calls as BT but + top of that you get free weekend calls to 40 international destinations as well as UK mobile numbers

I believe free evening and weekend calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers are also included but you may have to check that one on their website.

I think I pay £24.95 for line rental, broadband and all mentioned free calls.

I used to pay BT £24 just for broadband! It really works out much cheaper than BT that provides Post Office's broadband anyway!

Thanks BT Support - but it's not your fault personally

I'm waiting for the response from either the customer support call centre or to my letter of complaint (re the lack of response to my original request for info... and on it goes... )

I posted about this in another thread but i thought it might be worth repeating here,

I am also concerned about the cost of my BT quarterly bill and am trying to find a way to reduce it, My last bill from BT was £5.92 for calls then you add on Broadband, Line rental and VAT and it came to about £100 which i thought was a bit OTT,

I looked into BT's light user scheme but found out it had been scrapped but surfing the web today i found this,

http://www.btplc.com/inclusion/Needh...asic/index.htm

As i get Guaranteed Pension credit i may apply, I have just got to discover if you can still have Broadband with it, Anyone else on certain benefits may find it helpful!!

Update!! Phoned BT and they said, If you wait until after the 5th of December we are expecting a new release on this where you can still have Broadband with BT Basic so call us back after this date and we will set it up for you,

Sounds OK and i hope others may find this information of use!!

If you are very light internet users have a look at GreenBee
http://www.greenbee.com/phone-and-broadband
[LIST][*]They are part of the John Lewis partnership[*]They work on a BT line[*]You pay line rental to them[*]I think you get free calls 24hrs 7days[*]Free voicemail, caller display, 1471[*]All for £30 per month[*]They allow add ons for £1.47 each[*]ONLY DOWNER is 5GB usage[/LIST]
And here is a little trick (or a kick in the nuts if you have been paying £160) mention to BT that you want to move to GreenBee because they are cheaper and better and BT will pull a similar package out of their arses. Thats what happened to me but it was too little way too late.

I am looking at moving to TalkTalk or Tiscali or similar next month for about £32 per month which includes broadband and weekend and evening calls. I would go with GreenBee but 5GB is not enough for my usage.

Forgot to sat that the postoffice do a decent BT package aswell.

While we're on the subject of "Ripped off by BT" I make no excuses for refering you to my post on here, because I'm sick of being let down by them after 35 years of being a loyal customer.

All my friends are with BT for Phone and Broadband - by God, are they going to get an earfull when we all next meet!

Again, I make no excuses for spreading my grieveance as far and wide as possible:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s....php?t=1179874