Hi! Guys

Just to let you know that BT is putting up their charge for the 1571
facility to £3.00 from September.

Most BT customers will not have realised they were being charged let alone that an increase is on the immediate horizon.

If you have an inbuilt answering machine then this payment is totally wasted and can be cancelled easily.

Posted for information.

So does this mean anyone who has a BT answer service gets charged, or is there a free and a £3 version?

There are two versions of 1571, one that is currently free (providing you make at least 6 chargeable calls a quarter) and one that costs £1.50 a month. The latter allows you to add a personalised greeting.

I'm not sure what this has got to do with Broadcasting, mind you.

The memo I received from BT today says -

Dialling 1571 to pick up your voicemail will remain a service available at no charge. Customers who do not make chargable or inclusive calls with BT will be charged for BT Answer 1571 standard service. (£1 per month)

In essence people that are billed quarterly need to make just 6 chargable telephone calls (2 each month) to avoid being charged the extra £3 per quarter. 1571 return call service increases from 7.5 to 10p per use.

BT seems to provide a far from user-friendly service these days. It took me ages to get rid of their £4.50 bill processing charge and to get credited for paper free billing.

We pay for BT 1571 - for the simple reason if we r out and someone leaves us a msg - BT will txt my mbl, I ring home and as I have registered my mbl with the 1571 service it reconises me and allows me access to my 1571 msgs - even from Iceland

Well worth the charge

BT are a profit making company - of course they r going to find new revenue streams - BT are the only telecoms company forced to provide loss making phone box network. so stop moaning about nasty BT

There's a landline section on this forum these threads should be in really.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/f...prune=-1&f=131

BT have been charging for quite sometime for 1571 if you don't make the required number of calls to keep it free.

...but for how many years were you happy to pay the £3 extra for not paying by direct debit previously.

BT simply switched from charging £11.50 per month for line rental and offering a £1 discount for paying by direct debit to charging £10.50 for line rental and charging £1.50 if you don't pay by direct debit. For many many many years people paid extra for not paying by DD, but because BT simply changed to highlighting the fee and showing it differently people complained - granted the cost for not paying by DD did go up from £1 to £1.50.

The land line forum is now buried under broadband. Why?! There used to be a telephony forum. Perhaps this is why people are posting information about land lines in the broadcasting forum.

Could well be. Maybe DS need to be alerted to the fact they have screwed up there and need to make the telephone forum more easily visible.

You do realise you'll be annoying anyone who tries to phone you whilst the line is busy?

Instead of just getting the engaged tone, they'll be charged for the call whilst being prompted to leave a message. A complete rip-off.

You are not wrong there, this is the reason we never use the service.

Isn't the charge just the same as an answered call for the duration of the time using the messaging service? In which case it's either free, or the minimum call charge (unless the message is *really* long). When you get the message presumably you call back so they pay no more than if they'd got you first time? As such it only costs the piddling amount (if anything) of someone calling back. Saving a lot of fuss, and costing bugger all.

Oh and when I call someone I want to get in touch with them. Being able to leave a message forwards this aim more than an engaged tone.

I'd rather have the busy tone, as 99.5% of the people I've called with 1571 never realise they have a message waiting until it's too late.

Good point! I searched for ages to find the correct forum to post my comment. Apologies for making the mistake but the telephone forum should be be made more apparent.

Never called a mobile? If you don't get through then the VAST majority of the time you're connected to the voicemail.

It's not a rip-off, it's helpful; and if you find that all those little calls add up then consider a calling plan where you get free landline calls.

No, it's a rip-off.

Instead of BT getting the cash for just your call, they're now getting it for you leaving the message and the person calling you back...if they even pick up the message. If not, then you get hit with both barrels, as it were.

Are people really on the phone for so long that it's inconvenient for you to just...well...try again?

Agreed.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...73&postcount=3

Not if you call my mobile, my friends mobile or my families mobile. All have voicemail switched off.

It IS a RIP-OFF and we will not be a part of this RIP-OFF.

Why should people pay extra for a calling plan when without the terrible voicemail they wouldn't get charged full stop.

We as a family agree too as do my friends.

I guess I'm of a different mindset; I'm happy to leave a message, plus my voicemail is on for when i'm out of signal. I make the majority of my calls from mobile or VoIP, so it's only an inclusive minute on the mobile or 1.2p of VoIP to leave a short message. Plus then there's the record that I called, should that be required! Most voicemails timestamp calls.

I use the services which I want on my mobile / landlines; I'm not going to disable my voicemail just to save a few tiny pence, the convenience far outweighs the pennies it'll save; if someone doesn't wish to risk paying to speak to me then there's always email.

Apart from the call being small, is there not a call set up fee charged by BT for each and everyc call made and answered?

Yes.

But it also doesn't matter the length of the call -- your minimum charge is for five minutes.

One minute actually - so the cost is 11p (7p connection [from next month] + 4p [peak] for the first minute).

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...73&postcount=3

Yeah, and as calls are rounded up to the next minute, even a 1 second call is charged at 1 minute and therefore 11p.


Not sure where Mark got this 5 minutes minimum call charge from.

If I call anyone on a landline or mobile and they are busy or out then I'm happy to ring back later. I don't want to pay for a call to leave a message. My mobile has voicemail switched off as I dont want to waste my friends money calling me and not getting me.

This is all a rip of by the communications companies.