Hello, I recieved a Sky offer in the post recently, they are offering me a free Sky+ box, free Sky Talk and free Sky Broadband with free installation, and I am really interested in this. But, my mum wants to keep BT (even though its very expensive) only for the purpose that she knows telediscount works on it, so I need to know whether telediscount works on Sky Talk package with no extra charges?

For those who don't know, Teledisount gives really cheap calls to international countries.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...3#post16699113

Wise mother you have there, wanting to keep BT line, very sensible.

How is that wise? She doesn't have a lot of money and it's costing a fortune, Sky is way cheaper.

A sweeping statement. Just a few points:

Sky line rental - £10.00/month (some say it's really at least £27/month because you have to pay them at least an additional £17/month for subscription TV channels in order to be alowed to have their line rental).

BT line rental £10.50/month.

So, depending on your point of view, Sky line rental is 50p/month cheaper or at least £16.50/month more expensive.

0845 calls
BT - 2p/minute daytime, ½p/minute evenings/nights;
Sky - 6p/minute at all times

0870 calls
BT - 6p/minute daytime, 1½p/minute evenings/nights;
Sky - 10p/minute daytime, 8p/minute evenings/nights.

Sky works out cheaper for me becuase we need broadband and phone (tv is a perk) and for all its £33 a month (£5 broadband) where as AOL was £14.99 a month and BT was costing (on average) £160 every three months.

About those numbers, 0845 and 0870, what kind of numbers are they and are they important.

Oh come on be serious, you know full well what 0845 and 0870 numbers are, don't play the fool.

If your BT bill was so high then something was up, obviously you weren't on the correct plan. You should have looked into that sooner, can't really blame BT for you not selecting the right plan.

BT even offer inclusive evening and weekend calls for no extra charge over the £10.50 line rental, yes Sky offer that too, the sensible customers would have had BT for line rental and Primus Saver 2 for calls - inclusive evening and weekend calls for no extra charge, daytimes not starting until 08:00, so 2 extra hours each weekday of inclusive calls, plus theres no connection charge and you can still use cheap call providers such as Call 18185 for cheap calls to mobiles and international.

Yes, Sky saves you 50p on line rental, but savings are lost on higher cost of non-inclusive calls.

sorry, I am very new to telephone tarrifs such as a BT, I don't know what the 0845 and 0870 numbers are.

I also read somewhere (but can't find it anymore) that BT (like Sky Talk) charge 7p for a connection charge, if this is not the case please tell me.

Yes, BT and Sky charge a connection fee, and do many other providers including cable. Primus Saver however do not.

Many businesses including banks, some doctors surgeries etc don't use regular 01 or 02 numbers, they use revenue sharing numbers, some being 0845 and other 0870.

So you have to be careful not to call numbers such as 0870, 0871, 0844 or 0845 and these are not inclusive and Sky rip you off on calls to 0845 and 0870. Plus only BT are forced to charge the correct rates for published numbers, other telephone providers can and do charge more. Hence you see the adverts stating the cost from a BT line and then that other providers maybe higher.

There's the website www.saynoto0870.com that lists some alternatives to 0870 and 0845 so you are less likely to get fleeced. Sky are just trying to grab back as much money as they can, so the headline rate looks good, but actually costs you more when you find non-inclusive calls are inflated.

Remember that Sky's line rental of £10/month includes evening and weekend landline calls (and caller display if you want that) for no extra charge.
And who uses 0845/0870 numbers anyway? If I can't find a 'normal' landline alternative i don't call it unless I really have to!

Good point - if you can be bothered to look up an alternative to the 0870/0845 numbers the Sky package can work out cheaper.

Don't forget you can get free caller display with BT (have done so for years) and you can either get inclusive evening and weekend calls from BT or the better option Primus Saver 2 for no extra charge, plus as line rental remains with BT, you know you can't get fleeced by the other telco over-charging for certain calls and the fact they don't bar you from routing certain calls through to cheaper carriers.

Sadly there are too many people who see a 'saving' and think it is a big saving, when if they had actually looked into the telco market, like both myself and Heinz have done for many years, they'd see what they though was a big saving is at best a small saving and for the vast majority of people they end up paying more. That's not to say for years they were not on the best tariff, but then they should have checked before.

well I checked with my mother, she says that she doesn't really call those numbers, we mostly call landline phones in the evenings, so I reckon it does pay off, especially that in January, Sky will be adding an additional £5 to broadband users WITHOUT Sky Talk so it saves I believe.

If I pay BT line rental, and get Sky Talk (free evenings and weekends), I only pay the BT line rental and Sky for using their service, is this right. Or will BT be charging me a little extra?

Also, with that in mind, if we decide to cancel Sky after a year and go back to BT (still paying the BT line rental), will I have to pay a fee?

Last question, BT charges 7p extra for the first minute of a call like Sky, yes (just want to verify both charge 7p - BT doesn't say anything about this)?

can anyone help me with this please?

BT charges a 7p 'call set-up fee' on all chargeable calls.

Sky charges a 7p connection fee on all chargeable calls.

thank you

If I pay BT line rental, and get Sky Talk (free evenings and weekends), I only pay the BT line rental and Sky for using their service, is this right. Or will BT be charging me a little extra?

BT will charge you extra for Caller Display (£5.25/quarter) and basic 1571 (£3/quarter) and for any other Calling Features you activate.

Caller display and 1571 can be free from bt even if your calls are charged for by another service provider if a couple of chargable calls are made over bt
per charging period ( dial 1280 before the number) but sky are removing the ability to do this for their customers.
bt offer free evening and weekend calls if you agree to a minimum term contract ( same as lots of service providers) so given the op's claim that the most important thing is telephone and broadband ( and not tv) then you can probably beat £33 a month ( plus call charges)
the thing with sky is that you need to take tv and thats great if you want/need sky tv , otherwise you are paying a minimum of £17 extra per month for the tv to get 'cheap' broadband....line rental is hardly a saving and call charges depending on what sort of calls you make could be more with sky than bt...
Last edited by iniltous : 21-12-2008 at 12:27