Are We Being Ripped Off?

[Caran]

Just been on the phone to my brother, we got on the subject of phone bills. He will not have his internet through his phone company. He uses a dongle. He is with BT and he reckons he only pays £15.80 (I think) a quarter for his line rental. He says when you sign up for the Internet the line rental changes to £17.70 per month. This cannot be right can it? He was quoting from a bill in front of him.

[Old_Geezer]

Sounds rather weird. Something not spotted I suspect.

[Caran]

Ive tried to look into it on the BT site but didn't get anywhere.

[Jackdaw33]

£15.80 a quarter can't be right. I'm with BT, no internet, and it's more like £45 a quarter. Sure it isn't per month?

[Caran]

That's what I said to him Jackdaw33, but he was adamant it was quarterly.

[jourdain2]

We've just kicked BT into touch. In a rush to get set up when we got back we used them - thank heavens they altered their pricing last month so we could get out. We now have internet and phone (includes line-rental, free phone calls 24/24 and free international calls to about a 2 hr. limit a month plus unlimited broadband) for £20 a month with S.S.E.. BT was costing us over £30 with free calls only in the evening and full-price international calls.

[Jackdaw33]

He's got to be wrong. Otherwise can you ask him how I can get on the same tariff.

[Buenchico]

BT's line rental is £17.99 per month. If you pay for 12 months in advance you get 10% off, bringing it down to the equivalent of £16.19 per month. Most people can't get reductions on those charges.

However if your brother receives certain state benefits he can get his line rental down to £15.30 per quarter (which is very close to the figure quoted in your post) by using BT Basic:
http://www.bt.com/includingyou/other-products-services-bt-basic.html

If he then wants to add a limited broadband service he can pay £4.85 per month for it (while still receiving the discounted line rental):
http://www.bt.com/includingyou/bt-basic-broadband.html

However if he wants a 'full' broadband service he'll have to pay the regular line rental (plus, of course, the cost of the broadband access).

[Togo]

//Wireless broadband dongles work by communicating with a mobile mast and mobile network rather than connecting to another wireless device like the normal wireless dongle. This means that you can wirelessly connect to the internet from any location that has a mobile signal.//
He must be getting net services from a mobile mast or network. Someone is paying somewhere.

[Jackdaw33]

Quite. I have a mobile dongle and pay between £15 and £21 per month, depending on how many gb of data I want. Caran has not told us how much he is paying for his dongle.

[Caran]

Chris that made for very interesting reading. But he is not on benefits. He retired last month from a very high salaried job.
Incidentally many years ago he did have broadband with BT, in the days when you had pay as you go. He had a problem when they sent him a bill for hundreds of pounds. When he queried it they told him he hadn't logged off properly and had been connected for a very long time.
I know he raised Kane over it. I wonder if they gave him this contract as a sweetener for compo. Must give him another ring.

[Buenchico]

BT used to offer a 'low user' tariff, which was similar to the current 'BT Basic' (in that it had a very low line rental but relatively high call charges) but was available to anyone. (My late father was on that tariff). It was discontinued for new users a long time ago.

It occurs to me that your brother might have opted for that tariff many years ago and, although it's no longer available to new users, BT are still honouring the original contract (by effectively giving him BT Basic without the need for him to meet qualifying conditions for it). That would explain how he's currently getting a very low line rental and also why he'd then have to pay the full line rental for broadband access (as BT would regard that as closing the old contract and starting a new one).

[Togo]

Which must mean buenchico that the net access is being 'paid' for via other provider. Or am I being ripped off.

[Caran]

I have phoned him. He is on BT Basic and has been for twenty odd years.
He mentioned it to a work colleague a couple of years ago. Who rang BT and asked why am I not on the same tariff as X he really kicked up a fuss. They agreed to him having it too but not at £15.30 but £18 ish a quarter.

[Jackdaw33]

Chico is spot on. I have been with BT for 30 years and used to get the low user rental rebate. When I moved house and had to get a new number it suddenly disappeared and I am paying much more pro rata than the, Wonder if it's worth giving them a call. Free evening and weekend calls are of no benefit to me. If I make a call once a week then I am being extravagant. I only have the phone so that people can call me, and also in the event of an emergency. My calls amount to about £2 per quarter, whereas the bill is anything between £50 - £60.

[tonyav]

Sounds like a good deal that you have there, jourdain. Who are S S E ?.