Understanding a BT bill......

[NDA]

I've never spent much time looking at the impenetrable set of papers that come from BT.

Today I did.... For a £270 bill, 87% was for standing charges for line rentals, packages, friends and family, broadband line etc. the smallest portion was for actual calls.....

I know, too much time on my hands to be reading bills.... But is this fairly normal?

[Mobile Chicane]

NDA said:

I've never spent much time looking at the impenetrable set of papers that come from BT.

Today I did.... For a £270 bill, 87% was for standing charges for line rentals, packages, friends and family, broadband line etc. the smallest portion was for actual calls.....

I know, too much time on my hands to be reading bills.... But is this fairly normal?

Hop on to BT.com and cancel the services you don't use. Easily done.

[Chrisgr31]

What? £270 for standing charges? How on earth did that happen? Its £45.90 a month for BTs most expensive package I think which includes all calls (other than international and premiu rate I guess) unlimited broadband and TV. Its £41.90 a month if you exclude the TV. There are cheaper deals with less calls, TV, broadband etc and £3.70 a month can be saved by paying line rental as a single payment.

So what are all the standing charges? Its not a business account is it?

However I do have to BT Bills are a nightmare to understand, although they are easy compared to gas or electric bills!

[NDA]

Here's the list of charges.....

Phone line 'unlimited anytime plan' £41.7
Broadband 'unlimited anytime plan' £60.30
Broadband Option 3 £76.80
Bill Processing £5.40

If I can cancel these 'plans' then I will.

[ClassicMercs]

NDA said:

Here's the list of charges.....

Phone line 'unlimited anytime plan' £41.7
Broadband 'unlimited anytime plan' £60.30
Broadband Option 3 £76.80
Bill Processing £5.40

If I can cancel these 'plans' then I will.

Two broadband charges !! Something is not right surely.
And you still get a paper bill ?

You need to pay your line rental upfront - NOW to beat the price rise - £120 for the year. Then get some relevant packages added.
Did it all for the boss the other day - better prices by ringing them up compared to what are shown on the web. His bill will still be bigger than yours due to international calls - but saved about £300 a year with some tweaks.

[Simpo Two]

Ths is one reason that I changed to TalkTalk:

List of calls each with a price next to them.
Total underneath.
That's it.


Read and learn, BT.




The only PITA is their junk calls offering free broadband. Johnny Salesman gets quite perplexed when I tell him I prefer to pay for my broadband.

[matc]

NDA said:

Here's the list of charges.....

Phone line 'unlimited anytime plan' £41.7
Broadband 'unlimited anytime plan' £60.30
Broadband Option 3 £76.80
Bill Processing £5.40

If I can cancel these 'plans' then I will.

You need to have a look at the below link, it looks like you're paying for the internet twice and too much for your line rental and calls. I'd get on to them straight away and ask for some money back!

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProd...

[NDA]

Great - thanks for all the info. I will get on to them....

[Mojooo]

Someone call the Polcie - NDA is being raped.

At the very least it looks like you are paying for everything twice. I have the phone line and unlimited calls plan and it is only around £18-19.

You also appear to have 2 broadband packages and again they seem to be double the average high end broadband prices nowadays.

You should be able to get a full phone/calls/broadband packages for less than £50 nowadays.

Assuming you are a consuemr and do not actually have 2 phone lines.

[Chrisgr31]

NDA said:

Here's the list of charges.....

Phone line 'unlimited anytime plan' £41.7
Broadband 'unlimited anytime plan' £60.30
Broadband Option 3 £76.80
Bill Processing £5.40

If I can cancel these 'plans' then I will.

If you only have 1 phone line then you should probably get rid of everything other than the Broadband unlimited anytime plan. Do you pay by direct debit? Doing so gets rid of the bill processing charge I think!

[Chrisgr31]

Simpo Two said:

Ths is one reason that I changed to TalkTalk:

List of calls each with a price next to them.
Total underneath.
That's it.


Read and learn, BT.




The only PITA is their junk calls offering free broadband. Johnny Salesman gets quite perplexed when I tell him I prefer to pay for my broadband.

I used to hve TalkTalk but swapped back to BT last year. Decided the broadband service wasn't good and it was cheaper to go with BT. It might work if the wife didnt keep making calls of more than an hour!

[Who me ?]

Something else that used to happen ,don't know if it still does .Take caller ID -you get charged.Opt for the privacy package and caller ID is free.Something they didn't tell folks about .
Was looking to see if I could get a deal as a BT pensioner ,but with prices like that -won't bother .

[Simpo Two]

Well there's a funny thing. A phone bill is now a Computer, Gadget or Stuff.

[NDA]

Simpo Two said:

Well there's a funny thing. A phone bill is now a Computer, Gadget or Stuff.

It was in homes and whatnot, someone moved it....

[Big Al.]

Opps sorry about that, all sorted now.

[dfen5]

Mine with BT got to £63+ a month direct debit. Not happy. I told them to poke it and said I was going with Virgin. BT cut the bill to £23 a month line, phone, caller display & broadband.

They must pull in millions by just addding all those silly call packs on to people's bills.

[Deva Link]

NDA said:

Here's the list of charges.....

Phone line 'unlimited anytime plan' £41.7
Broadband 'unlimited anytime plan' £60.30
Broadband Option 3 £76.80
Bill Processing £5.40

If I can cancel these 'plans' then I will.

I've been having a complete nightmare with BT bills for what seems like a year now. They started off by cancelling the account I've had for 25yrs and switching everything to a BTVision account I didn't know I had - the bill when they did that ran to 12 pages of charges, credits and recharges! And on the bill it said the cancellations were "customer request".

I got a bill a couple of days ago and have it infront of me

3 mth line rental is £41.70.
Broadband & Calls is £39.00
- Calling Plan - Unlimited Anytime Plan
- Broadband - BT Broadband Option3
(This should cost £28/mth - £84/qtr - but I get a discount of £15/mth - £45/qtr).

I didn't do anything to get the discount, but BT called me and asked if I'd like to renew my contract for another 12 mths (I never knew I was on a 12mth contract) and offered me the above deal).

The one thing that continues to be wrong (as far as I'm concerned ) is they charge me £5/mth for BT Vision now. I never paid that in the past, and after the last bill they said they'd credit it back on this bill, which they have, but then charged for it again!!

I work from home and use my phone loads and my total bill for last qtr (not including the credit) is £132. Years ago, it was typically £350/qtr.