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BT Mobile Data Costs

RodoRod — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 17:26:27 GMT

Are BT for real?

I recently bought a mobile sim hub and the provider did not pick up 4G

I have a standby phone on BT which I hardly ever use so I though I would test the BT sim

It worked for a while - then stopped - maybe the hub has an issue....

However I have a big issue with BT they are charging some £33 for some 0.3gig (yes, zero point three gig) that the test used over my allowance..... (having not used any for months and months)

This feels like daylight robbery - over £100 per gig for mobile data!!!!!

I do not mind paying a fair price - can anyone tell me if this is correct?

(If it is correct I will certainly not be renewing with BT - where I spend nearly £100 per month.....)

Re: BT Mobile Data Costs

-Richie- — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 17:30:03 GMT

Set a spend cap to avoid future charges, a spend cap can be set to £0 and increments of £2.50 upwards.

Out of cost data bundle is 10p per mb, so 0.3GB or roughly 330mb would be £33.30, you do also get unlimited BT Wi-Fi access as part of your subscription.

Re: BT Mobile Data Costs

PaddyB — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 18:53:58 GMT

Hi @RodoRod,

Thank you for posting. What @-Richie- has said is correct. It can get quite expensive if you go over your data allowance.

You can find out more here - What if I go over my BT Mobile data allowance?

Thanks,

Paddy

Re: BT Mobile Data Costs

Dode — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 20:41:17 GMT

@RodoRod There are also Data Add-ons if you know you are likely to run over your allowance, which would work out much cheaper. They start at around £4 for 500Mb and get cheaper as you go up.

Re: BT Mobile Data Costs

RodoRod — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 00:41:15 GMT

Thanks for the comments....

The availability of add-ons or price caps is not the issue.....

It is the absolute ridiculous extra for going over a data allowance.....

I fully expect to pay a premium rate should I go over - but not an extortionate rate.

If I went over by the same amount with Vodafone it would cost either £6-50 or £13-00 (depending upon date of contract) - max price is at £26/gig........ That is expensive for what I used - but I would not feel ripped off......

If I went over with EE (a BT subsid) they would send a message at 80% and stop the service at 100% - which would be fine......

With BT it's at the rate of over £100 per gig..... over £100 per gig!!!

Incidentally there was NO mention of this in my (e-mail) contract renewal last year and NO mention of this in my bills and NO-ONE at BT has ever advised (verbally or via e-mail) to put a cap on - or let me know that I have that option, or even advised the excess data cost......

Thank you for confirming that the BT excess data charges are an absolute rip off and it looks as if I will leave Bandit BT at my renewal (my average bill is around £97/month all in).......

What is even worse is I never use data on the sim (it's a back-up phone) - it was just a trial to see if a BT sim would work - and if there had been a data roll-over there would have been a zero charge.........

All I did was check if a BT sim would work in a mobile router and did two speed tests and took the sim out as it does work - but there is no chance now of me buying a higher data bundle from BT now after being charged £33 to test out a BT sim and check it's speed!!!!!

Ah well, live and learn........

Re: BT Mobile Data Costs

garybs29 — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 08:21:31 GMT

From reading that it looks like you expect everything to be laid out for you. Your emails etc at renewal time will have had a link to the list of charges etc, you not looking at the info is not the same as not being made aware but I understand that will go against your rant & isn't the response you want

Re: BT Mobile Data Costs

RodoRod — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 09:20:07 GMT

Thanks for your distorted view of my comment……

if you read again it is about the extortionate cost BT charges for excess data - around four times that of competitors…. I found that hard to believe, hence my question, which confirmed the cost….

I have no problem paying a premium rate for excess data and expected to do so - I was shocked to see that the rate is in excess of £100 per gig…

if you feel that it is right to be charged £33 to test a BT sim to see if it works on a mobile router - only running two speed tests - then fine - I know your opinion. I only tested to consider buying a BT data sim instead of the one that came with the mobile router. No chance now……

BTW it is a sim that has been paid for for over 10 years for a back up phone and never used any data allowance until this test - and I DiD NOT have any pointer to these costs when I renewed last year (I have kept the renewal e-mail) - the only comment was my home Broadband deal gave me double data on the sim - that’s why I tested it - thank goodness it did otherwise I would have been charged over £80 to test a sim and run two speed tests……. ridiculous imho…

Re: BT Mobile Data Costs

RodoRod — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 11:54:48 GMT

With all the comments I have taken the time to dig through BT's tariffs and conditions..........

It's even worse than I thought.

When I renewed my whole package BT last year - internet/TV/Call packages and including this mobile - I now see that - at the same cost - if BT had moved me to the current sim tariff - I repeat at the same cost - I would have had double the data amount and would not have incurred any charge for the speed tests that I did with the BT sim....

And before anyone comments there was no mention of any of this in my renewal e-mail - just found by 10 minutes digging from the "legal stuff" link (which I agree was a link in the renewal - but nothing drawn to may attention, it was hidden in the "standard blurb" whilst Broadband/other costs were clearly defined in the personalised renewal page).........

Makes me think it's an even more Bandit BT - a penalty for loyalty having had a hardly used sim for over 10 years......

Re: BT Mobile Data Costs

RodoRod — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 12:37:31 GMT

Thanks for all of the comments......

Worked out that the best thing to do was to cancel and to use another provider who did not have such hidden or such high excess data costs.

Lesson learnt from using BT mobile - never again.