This topic

Expiring BT Landline and Broadband contract.

HHGTTG — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 17:08:06 GMT

Currently like most BT customers, I have a contract for Broadband and Landline calls which comes to an end in 59 days and counting.
I don't want ANY upgrades that renewing a contract with BT involves; I am quite happy with my current landline offer and ADSL Broadband until such time that the latter ceases.
What will happen if I don't renew my contract for say another 18/24 months, can I go onto a rolling 30 day contract but still keep some of my existing benefits?
I have had two telephone calls since December, from what i think is BT sales somewhere in Hertfordshire, probably Stevenage, the last one being yesterday. The first call in December was the hassling, bullying one whereupon I found myself saying 'yes' to an upgrade to BT Fibre 2, plus a Smart Hub 2. The male operator in question read out all the t's and c's in ultra rapid succession and when I had put down the phone I felt drained but thought that I'm not being hassled like this and phoned back and cancelled the orders involved.
The call yesterday, with a female sales lady was broadly similar in that it was about my current contract ending in March. I said, with more information to hand thanks to BT Community, that I was not renewing my contract for another 24 months and intended to continue with a rolling 30 day one. The lady said that I might not be able to continue with my 700 free mins of monthly calls but would have to go unlimited but she wasn't that positive. I was inevitably asked the question as to why I would not want to be upgraded to Fibre BB to which I gave her the inevitable answer.
So broadly, what happens now if I don't take up another 'long term' contract?

Re: Expiring BT Landline and Broadband contract.

licquorice — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 17:22:49 GMT

All that will happen is that you will continue as you are but lose any discounts you may have had.

Re: Expiring BT Landline and Broadband contract.

iniltous — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 18:54:25 GMT

As stated , if your minimum term expires and you do nothing , you can quit with 30 days notice or join another provider without any Early Termination Charges , but your discounts ( if you have any ) will likely stop , normally when you took the deal that’s about to expire you would be told what the price after the discount and minimum term ends is , obviously price wouldn’t include the annual price rises , so for arguments sake if the deal was a discount to £30 a month for 24 months , normal price £40 , then the £40 may now be something like 15% more than £40 as 2 CPI +3.9% price increases will have taken place .

FYI , the 700mins call plan isn’t normally free , so if the deal you had gave you that for free , then that will likely become a charged for calls plan , the confusion about possibility having to take unlimited calls coukd be that the only call plan options seem to be PAYG or unlimited, the 700 mins seems to have disappeared from the website

Re: Expiring BT Landline and Broadband contract.

Colin_London — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 19:07:49 GMT

I can confirm that, at least since December, the only Digital Voice plans available for standard calls are Pay as you Go, and Unlimited.

If you currently have a plan like Unlimited Evenings and Weekends you cannot retain them if you recontract.

Re: Expiring BT Landline and Broadband contract.

licquorice — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 19:09:14 GMT

I could be wrong, but I think legacy call plans still remain when contract ends and continue unchanged unless you recontract.

Re: Expiring BT Landline and Broadband contract.

Colin_London — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 19:17:06 GMT

Yes they do - I kept unlimited Evenings and Weekends for two years after my contract ended, and for some time after it stopped being available to order.

If a sales person is uncertain about something, start doubting!

I decided to cancel DV completely when I recontracted as the options were only PAYG and Unlimited calls. The situation regarding that is the subject of another thread….

Re: Expiring BT Landline and Broadband contract.

HHGTTG — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 19:22:43 GMT

Ive always contraxted with Unlimited Anytime calls for which i then used to pay an additional monthly charge of about £7 but naturally this increased over time. Sometime in the last two years i had a phone call from sales offering me 700 minutes, as according to their records this would be more suited to my needs based on their records, which it has been. I currently pay about £124/quarter.

Re: Expiring BT Landline and Broadband contract.

chrisjp — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 20:44:59 GMT

"I decided to cancel DV completely when I recontracted as the options were only PAYG and Unlimited calls"
Curious to know why you did this. Cancelling the DV completely only gives you around £3 per month discount and, if you select PAYG, you only pay for calls as you make them.
I had to make this choice when I was moved to DV and it seemed worth keeping my old phone number since I make virtually no outgoing calls so it won't cost me more than £3/month.

Re: Expiring BT Landline and Broadband contract.

Colin_London — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 21:34:02 GMT

Curious to know why you did this. Cancelling the DV completely only gives you around £3 per month discount and, if you select PAYG, you only pay for calls as you make them.
I had to make this choice when I was moved to DV and it seemed worth keeping my old phone number since I make virtually no outgoing calls so it won't cost me more than £3/month.

You sound like the BT guide who suggested earlier this evening that I should just forget about the £3!

The point is that the only people who phone us on the landline any more are scammers. All important people & organisations (doctors, dentists, hospital etc.) want to use mobile numbers nowadays.

We have unlimited calls and good coverage on our mobiles so there is absolutely no point in keeping DV. The last remaining reason for keeping a landline - making calls in a power cut - disappeared when we were forced onto DV.

And on principle why pay £3 a month (£72 over a 24 month contract) on something you have absolutely no use for?

Re: Expiring BT Landline and Broadband contract.

Colin_London — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 21:37:13 GMT

PS. Anyone with WiFi calling on their mobile effectively has Digital Voice in their house already as part of their mobile contract. You are effectively paying £3 a month just because of inertia - i.e. not wanting to make the change from a number you have used for decades.

Re: Expiring BT Landline and Broadband contract.

Colin_London — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 21:39:25 GMT

Ive always contraxted with Unlimited Anytime calls for which i then used to pay an additional monthly charge of about £7 but naturally this increased over time. Sometime in the last two years i had a phone call from sales offering me 700 minutes, as according to their records this would be more suited to my needs based on their records, which it has been. I currently pay about £124/quarter.

This deal is no longer available to new or recontracting customers.

Re: Expiring BT Landline and Broadband contract.

HHGTTG — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 22:15:54 GMT

But i would not be a recontracting customer would I with a rolling monthly contract?

Re: Expiring BT Landline and Broadband contract.

RIC9380 — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 06:46:32 GMT

It's really horses for courses. Gone are the days when having a fixed landline and telephone number upped your credit score and, if you have a mobile phone with a good signal, then ditching the landline will save you a few quid each month. I keep mine as I invested in Digital Voice phones when the service became available to me. I'm at home for most of the day and family and friends call me on my landline by default. I also dial out using it but don't use anything like all of my 700 minutes each month. My EE mobile comes with unlimited minutes and texts so at the moment it seems I have the best of both worlds. BT bill is £20 something a month and I pay EE a tenner a month.

Re: Expiring BT Landline and Broadband contract.

HHGTTG — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 08:56:50 GMT

The trouble with mobile phones is that, unlike a landline, they can fail usually requiring very frequent charging and transferring all one's contacts between new phones can be a bit of a chore and that's not forgetting the often poor calling quality of these devices. At home, I'd much rather phone people using my landline phone.

Re: Expiring BT Landline and Broadband contract.

iniltous — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 08:15:59 GMT

Adding DV to my broadband was £2 a month , some pay more , it’s possible that some pay less ( maybe even £0 ) so in my case I pay around 7p a day to maintain my ‘landline’ phone service , it’s worth it ( for me ) to have an alternative way to be contacted , the number may well be known to some people that don’t know my mobile number , and although the ‘landline’ is rarely called and never used for outgoing calls , it’s a relatively small sum and for that reason I chose to maintain it ….obviously some will take a different view and decide that the £24 a year ( or whatever ) is saving well worth making ….its a bit pointless having a view on others that don’t take the same view as yourself , surely the entire point is it’s not compulsory, don’t want DV , don’t take it ,

Re: Expiring BT Landline and Broadband contract.

Colin_London — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 08:21:29 GMT

Exactly - some people will see some value in it. Others, like me, don’t and would rather not pay for something we have no use for. As I said, having a ‘landline’ number counts for nothing nowadays.

As for phones failing, we have two mobiles in the house so that is not a real issue either, and I don’t expect a DECT phone would be any more reliable than a mobile anyway.

Re: Expiring BT Landline and Broadband contract.

garybs29 — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 08:49:25 GMT

@HHGTTGwrote:
transferring all one's contacts between new phones can be a bit of a chote

Really? When you get a new mobile you can automatically transfer everything from one mobile to the other. Don't think you can do that on a landline handset

Re: Expiring BT Landline and Broadband contract.

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 08:54:24 GMT

@HHGTTGwrote:
The trouble with mobile phones is that, unlike a landline, they can fail usually requiring very frequent charging and transferring all one's contacts between new phones can be a bit of a chore and that's not forgetting the often poor calling quality of these devices. At home, I'd much rather phone people using my landline phone.

I find this post a bit odd. Having had countless mobile phones since the brick-sized NEC 9A in 1988, I've only ever had one "fail". That was only a headphone jack & had nothing to do with making/receiving calls. I take it you haven't seen the many, many posts about BT DECT/DV phones failing due to battery degradation?

Charging? Yes, most smartphones have short battery life, but that is solved by charging overnight at your bedside. Old style feature phones are still available cheaply & can maintain a charge for days.

Contacts on a smartphone are generally stored in the cloud & restored to a new phone simply by signing in. Transferring contacts to a new landline phone however is generally a chore.

Call quality is at least on par with the very best BT or others can provide, certainly head & shoulders above the horrible BT 8500 I have. So again I don't recognise this criticism.

But each to their own...

Re: Expiring BT Landline and Broadband contract.

HHGTTG — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 09:05:37 GMT

Precisely or is that exactly?
Anyway, I also have two Samsung smart phones with different providers, O2 and 1p Mobile. I would like to upgrade at least one of these phones both of which are probably 6 years old but present day phones seem huge in comparison and therefore don't fit my shirt breast pockets. I certainly don't wont virtually 'phablet' sized Smartphones that are very difficult to store on one's self.

Anyway, isn't this thread going a trifle off topic? Not for me to decide, of course!