Landline charge if changing to Full Fibre

[AnotherStephen]

Hi.

I recently started a 24 month contract for BT Fibre 1 Broadband (with Digital Voice). My home still has a copper connection.

The next monthly bill (estimate) shows 2 items - Broadband Package:£31.99 and Landline:£7.55.

It’s not clear what the 'Landline’ charge is for but I guess it’s the copper wire and/or the Digital Voice service.

There is now an offer to upgrade to Full Fibre 500 for £35.99 a month.

My question is: if I change to Full Fibre 500 (keeping Digital Voice) will there still be the £7.55 landline charge on top of the £35.99?

Thanks for any help.

Steve

[gg30340 · Accepted solution]

If you have a landline phone you are charged for the landline and call package. This is because you are using the landline other than just for broadband.

If you have "Broadband Only" which does not include a landline phone the landline cost is included in the broadband price.

If you move to BT 500 with a landline phone even Digital Voice you will be charged for the landline phone package which includes the landline charge. The phone package is an add on to the broadband package.

The confusion comes about because they refer to landline when it should say landline phone.

[AnotherStephen]

Many thanks Distinguished Sage. Very helpful.

Steve

[iniltous]

If you have telephony you pay for the call plan , but your £7.55 doesn’t seem to match the current price of either of the available call plans , they are PAYG at £5 but typically reduced to £3 after negotiation and Unlimited Minutes £18 typically reduced to £12 after negotiation .

Currently Fibre 1 is £26.99 so your £31.99 seems a little coincidental as full price for PAYG £5 plus £26.99 gives what you state you pay £31.99 , which really begs the question, what is that £7.55 actually for ? , perhaps you can actually post the appropriate section of the bill .

FYI £35.99 is the current price of 500Mb standalone broadband, if you want telephony with that you will need to add something to the monthly cost , but as £7.55 is an unrecognisable amount for a call plan (unless you got a terrific bargain of Unlimited Minutes reduced from £18 to £7.55 ) it’s not likely to be that,  so  you will need to add £5 for PAYG or £18 for Unlimited Minutes ( or less if you call and haggle )  to the £35.99 if you change to FF500 and want to add telephony.

[AnotherStephen]

Hi.    There is no detailed break-down of charges but I screen-shotted the relevant bits as best as I could (below).

[iniltous]

Can’t see your image yet , but what did you have before , were you with BT or another provider, if BT , has it been a while since you last recontracted , so were possibly on some sort of legacy products

[licquorice]

Must admit I'm confused by the £7.55 charge for 'Landline'. 

Broadband and landline is normally a combined charge and the only extra charges is for a call package. If you have a PAYG call package, it is possibly the call charges 

Can you expand the section and post a screenshot of that, ensuring no personal details are revealed.

[iniltous]

I suspect your regular price will be £31.99 + £5 PAYG = £36.99 , it’s slightly more this first month because your bill covers slightly more than one month ,  TBH this isn’t the best deal around but presumably you agreed to it .

FYI thats the same total as I pay,  £36.99 although my bill break down is broadband Fibre 2 @ £33.99 and £3 PAYG , broadband was £29.99 up to the 31st March £4 broadband increase , my first bill after this was also a couple of ££ more than expected for the same reason as I suspect your bill having a weird amount , some days at outside the billing month , as the bill covers mid month to mid month , I suspect your £7.55 is £5 for the PAYG  going forward , and £2.55 retrospectively for the previous part month

I recon BT calling the item on the bill  ‘landline’ rather than ‘telephony’  causes confusion.

[WSH]

My bill is similar with the broadband charge and then £3 for the landline.

The £7.55 on your bill looks as though it includes some call charges.  If you click the down arrow next to it, it should open up and detail the charges.

The April/May bill also tends to include part month adjustments for the annual increase in prices, so it often looks different until it settles down again next month.

[iniltous]

That’s a good point , because I don’t make calls on my landline phone service I never see the PAYG charge vary from £3 , but if there are chargable calls made presumably they are shown added to the call plan charge