BT Premium Mail £5 per month from 6th May 2016

I don't know when BT started sending this notice out but I thought I would post here to spread the word.

I was with BT Internet back in the day from dial-up to ISDN then RADSL before I switched ISPs. I wanted to keep my email address (and several others in my family) so carried on with BT Premium Mail which was fine before the Yahoo switch over and 'improved' pages full of adverts.

This price rise takes the pee!! BT can stick there email. The annoying thing for me now is changing my father's accounts over to a new email provider (if he even remembers all of his accounts ).

In reference to bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/55644/c/7339?s_cid=con_FURL...:

Important information about your
BT email account (Premium Mail)

Hi,

From 6 May 2016, we're changing the price of BT Premium Mail from £1.60 a month to £5 a month.

As we recently upgraded you, you'll still get all the helpful features you get today like unlimited storage for large files and emails, protection against online threats and access through webmail, smartphones and email programs. Not forgetting technical support whenever you need it at here.

We know prices going up can be tough so here's how we can help.

We're here to help
You might be better off with one of our other products (like BT broadband where Premium Mail is included at no extra cost), so if you�d like to chat through your options please give us a call on 0800 032 2114.

Staying on Premium Mail If we don't hear from you, you'll start paying the new amount from 6 May 2016. The way you pay for Premium Mail (like by Direct Debit for example) won't change.

If you have any further questions please visit bt.com/premiummailfaqs

If you want to leave because of these price changes, call us on 0800 032 2114 within 30 days of receiving this email. You'll need to give us 30 days' notice to leave, starting from the date you ask us. We won't charge you the increased price during that time.

All prices subject to change at any time during the contract.

Meanwhile, Sky and TalkTalk let former customers use their email accounts for free after they leave.

And you get adverts?

Sheesh. The term "rip-off" needs a more expressive big brother for the way BT handle line rental and now this.

Probably over two million of their customers don't even know about non-ISP domains and mail services, apart from Outlook.com and gmail.

I can only agree. £60 a year would get many many mailboxes. Even basic domain packages (which usually come with at least one email address thrown in for free) come in much cheaper than that i.e. just over £1 for the 1st year, less than a tenner for a whole year with a .co.uk domain ..... and no adverts. I'd suggest having a look at domain name companies.

More info for readers. It needs a few updates re prices particularly since Nominet (the UK registration authority) upped their prices at the beginning of March, but the principle hasn't changed.

Hi

I too have had the email from BT. I note that they 'have recently upgraded' me. This is a bit strange since I am still with the BT yahoo mail service despite being told that my move to BT mail was imminent two years ago. I was quite happy to pay £1-60 per month to save me the trouble of notifying everyone of my new email addresses - but £5 a month is a bit steep!

I note that I have 30 days to tell them I am leaving and that starts a 30 day notice period. So that gives me 60 days to sort things out.

I suppose the advantage is that it will stop the unwelcome emails that I receive on this account!

Harold

Yep £60 a year for what use to be a free service, and still is with other companies, is an insult.
And trying to get through to BT by phone to talk to them about it is impossible. Anyone would think they are not a phone company.

I got the same email too. I have made a complaint to BT as I believe they are exploiting customers who are reluctant to change email addresses with this 300%+ increase. They have offered me 12 months at the 'discounted' cost of £1.60 per month, i.e. the same as it is now. I've told them this does not address my complaint and asked for justification for such a massive (in percentage terms) increase.

I've also reported the matter to Ofcom and whilst they will not act on individual complaints if enough people report their unhappiness about this increase I'd hope they would investigate.

In reply to a post by HowardWilliam:

I have made a complaint to BT as I believe they are exploiting customers who are reluctant to change email addresses with this 300%+ increase.

Quite possibly, but it's up to you to decide if keeping the email accounts is worth the cost.

In reply to a post by HowardWilliam:

I've told them this does not address my complaint and asked for justification for such a massive (in percentage terms) increase.

By all means ask, but there is no obligation to do so. They can sell at whatever price they like and it's up to you to pay or not.

In reply to a post by HowardWilliam:

I've also reported the matter to Ofcom and whilst they will not act on individual complaints if enough people report their unhappiness about this increase I'd hope they would investigate.

OFCOM will do nothing, as provision of email services isn't regulated and BT do not have SMP (Significant Market Power) in this area. There are numerous alternatives you can choose from - some even at no charge.

It may be somewhat blunt, but either bite the bullet and move elsewhere (perhaps take their offer of a 'reduced' rate whilst you make alternative arrangements), or decide it's worth the increased charge and keep the addresses.

The 'recently upgraded' part is also slightly baffling to me as our accounts are still BT Yahoo and not BT Mail. The partly re-vamped BT Yahoo webmail was 'improved' by more adverts last year but the actual change to BT Mail has never occurred.

I've already switched a lot of my accounts over to another email address. I'll be giving my notice in a week and will not take up any reduced offer.

**edit**
I forgot that prior to the BT Yahoo changes, we did have some value in the BT Premium mail with a premium Flickr account. This was shut down more than a year ago as part of the 'improvements'.

Edited by deleted (Tue 22-Mar-16 23:55:38)

For me the only 2 real viable options are either free email services which you can be confident will be around for a while, and that is the big 3.

gmail
hotmail/outlook
yahoo

Otherwise buy your domain, and find somewhere to host it, this is far cheaper than what BT want, and the domain is yours, you would never be reliant on any one provider.

Thanks for the advice panda. I'm sure it reflects the reality of the situation. I'd still however like to make a complaint to BT even if just to air my frustration at their actions. What's the alternative? Pay their £5 ransom without questioning it or leave quietly? Even if they lost well over half of their BT Premium Mail customers as a result of this massive price hike they would still be making more money from it.

I have some original @btinternet.com addresses from many years back - well before they differentiated between business and consumer. I have always used BT as my ISP and have used BT Business for many years whilst keeping the @btinternet,com addresses for the occasional emails.

Two years back they informed Business service users that they would start to be charged for keeping the addresses - I raised a complaint that had an impact - they paused charging for 12 months until mid 2015 before implementing the £1.60.month fee. At present they have not informed me of the rise - will it stay as before or increase? I'll wait and see.

Just received a letter today informing me of the price hike�£5 per month is a lot.

Anybody know if it is possible to keep the account without the premium or is everything lost?

I got the same email. I could cope with the £1.60 monthly charge but £5 is such a leap and almost the same as Netflix. I kept it on out of laziness as I didn't want to have to change my email address which was used for many sign ups over the 10+ years, but now this is just taking the pee. Also what do I get that Gmail and Hotmail and the others can't give ? I also get adverts shown on the mailbox. The service is powered by Yahoo but don't they offer a free service of the same ? What is so premium of what I get ?

I am contacting BT as we talk, apparently BT can associate your email with your broadband account�?

I seem to remember Business broadband had to pay for emails�? And standard was free�?

Today apparently if you have, according to a rep/or who ever answered took my call. If you have BT Business broadband then the email is free�REALLY?

So I was patched through and BT Business team closes at 6pm�! Its recommended I call back again 0800 800 152 and talk to customer options team and they will tell you what you are entitled to..!

They can associate any old BT email with a BT Broadband account ... and yes it is free for Residential/Consumer packages. Business is chargeable.

If you get a different answer, I would lie to hear it and have a reference for it.

Wrong number�.OK

I agree with all the comments here regarding BT's latest ripoff. I did not see this thread before starting my own here
All's well that ends well after 45+ years as a BT customer ...

I moved out of the UK 5 years ago but kept my main btinternet.com address as my primary email. At 1.60 it was not cheap but acceptable. This increase to 5 pounds a month is just not realistic.

Plus I am unable to call them from abroad.

Any suggestions?

In reply to a post by Robert_v:

Any suggestions?

Yes, the thread is full of them.

In reply to a post by Robert_v:

Any suggestions?

Link.See Tsohost linked to on that page. The domain price rose to £7.19 per year on 1 March because Nominet increased it, so a total of £22.18pa = £1.85pm for 10 mailboxes, unlimited aliases, and web hosting. The hosting package can handle two domains if needed.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

In reply to a post by Robert_v:

Any suggestions?

Yes, the thread is full of them.

Sorry, wrong thread, this thread was the one with suggestions: http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/general/f/4472354-e...

Well, good news for myself�.!

My email account was linked to my broadband and emails from my yahoo/talk21 account are now free.

" Getting this done was a bit of a process about 20 mins. Called 08081006778 option 2 "

We will see��..!!!!

hi i need a bt mail account you can help me

In reply to a post by Yaz:

I don't know when BT started sending this notice out but I thought I would post here to spread the word.

I was with BT Internet back in the day from dial-up to ISDN then RADSL before I switched ISPs. I wanted to keep my email address (and several others in my family) so carried on with BT Premium Mail which was fine before the Yahoo switch over and 'improved' pages full of adverts.

This price rise takes the pee!! BT can stick there email. The annoying thing for me now is changing my father's accounts over to a new email provider (if he even remembers all of his accounts ).

In reference to bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/55644/c/7339?s_cid=con_FURL...:

Important information about your
BT email account (Premium Mail)

Hi,

From 6 May 2016, we're changing the price of BT Premium Mail from £1.60 a month to £5 a month.

As we recently upgraded you, you'll still get all the helpful features you get today like unlimited storage for large files and emails, protection against online threats and access through webmail, smartphones and email programs. Not forgetting technical support whenever you need it at here.

We know prices going up can be tough so here's how we can help.

We're here to help
You might be better off with one of our other products (like BT broadband where Premium Mail is included at no extra cost), so if you�d like to chat through your options please give us a call on 0800 032 2114.

Staying on Premium Mail If we don't hear from you, you'll start paying the new amount from 6 May 2016. The way you pay for Premium Mail (like by Direct Debit for example) won't change.

If you have any further questions please visit bt.com/premiummailfaqs

If you want to leave because of these price changes, call us on 0800 032 2114 within 30 days of receiving this email. You'll need to give us 30 days' notice to leave, starting from the date you ask us. We won't charge you the increased price during that time.

All prices subject to change at any time during the contract.

Have you got BT BB? You get 1 with that.

Are you in the UK? You appear to have a non-standard "language encoding" on your system.

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 28-Oct-16 20:29:02)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Are you in the UK? You appear to have a non-standard "language encoding" on your system.

i am from Ecuador, but i need to make tutorials about bt email, i will pay is somebody can give me acces

In reply to a post by miguelaraujo:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Are you in the UK? You appear to have a non-standard "language encoding" on your system.

i am from Ecuador, but i need to make tutorials about bt email, i will pay is somebody can give me acces

no i am in Ecuador, but i need to make tutorials about bt email and i will pay i know the costumer can have like 11 emails account and i will pay

Sorry, I don't know if you can have BT email without being a BT broadband customer or ex-customer, but you certainly can't have BT broadband in Ecuador.

Making tutorials about BT email will be very difficult, because it keeps changing and has had problems for years. It's hard to see why someone in Ecuador would want to make such tutorials anyway, so I doubt if BT support would want to help you.

You can sign up for BT BB + email @ BT Broadband Deals. Just put your phone no. and/or postcode & see what it offers you. EDIT:

Edited by XRaySpeX (Fri 28-Oct-16 22:11:17)

Ecuador?
"Postal codes in Ecuador have six numeric digits. The first two specify the province, the next two the district and the final two the zip code. For example, in the postal code 170515, 17 is Pichincha Province, 05 is the district and 15 the ZIP."

Post deleted by MrSaffron

Spammy post bounced off into the kerb