BT free 12 months Game Pass. - (Maybe it needs a barge pole)

In about two weeks time, (at the end of July), I will be migrating to BT and part of the deal to join BT is a Free 12 Months of Xbox Game Pass.

So far so good and I had expected that it would be a type of 12 months Microsoft Xbox Game Pass Code, (of the type that you can buy from Amazon). - However, from Googling that is not the case and it seems that BT will take over the management of your existing Microsoft XBox Account which is not something that I would want with my own XBox Account and I do not know anyone who would want that.

There are a few threads elsewhere about this;

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/xbox/forum/all/x...

https://community.bt.com/t5/Broadband-Extras-Apps-fr...

I phoned BT customer services but they could not tell me how it works, which I found rather strange but she did say that it was operated and paid for by a third party. - Which third party and what access do they have to your personal information when/if you agree to the T&C of this add on ?

Can the free BT 12 months of XBox Game Pass be linked to a new/ie. a separate XBox Account for children or grandchildren or an existing XBox account from a family member who is due to renew his/her game pass and if so how ?

Has anyone used this free 12 months of XBox Gamepass from BT and had issues with it ?

Edited by Fido (Thu 20-Jul-23 02:12:58)

In reply to a post by Fido:

....Can the free BT 12 months of XBox Game Pass be linked to a new/ie. a separate XBox Account....

Well I can partly answer my own query.

The BT free 12 Month Gamepass System is sub-optimal in that BT do not just send you an Xbox Gamepass Code, (like the Xbox Codes you can buy from Amazon), BT have invented their own BT controled system via which they can take over the payments to your Xbox Account if you sign up to it.

To obtain the free 12 months gamepass offer you need to sign up to the BT Gamepass ADD-ON via your MyBT and by doing so you effectively give BT control over the management of the Xbox Account, that BT is linked to, at a cost of £10 per month which is free for up to 12 months which is definitely not what most would want.

Therefore having done some serious googling about the way in which the BT free 12 months Gamepass Ulitimate operates some of the answers are;

(1). When you opt into this BT Add-On: BT takes control over the Microsoft Xbox Account that you sign up with, (at least with regard to account payments to Xbox), and when you opt out it can take a long time for BT to release control over your Xbox account so that it can revert to your control and the previous payment/pass record.

(2). If you already have your own Xbox Ultimate Gamepass linked to your account, your own Gamepass put onto a back burner and is inaccessible while BT have control over your account payments and when BT eventually release your account, theoretically, your old Gamepass should return unharmed.

(3). One work around is that you can keep BT away from your usual Xbox Account by linking the free BT 12 Months Gamepass to any Microsoft Xbox Account that you have control over. - Therefore, to keep BT out of/away from your own Xbox account, (which in my case is tied to my main email address), you can set up a new/a dummy account for use by you or by a family member. - Not ideal but it is a workaround.

(4). Alternatively allow BT to control the payments to you main Xbox Account until they release it back to you.

Personally, I plan to keep my main Xbox Account separate and well away from BT by setting up a new/dummy Xbox Account just for use with the BT Controlled Gamepass. - It may be useful to a family member or grandchildren, (subject to them keeping up with their schoolwork and not spending too much time on the Xbox).

When I signed up to BT the free 12 Months Xbox Gamepass was not a main reason to join them but it was a consideration and this system not what most customers would want.

@Fido,

Virgin Media do a similar thing with Netflix whereby you get the basic Netflix package included in your VM package. I personally prefer the premium which means that all I have to pay is an extra £2. I did have a slight issue when I contacted VM to re-subscribe a couple of months ago whereby my Netflix account was almost closed down because my payment method had changed. That has now been fixed and all Netflix charge me is the £2 for Premium.

HTH,

Hello HTH,

That is useful to know but there is a big difference between a Netflix Account or a NOW TV Account and a XBox Account because the former just provide signals for a screen and the choice is between options while the Xbox is interactive with a Character user has selected and has been associated with for a long time, with game purchases and histories associated with it.

eg. Some years ago, (when we were previously with BT), we had BT Sport which we retained for a few years after we left BT. - Eventually, we just added BT Sport to the Sky TV Package and we cancelled BT Sport account udirectly from BT.

Sky did not take control over our old BT Sport Account from us. - We signed up separately to a new BT Sports from Sky and we cancelled separately to BT Sports from BT and at all times we had control over both accounts. - That was just access to a Signal Feed, as is Netflix, so changing from one provider to another was no big deal.

BT taking over control of a persons Xbox Account is totally different in that in most cases it takes over, (a persons Xbox Account that they may have had for 20 years), with all that energy and time linked to the Xbox Account imply and to cap it of loss of control of up to three years of Xbox Ultimate time that prepaid for and which will no longer be accessible while BT has control over the Xbox Account.

Regards,
Fido