Cost Effective Broadband and Mobile Phone

When BT announced line rental increase I changed suppliers

Line Rental Fuel £7.29 per month 12 Month Contract
I can receive calls OK with no number displayed but it excludes calls which is what I wanted.

DSL Broadband Plusnet £1.49 per month 12 Month Contract
I used MAC transfer to avoid BT cancellation charges though they did bill me £30.17 for Broadband Charged in advance so I immediately cancelled my DD and paid the remainder of the bill by debit card on-line.

I did get a call from BT billing so I explained that I did not cancel but was transferred by Plusnet using a MAC code and I have not been charged since.

Mobile PhoneTesco (O2 network)
£10 per month Sim Only 12 month contract
Allowance 1000 Mins, 5000 texts (FC) and 1GB 3G data

It is a competitive market but spitting bundles can sometimes be more cost effective.

If your line rental transfer took place before the broadband migration then BT Retail systems would not see the migration, though they may have seen the MAC - depending on when it was submitted.

"Spitting" isn't polite. .

In reply to a post by microtan:

Line Rental Fuel £7.29 per month 12 Month Contract
I can receive calls OK with no number displayed but it excludes calls which is what I wanted.

??

I wanted to "unbundle" Line Rental and Broadband and use my mobile phone for calls

My line rental is with Fuel. It was called Primus Saver when I signed up but has since re-branded.

I got the £7.29 deal via BroadbandChoices exclusive offer for line rental only.

Even though I only pay for line rental, my land line phone still receives incoming calls but as expected without caller display.

Fuel web site currently does not show any details of the line rental only deals probably because mine was through a deal via BroadbandChoices so I cannot see what the charges are for making land line calls.

As I do not want to trigger any unknown charges, I only use my mobile phone for calls

Thank you.

I had paid 12 months BT line rental upfront so I changed to Fuel after migration to Plusnet.

I had 1 month left on the BT line rental worth £11.75 but as BT do not refund unused 12 months line rental, I was in effect paying twice for that month.

12 monthly Fuel Line Rental payment of £7.29 = £87.48 per annum and adding on the unused BT £11.75 = £99.23 line rental per annum.

I'm giving a lot of thought to switching my line rental away from BT as they keep on increasing prices to susidise their bb and poxy tv channels oh and not to mention keep their share holders happy too

Iwas looking at the post office home phone package, they offer free caller display and the basic 1571 service that where free with bt, and the line rental is £10 if you pay 12mths up front( LRS )So i could have what i now have with BT for £5+ per month cheaper , Sounds good,but there's a but why do they say that they will send you a wireless router on the home phone (get connected)page,??? i certainly won't be wanting their bb offerings post office home phone

So you are thinking of paying the Post Office, who outsource the whole thing to Fujitsu, who delegate customer support to Capita and phone line supply to TalkTalk. As you aren't taking the broadband that will be Openreach Wholesale Line Rental.

Who is/will be your broadband with?

Linky.

[shudder]

Currently with the same ISP as you, have been for the past 18 +mths, but I'm thinking of migrating but there isn't really much that ain't overpriced IMO on the FTTC front ,
I'm waiting for the 1 mth rolling contracts to appear now OR have stopped insisting on 12mth min term for FTTC to FTTC migrations , no one as yet is doing it, the big six are too busy in their race to the bottom as far as bb goes that and subsidising that race with price hikes in line rental at every opportunity BTretail being the worst culprit

As far as line rental and calls go i'm not really bothered as long as the support side of things go don't turn out worse than what BT offer, The line should stay as is WLR3 so no LLU ?

Edited by tommy45 (Wed 05-Nov-14 19:32:40)

Yes, that's what I said - it will remain WLR3. So long as you don't get accidentally slammed of course. Anyone on Post Office broadband goes full LLU.

Capita has always seemed a bad firm to me. They used to have offices next door to mine and it was a shambles.

Their wiki entry doesn't encourage me.

There's a recent thread about precisely your question.

There are also some posts in that forum about customer service, on a six-month view. OK, they are about broadband CS, but worth a read.

Ah yes crapita, they have their grubby fingers in lots of pies, they currenly have something to do with the MOT database, as their logo is now displayed on the terminals at MOTcentres, used to be siemens ,they are more infamous for their TV licence salesmen and the methods they have used, plenty on youtube about them

But if it's wlr3 which it looks like it is, and as long as their support isnt worse than what BTretail offer I can't see the problem with it, It's cheaper and looks better value for money,Incidently they are increasing their line rental by £2 per month from 5 jan 15 ,

Where or when did you find a broadband-only offer for £1.49? I have been looking for ages and have barely found an offer never mind one at that price.

In reply to a post by freeKitten:

Where or when did you find a broadband-only offer for £1.49? I have been looking for ages and have barely found an offer never mind one at that price.

I got it via Broadbandchoices.co.uk.
It was a time limited offer with PlusNet but only available though that site. I had to get a MAC code from BT my previous supplier and give that code to PlusNet who then completed the broadband transfer. Doing it that way avoided BT cancellation charges.

I've seen Plusnet broadband for £1.50/month (currently being offered at this price) but that's always been dependent on taking their line rental.
Anyone getting broadband only for this price is being subsidised by other customers (it's usually subsidised by the line rental).
Well done for securing such a good deal but I can't see this being available to anyone currently.

In reply to a post by Al1264:

I've seen Plusnet broadband for £1.50/month (currently being offered at this price) but that's always been dependent on taking their line rental.
Anyone getting broadband only for this price is being subsidised by other customers (it's usually subsidised by the line rental).
Well done for securing such a good deal but I can't see this being available to anyone currently.

https://www.plus.net/offers/1415novcash2/?WT.mc_id=a...


The PN deals for £2.50 or less per month are not available if your connection comes from a market 1/A exchange and as you say they are susidised by other users who are on their second term or more with PN without a break.
Deals should be available if you get in touch with the Customer Options Team, some of them have a long contract term at a reduced £ rate usually you need to have or take line rental with PN as well to get the better deal.