Help Desk

How much you are paying?

If you’re with BT your phone bill will consist of two components; your line rental and your call charges. Traditionally, even if you used a different supplier for your calls, you would still have to pay a separate bill for your BT line rental. However, a new system called Wholesale Line Rental allows suppliers to pay BT on your behalf, meaning less hassle for you, and as many suppliers have since lowered their line rental charge, it costs less too.

Other options - Saving money

All home phone providers other than Virgin Media’s cable connections use BT’s copper wires on an ADSL line. Recent years, and Wholesale Line Rental, have seen a host of competitor companies spring up in the home phone market offering cheaper line rental and often more competitive call charges.

If you think about switching from BT’s “all calls included” plan without DD to the YourCalls equivalent, you can save yourself almost £8 a month. And the suppliers offering the cheapest line rentals also tend to offer cheaper calls than BT, especially if you make calls abroad. You can make even more savings by bundling other services, such as broadband, that you already use.

Always remember

You shouldn’t switch to a new home phone provider just because they have cheaper line rental as the most you will save is around £2 a month. However, combined with the cheaper call charges of many of BT’s competitors you can make huge savings.

Also, if you don’t already pay by Direct Debit and are able to, you should definitely do so as this can save you as much as £5 a month with some suppliers. And find out if your provider offers paperless billing, as it’s good for the environment and will usually earn you a discount too.

Think about the kind of calls that you make, how long they are and where they’re to. If you only have a phone line for your broadband connection then maybe moving to Virgin Media would be best – they also offer free digital TV with some phone packages, allowing you to switch to digital way before your analogue signal is turned off. If on the other hand you make daily calls abroad, then go for a provider who offers cheap line rental and low international rates such as YourCalls or Toucan.

Keeping your needs in mind and thinking about the way that you use the service you’re paying for is the best way to guarantee that you get the best value deal, catering for all your needs.