Businessmen Service

Calling from a landline is set to become even more expensive from 28th April, when BT will raises its line rental and call charges – its second price rise in seven months.

It follows a similar price rise by Virgin Media, which put up its line rental by 6% on the 1st April.

Talk Talk is also set to increase its daytime call rate by 16% and its set-up fee by 12%.

Although there has been a massive lean towards mobile phones in recent years, landlines are still necessary for many broadband connections and there are still people who rely on their home phone.

It is yet another blow to household finances, which have already been affected by steep rises in their energy bills and increasing rates of inflation.

Ernest Doku, communications expert at uSwitch.com said the rise was likely to add to financial pressures: “As if the VAT increase wasn’t enough of a blow to customers, this latest round of price rise from BT will really damage consumers’ pockets.

“Across the board, consumers have witnessed a double whammy of increases over the last seven months from home phone providers with more set to follow, and, if this pattern continues, they could well be in for more price rise misery in October.

However, he explained, customers have a number of options to keep their bills as low as possible: “The best advice to keep bills down is to look at when you make the most phone calls and make sure that you are on a calling plan that fits this picture.

“It could be well worth moving to a deal that offers free evening and weekend calls, or for those at home all day, free ‘anytime’ calls.  

“If you just need line rental, consider moving away from the ‘Big 4′ to a company such as Primus which offers line rental for £6.79 a month, instantly saving £85 a year against the most expensive provider”.

Company

Effective from

Key changes

% rise since 30/9/10

BT

28^th April

• Line rental up 2% from £13.60 to £13.90 a month (excluding Line Rental Saver customers)
• Daytime call rate up 9% from 7p to 7.6p per minute
• Call set-up fee up 9% from 11.5p to 12.5p per call

9%

29%

26%

Sky

n/a

• Prices set to increase from 20^th June (details not currently disclosed)
• Line rental currently £11.25 per month
• Daytime call rate currently 6.03p per minute
• Call set-up fee currently 10.11p per call

2%

2%

2%

TalkTalk

1^st May

• Line rental up 2% to £12.60 a month
• Daytime call rate up 16% from 6.54p to 7.6p per minute
• Call set-up fee up 12% from 11.14p to 12.5p per call

10%

31%

26%

Virgin Media

1^st April

• Line rental up 6% from £12.24 to £12.99 a month
• Daytime call rate stays at 8.68p per minute
• Call set-up fee stays at 12.24p per call

8%

2%

11%

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