I've pulled the plug on BT

Beware of BT bearings gifts. The official announcement that the telecoms company was to be freed from the shackles of price regulation sent a shiver down my spine.

Given its long record of stealth rises, I feared the worst. And sure enough, BT has swiftly lived down to expectations.

Cuts for the 3m customers on fixed-rate plans will be subsidised by rip-off charges on the 12m customers who use its basic pay-as-you call service. In comes a new 3p-a-time connection fee and back we go to the bad old days of charging by the minute rather than by the second.

So a call that lasts one minute and one second will cost twice as much as a call that lasts exactly one minute.

We could all of course sign up to one of BT's bafflingly complicated call plans, but many of us don't want to be locked into doing business with a company we simply don't trust. And why don't we trust them?

This is the company that redefined the meaning of 'daytime' so it could charge its customers more. (Read)

This is the company that put its own interests before those of the country in the drive to create broadband Britain. (Read)

This is the company that has a long record of improving its services only when forced to do so. (Read)

Because privatisation was a sham, competition has taken years to dent BT's dominance. But, partly thanks to the internet, real alternatives are increasingly available. Have a look at our price comparison service and do yourself a favour. I did.

- Simon Moon, Thisis Money

Comments

[Joe Donoghue]

Read in the Daily Mail Wed 14th May (MoneyMail) "Millions can join £4.50 phone deal" This referred to a 'social' tariff provided by BT for millions of families on low pay. Have just spent 20mins or so searching the BT web site for same ... Well if it's there I cannot see it and how do the millions of low paid families who don't have a phone find out about it?

[John Lowke]

I absolutley agree with you, charging £4.50 for paying by any other method but direct debit, must surely be unlawful. I have always tried to pay my bill online but on the last 3 occasions I have been blocked, with them saying there is a problem and I must find some other way to pay. I am sure its just an excuse to try to force people to pay by direct debit.

[Anthony Harvey]

Firstly I should say that I note OFCOM seeks to block BT customers from complaining about their outrageous introduction of charging for cheques, by steering website visitors to their decision that BT's charging is reasonable- which then denies us a website form to complain! Whether OFCOM agrees or not with BT it is thoroughly unreasonable to attempt to dissuade us from complaining OURSELVES to them about it (and then perhaps be able to say that not many people have complained?!).

Many of us refuse to use direct debits because it puts someone else in some control over our bank accounts. Moreover, direct debits on utilities etc force us to leave an amount of money (a few hundred) in our bank accounts permanently for fear that we will miss seeing a bill and a direct debit will make us go overdrawn and subsequently be charged for this. Whereas if we are sent a bill to pay by cheque or cash, we can select from which account we wish to pay the bill from, having made sure FIRST it will not make us go into overdraft and be charged. I am certain Banks encourage people to use direct debits a) because with them there is a greater probability people will go overdrawn by carelessness/oversight and consequently be charged (as already explained) and b) the extra margin of cash left in current accounts by careful people to ensure direct debits don't make them go overdrawn the bank can use a proportion of which to gamble on the currency markets and therby make more "money for nothing" then they would otherwise have not done if people had left less in their current accounts. Banks don't keep their own and their customers money separate as many people believe. (You will also learn there how banks create (electronic) money OUT OF THIN AIR when they make mortgages and loans, on which they charge interest- so making guaranteed and huge profits for virtually nothing). I wonder if in the above ways BT is colluding with the banks so both of them can make even more silly profiteering out of us?.

In summary I believe the £18 annual surcharge for paying by cheque to be outrageous and must be resisted by customers, pressure groups and OFCOM at all costs.

Finally & MOST IMPORTANTLY may I suggest that people leave BT- IN DROVES- for the Post Office's Telephone account the terms of which I have just checked are not levying charges on people for paying by cheque or cash. Its charging is fairly similar to BTs (cheaper for certain calling patterns). Pick up a leaflet from the post office. I promise you I do not work for them I just want to hit BT for these OUTRAGES and Banks in the pocket where it hurts!