Broadband ISP BT to Scrap UK Line Rental Saver Discount
In an unsurprising move, BT has confirmed that their legacy Line Rental Saver (LRS) discount is to finally be “withdrawn from sale” on 21st July 2023. The service gave a special discount to home broadband customers who separately pre-paid for their phone line rental a year in advance.
The LRS product is a legacy discount from the era when related service bundles were still being split into separate charges for broadband and line rental, which stopped being sold some years ago (2016/17) after a change in the advertising rules (here). Since then, broadband ISPs have been expected to only show all-inclusive up-front and monthly costs (i.e. no more separating out line rental on related bundles).
However, some of BT’s customers with older broadband bundles still take the LRS “discount” (i.e. you pre-pay £219.84 for 12-months), although it’s debatable whether this produces much of a benefit vs the latest bundles and is perhaps far more likely to cause consumer confusion.
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Suffice to say that it was only a matter of time before BT finally pulled the plug on LRS and, since last month, they’ve been steadily informing their remaining customers who take the service that it will finally be withdrawn from sale later this month.
BT LRS Statement
Line Rental Saver is being withdrawn from sale on 21 July 2023. From this date we will no longer offer the option to pay in advance for your line rental.
After your Line Rental Saver has expired, you will no longer have the Line Rental Saver discount of £19.99 applied to your package price each month, as you will not have paid in advance for your line rental. Instead you will pay the full package price each month.
For more information, please call 0800 800 150.
Customers impacted by this might want to consider switching to a cheaper ISP or upgrading their BT package to a more modern broadband and digital phone bundle, although others may be able to renew LRS (one last time) before the deadline. According to This is Money, customers affected by this will also get a credit of at least £10 on their next bill.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Is line rental even a thing with Voip phoning? As in the next year most will be on that service with them.
At the moment you still have the choice at least with most ISP’s of a digital line or analogue line
Only a tiny fraction of line rental goes toward the equipment that provides dial tone from the exchange. Almost all of it goes toward the cost of providing the connection into your home.
Although the hills are merged these days, you are in effect paying openreach (or whoever) for a pair of wires or a fibre into your home from the edge of the network, and then your isp for the services that ride over the top of it. Whether you have a phone service or not you still require that connection.
For people that only want a landline for calls there are numerous mobile deals that give you unlimited UK calls for around £5 per month. I’ve helped several elderly relatives ditch the landline in favour of a much more affordable mobile deal – they appreciate not having to worry about call length either.
A lot of older generation don’t want to switch to mobiles. (some that do struggle to learn or even understand)
Call length most of these cheap mobile providers have a time limit either 1-2hrs also not all of them allow calls for free some of the numbers which are free on landline mobile charge.
I have family which are like this and providers are making it very expensive also some not even offering call packages.
With digital switch no reason these service should be expensive in fact they should be cheaper.
I look at broadband pricing and even if you go with one without landline you are not getting cheaper prices the whole system is a scam.
Wouldn’t work in my case, gave my nan one of those ‘elderly friendly’ phones once and she kept unplugging it.
Another problem would be the phone number, AFAIK you can’t ‘simply’ port a landline number to a mobile and I doubt she’d want to change her number.
I can think of potential solutions, but all of them would be ‘too complex’, especially if something goes wrong as she lives quite a distance away.
My Nan, although enthusiastic about the pricing, was reluctant at first to change from landline to mobile. However we sorted her out with a Doro phone that came with charging cradle and one button phonebook access and she took to it very quickly. We manage her account and ensure the bundle remains active.
How are This Is Money calculating a £240 detriment?
By being wrong. At best LRS would save you like £20 on not prepaying. Any package you took with LRS would now be so expensive by yearly increases, moving to a new package you should save a load of cash.
ThisIsMoney is just The Daily Heil (Mail) in another skin.
Facts don’t matter as the userbase will already be up in arms over the headline, for those “low income households” – who probably wouldn’t have been in a position to pay annually up front anyway.
also, actual low income households (including pensioners) can get BT’s Home Essentials anyway, which is likely a better deal?
(the landline only product, with unlimited minutes, is like £10 a month)
@ivor that is not for pensioners that is for people on low income claiming some benefits.
The other issue is that will be a digital service well isp do not allow you to have separate digital phone and broadband.
“pensioner” does not automatically mean poor, some are doing VERY well with their defined benefit pensions and paid off mortgages on cheap houses – BT doesn’t need to help them out.
As for those who aren’t doing so well, they can claim pension credit from the government, and if they do then they can get Home Essentials.
also, as I said, BT specifically offers a landline only service. This is likely DV delivered over broadband, but you do not need to pay BT for a broadband service to get it. £10 a month.
If you did want broadband, it’s like £15 a month total.
What does that matter now, as they are putting a stop sell on all WLR orders, so line rental will not be a thing for new customers from September 23 with a full withdrawal from 25