ISP BT Hits UK Landline Customers with Call Plan Price Hike UPDATED

Broadband ISP BT has begun emailing around 1.3 million existing customers of their landline phone service in order to inform them that they’re being moved to the operator’s new “Unlimited Minutes” call plan from 1st September 2020, which often comes at an extra cost (this varies depending upon your existing legacy plan).

At present the feedback we’ve received from BT’s customers has been very confusing, largely because so many of them have different legacy call plans and that makes understanding the impact rather more difficult than usual. Nevertheless, it seems as if most of those being contacted were previously on a call plan (unlimited or otherwise) that didn’t include calls to mobile phones.

By comparison the new Unlimited Minutes plan adds inclusive calls to UK mobiles, removes a setup fee and we believe that the old 60 minute limit for included calls has also been removed (i.e. where you had to hang-up and redial after an hour in order to avoid a call charge).

Customers affected by this change are likely to currently be paying from £10.50 inc. VAT per month for their existing unlimited calling plan (excluding the usual £20.20 line rental charge as we’re only talking about call plans) and many are being advised that the new change will thus attract a price increase of up to £4.50 extra per month (as we say, this varies depending upon the legacy plan taken).

Obviously the price increase for some may be mitigated if you happen to make a bunch of mobile calls from your landline (i.e. you’d be getting more for your money), but these days not many people do that via their landline and so some will still view this purely as a price hike. As a result BT’s Community Forum does contain a number of gripes (see below for a couple of quick examples).

Sample Customer Complaint 1

“It’s clearly just a rip off way to structure their products to maximise their profits. Anyway from now on I’ll use my free mobile minutes and I’ve cancelled the unlimited anytime plan I had.

Judging from the calling que a lot of people aren’t happy about being charged extra for something they were doing very well without just so BT can wrench more money out of their pockets.”

Sample Customer Complaint 2

“I agree this seem to be a big price increase from £10 to £14.50 and the need opt out or be automatically tied into a new contract by default seem to be a poor customer policy, when you can get the same package from Plusnet for £9 a month all in. Will be looking at my contract closely when it expires late August.”

BT’s email finished with: “We hope you’ll be happy with this change, but if you want to leave, you’ll need to call us by 31st August 2020 to avoid paying a charge for leaving early.” Customers who don’t wish to accept the change can choose to leave penalty free (note: call plans only attract a rolling 30 day term) or pick from one of BT’s alternative plans, which can be found in their latest BT Consumer Price Guide.

We’ve also pasted the relevant plans below (ignore the 500 option as that has been removed). Alternatively, you could try haggling with the operator for a better price. Credits to MSE for spotting this development.

UPDATE 10:05am

BT informs that the majority of the 1.3 million customers affected are dual, broadband and landline customers (i.e. not all solus landline as originally thought). The impact on customers is +£4.50 on fixed monthly cost, as mentioned above, but only +£1.83 on average net of usage.

A BT Spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk:

“The new calling plans will give customers more simplicity and flexibility over the calls they make. Fully inclusive packages provide customers with financial peace of mind that doesn’t limit their need to stay connected to family and friends. If a customer is unhappy with the new package, we have other options available to replace their outdated plan, such as our Limited Minutes Plan, which includes 700 minutes to call UK mobile and landline numbers for a total of £7 a month or they can opt out for no cost.”