BT to hike phone, broadband and TV prices by up to 6.5%

Households with BT face bigger bills from December.

BT has announced it's hiking its prices by up to 6.5%.

Millions of phone, broadband and TV customers will be impacted from 1st December.

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What’s changing?

BT is writing to customers that are impacted by the changes, but here are the details of the main price hikes.

Line rental and standard pricing

Below are the changes relating to line rental and standard pricing for calls outside of an inclusive calls allowance.

Feature	Current cost	Cost from December	% change
Standard line rental (for Direct Debit customers)	£15.99/month	£16.99/month	6.25%
Line Rental Saver	£159.84/year	£169.90/year	6.29%
Call set up fee	15p	15.97p	6.47%
Calls to UK landline and 0870 numbers	9p/min	9.58p/min	6.44%
Calls to mobiles	12p/min	12.77p/min	6.41%

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Call plans and add-ons

Here are the changes related to call plans and add-ons.

Call plan/add on	Current cost	Cost from December	% change
Unlimited Anytime Calls (if you signed up on or before 20th June 2014)	£7/month	£7.45/month	6.43%
Unlimited Anytime Calls (if you signed up after 20th June 2014)	£7.50/month	No change	0%
Unlimited Evening and Weekend Calls (if you signed up on or before 20th June 2014)	£2/month	£2.12/month	6%
Unlimited Evening and Weekend Calls (if you signed up after 20th June 2014)	£3/month	No change	0%
Friends and Family International	£1.15/month	£1.20/month	4.35%
International Freedom	£5.85/month	£6.20/month	5.98%

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Broadband

BT says broadband prices are going up by no more than 6.49% and current high profile offers won't change.

You can enter your account details to see how you're affected here. But the below table outlines how some of BT's main packages will be impacted.

Broadband package	Current cost	Cost from December	% change
BT Infinity 1	£15	£15.95	6.33%
Unlimited BT Infinity 1	£23	£24.45	6.30%
Unlimited BT Infinity 2	£28	£29.80	6.43%
Broadband	£13	£13.80	6.15%
Unlimited Broadband	£18	£19.15	6.39%
Unlimited Broadband Extra	£23	£24.45	6.30%
Unlimited BT Infinity 3	£37.35	£39.65	6.16%

The cost of going over your broadband usage allowance will increase from £5.30 to £5.60 per 5GB excess (or part of) from 1st December too.

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TV plans and add-ons

Some TV packages and add-ons are also getting more expensive.

Tv package/ add-on	Current cost	Cost from December	% change
TV Entertainment*	£7/month	£7.45/month	6.43%
On Demand viewing packs (TV, Film, Music, Kids)	£7.50 each	£7.95 each	6%
Sky Sports 1	£15.50/month	£16.50/month	6.45%
Sky Sports 2	£15.50/month	£16.50/month	6.45%
Sky Sports 1 &2	£21/month	£22/month	4.76%

*Package offer of £5 a month for six months will remain valid

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Calling features

The cost of some calling features will also get more expensive.

Calling feature	Current cost	Cost from December	% change
Timeline	36.6p	38.97p	6.48%
Call Return	19.9p	21.19p	6.48%
Call Minder	£3.50/month	£3.70/month	6.48%
Ring Back	43.3p	46.11p	6.48%
Reminder Call	43.3p	46.11p	5.71%
Choose to Refuse	£3.90/month	£4.15/month	6.49%
Anonymous Caller Reject	£4.75/month	£5.05/month	6.49%

You can bundle features with Feature Packs to save but these costs are also rising.

Currently one feature is £3.50, two-four £7 and five-eight £9.35. But from December the costs will increase to £3.70, £7.45 or £9.95 respectively.

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What BT says

John Petter, chief executive of BT Consumer, said:

“BT is sensitive to the tough economic times and we’ve taken care to make sure that low-income customers avoid price increases. We’ve added extra money-saving options for low-income customers and for customers who only want a phone line for calls.

“Although some prices have gone up, we want to help our customers to find the best value BT option with Right Plan. We are introducing extra ways for customers to maximise their savings, such as the UK’s cheapest line and broadband bundle for low-income customers and Home Phone Saver for customers who just want a great value standalone telephone package.”

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What can you do?

Under new Ofcom rules anyone that took out a mobile, landline or broadband pay monthly contract after 23rd January 2014 can leave penalty-free if a provider hikes prices mid-term and hadn’t warned this would happen at the time of signing up.

For those that signed up before, the new rules don’t apply. However, you may be able to argue the change is of ‘material detriment’ under Ofcom’s old rules, though there is no clear definition of what this is.

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Other price hikes

BT follows Plusnet, Sky, Talk Talk and Virgin Media who have all announced price rises in recent weeks.

So if you are with any of these providers for your phone, broadband or TV it might be worth switching in order to benefit from a new customer deal elsewhere.

You can compare the best offers on broadbandchoices.com.

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