BT and TalkTalk have increased their line rental from today, despite many consumers being hit by the recession.
BT is now charging customers £11.27 a month instead of £10.27, while TalkTalk has increased its line rental to £11.25 from £10.50 per month.
"Unlike gas, food, electricity or virtually any other household bills, the price of telephone calls has been coming down - by a third over the last five years," said BT justifying the price increase.
It also revealed vulnerable customers on BT Basic "are protected from these increases" and will continue to pay "a subsidised line rental of just £4.40 a month".
Michael Phillips, product director, of comparison site HomePhoneChoices.co.uk said: "This price increase is very disappointing, bills should be getting cheaper given the current state of their customers' finances in the midst of the credit crunch".
"BT sets the agenda in the home phone market, so I won't be surprised if we see smaller providers follow suit and hike up their own line rental charges," he added.
BT also said it was "giving back more than £200m worth of price cuts, including free calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers for 14m customers, as well as offering cheaper calls to mobiles and international numbers".
"Of course no-one wants to pay more in hard times, but if you look at what we have on offer there are great savings to be made. The vast majority of our customers could save £15 a year by having an online bill. Around five million of our customers could save another £18 a year by paying through direct debit, which is safe and convenient."
However, Phillips slammed both ISPs for charging customers extra for not opting for paperless billing and BT 's practice of penalising customers with a £1.50 charge if they don't pay by Direct Debit.
"We would definitely recommend that customers pay by direct debit and opt for paperless billing. If you can't pay by direct debit then the Post Office accepts payment by cheque, cash or over the phone with no additional charge and no minimum contract period."
TalkTalk said: "BT is increasing its line rental charge on the 1st April so our increases are in line with their charges. As part of these changes, from May 2009, we are offering our customers free local calls at anytime and calls to 0870/0845 numbers as part of their call plan so the majority of our customers will actually be better off as a result of these changes".
See also: Outrage as BT customers locked in for another year
Comments
callum said: Dragon - you get anytime national calls this is only for local calls If you think that would be better value just switch to that package
colfmedion said: And now TalkTalk will include 08700845 in their call packages This is almost perfect
Stuartli said: Dragon says he pays extra to TT for AnyTime calls - my AnyTime package includes AnyTime calls to UK phone numbers and 36 international countries plus free broadband at an average 7Mb connection speed plus line rental for just 2049 a monthKnock off the 1050 line rental charge and you will realise the remarkable value on offerI used to pay 1499 a month just for 1Mb or 2Mb a month broadband from Tiscali up to three years ago plus 11 a month line rental to BT
Stuartli said: Ive still to hear from TalkTalk about this line rental increaseEven so its package is still light years ahead of the rest of them-Its certainly streets ahead of that offered by BT
Dragon said: I pay extra to Talktalk to get anytime calls The cheaper option was for just evening and weekend calls Will I get a reduction in my bill then if everyone is going to get what I pay extra for
Duratus said: I opted for paperless billing when it first came out but was told that unless I paid by direct debit also I would still be charged the full amount I think that this is stupid because I pay my bill three months in advance so BT are earning intrest on my money and still charge me for the privilage of doing so PS I phoned BT and told them what they could do with paperless billing and demanded that they send me paper bills in future if Im paying for them I want them