Switching telephone companies

[funtimewincies]

I'd be grateful for any advice about switching my landline phone from those of you who are a bit more clued up on such things.

I've always had my landline with BT, it was easier and my call charges aren't extortionate. However, now that they're putting up their call charges and line rental again I'm looking to see if there's a better deal out there.

My last bill which came last week is...

Line rental = £13.60 per month
Calls for quarter = £40.27

= £81.07 for the quarter with bills set to rise.
We pay £12.99 (I think) to AOL a month for broadband (and are tied in for another 6 months or so) and we don't have any cable/sky TV, just Freeview which I'm happy with. I've also got a pay as you go mobile costing about £10 a month in calls/texts.

If I change from BT for calls, do I have to still pay them for my landline? Sorry, I'm an intelligent woman, honestly, but with a bit of a blind spot on this sort of stuff .

No once you switch from BT you stop paying them. One of my neighbours switched the line rental to the Post Office but has AOL broadband.

BT generally charges more unless you pay monthly by DD.

For calls, however, there are alternatives which can save vs BT rates. I pay 5p per call to landlines (01/02/03 numbers and 0p per minute, so can be on for an hour or more if I want, for same 5p as a 10 minute call, using BT line and 1899.com service).

If cost of calls to mobiles is problem (eg DC calling from BT line to friend on mobile) then some mobile deals are worth checking - eg 10 quid per month on Asda PAYG bundle gets 200 minutes (=5p/min). Just remind everyone to not use landline when ringing mobiles...

Thanks for that, I wasn't sure how it works. I'd better get hunting !