[Closed] BT phone and broadband costing me a fortune!!!!

I changed from BT to TalkTalk...now my download speed is twice as fast and I pay half as much as I did before! I think they're currently doing a deal where you get the broadband for £3.25 a month for 12 months! Oh, it's more or less unlimited too!

+1 as above.
Service and speeds seem good so far. About half the price per month compared to BT.

Another +1 for TalkTalk.

Cheap, fast and stable. They do have foreign call centres (and UK ones), but any problems (not many!), have been dealt with well.

Just been looking and plusnet and EE have some good deals
Anyone got any experience of either

I use plusnet and really like them, they're owned by BT I believe though. UK call centres is now something I consider whenever I buy any service. I'm surprised TalkTalk are being recommended tbh, I've never heard anything but bad things! Guess they could be turning themselves round though.

I've been happy enough with talktalk, including them dealing with a line fault. Our speed doubled too compared to BT.

I am using Eclipse for phone and broadband good price and service (needed a static IP )but whoever you go with be sure to haggle.

Is it easy to change over to other company's ? Coss i'am useless with technology

Go to www.samknows.com and find out what non-BT offerings are available where you are.

Have you tried talking to BT, our deal improved hugely just through a "your too expensive" phone call.

jonny rocky mountain - Member

Is it easy to change over to other company's ? Coss i'am useless with technology

Yeah tried talking to them a few times and they say each time they put us on a better deal but 3 years ago our bill per quarter was around £125 now it's £170 so I don't really think we're on a better deal ?

piemonster - Member

Have you tried talking to BT, our deal improved hugely just through a "your too expensive" phone call.

£170 a quarter! That's a crazy amount in todays market.

You can reduce that massively especially if you pay your line rental up-front.

Happy Plusnet customer here.

Been with them since ADSL was available in my area and have stayed with them through two house moves. £9.99/month for unlimited ADSL.

Never had any major problems but when I have contacted their support they have been very good.

I like to stick with BT for my phoneline - call me old fashioned but they do seem like the easiest people to speak to if you have a technical issue with your line.

a massive caveat to that is that I barely use the landline - it's just a conduit for broadband

I've found 02 to be a straightforward and reliable broadband provider, and they're easy to get in touch with if your mobile is with them.

Im with EE - changed over the New year - they provide phone and broadband and for the first year it works out at 16.50 for both together (per month) - unlimited internet. Thats £2.50 per month for internet. Pretty good imo.

Service was very good and apart from BT mucking up when they got told I was leaving (they set me up with a new account by mistake - not EEs fault), has been very good.

If you are interested, I think if you say I recommended you (email for my real name), you get more money off as well.

Hope that helps.

oliverd1981 - Member

I like to stick with BT for my phoneline - call me old fashioned but they do seem like the easiest people to speak to if you have a technical issue with your line.

In my experience BT and specifically BT Openwhatever are a shambles. I won't deal with them any more on principle (other than having to use BT Openzombie due to their monopoly position). Plusnet for internet here and very happy with them - great to deal with over the phone and no issues with the service. Price was OK.

Cheers guys
Looks like BT are in for the sack tomorrow

one thing worth remembering is that if you pay 12 months in advance for your BT line rental, (line rental saver) then you're saving about five quid a month.

and you can still use this with infinity etc.

I saw some graffiti the other day. "Virgin is better." I completely misunderstood what it meant at first, until I realised it was scribbled on an Openreach cabinet.

We use plusnet after the shambles of BT especially their call centres in you have a problem. Plusnet have been simple, approachable and good to use. I've used O2 in the past who were good if you're on their mobile network, but they just announced that they are changing to sky.

Whatever you chose, remember to go through Quidco if you can.
Free money.

I use Sky and they have been excellent. Not as cheap as the ones recommended here but always rank very highly in consumer surveys.

I dumped talktalk for BT. Only issues I have had have been line issues and its quicker to go to BT than the others as they "own" the lines and the other go through them anyway. Talktalk were shite.
However I would happily change but I can't find anyone else that does 24/7 phone calls. suggestions?

Whatever you do, please don't join Talk Talk. Absolute nightmare.

I've just moved from BT to EE. I pay £19 a month for line rental, off-peak calls and unlimited broadband. I was that impressed I swapped mobile over from Vodafone too.

BT told me that they would match the price, but they wouldn't give me the difference for the last eighteen months they were over charging me! EE even paid BT out for the last two months of my contract. Can't recommend them enough.

Phone up and tell them you're unhappy with the service and want to leave. They'll soon reduce your bill.

For gods sake don't go to talktalk.
I was with O2 for years. Very happy. Fast service (14mbs average). Never dropped.
I moved mobiles and so the cost went up so I decided to move to talktalk and get the free youview box.
Worst mistake I've made. Speed instantly dropped to about 4mbs. Broadband would cut off every 10 mins when busy. Customer service has got to be the worst example I've ever dealt with (in years to come there will be training videos based on talk talks mistakes).
Moved to bt a few weeks back. Now 17mbs. Solid connection. Very happy.
You do get what you pay for. And my kids want it all.

Do you work for BT?

No - but I think a lot of people at openreach think that they still do 😉

Happy new Sky customer here. Had BT for 18 months. £44/month, unlimited calls/internet. OK'ish speeds in theory (6 meg) but paltry upload speeds (kbps) that completely put the stoppers on my plans to work more from home, bit more work/life balance etc. Online meetings, Vodafone Sure Signal, sending emails with attachments, nothing would work reliably.

iPlayer or LoveFilm would just buffer at peak times, we often gave up on watching a film part way through.

Any calls to BT just blamed my kit, with a threat to charge me if they came out and found nothing wrong.

Anyway, you do need to do a bit of research IME. Use...

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search

to find your exchange. What you're looking for is people who have their own infrastructure in your exchange (the LLU bit). Otherwise you're just buying a repackaged version of the same BT Wholesale service.

So it was TalkTalk or Sky for me. Had previous with TalkTalk, so gave Sky a try. Parting shot from BT was a bit of a rant that there was no way Sky's service could be quicker, as it's all the same.

So...now on Sky. £10/month unlimited (free for six months), £5/month unlimited calls (including international to US and others, useful with family out there), little bit cheaper line rental and a £25 M&S voucher.

17 meg download, 1 meg up and seems rock solid. Everything just works.