[Closed] High BT bill ....Spotify?

[i]£220 per quarter[/i]

😯

are you on PAYG broadband?

do you get an itemised bill (or could you)?

[edit] Spotify is a download - any streaming media is, really.

How old is your son? Is he calling 'premium' lines?

£220!

I pay line rental and £7.00 a month for Broadband and unlimited calls

You've been, er had in a big way by someone

A lad I'm working with has just had a phone bill this morning for £390. For the month!!!

Turns out his son, who has reached that uncomfortable age where a young mans thoughts wander to the fairer sex, has been phoning Babestation all night. Doubtless while roughing up the prime suspect

£390, thats an expensive ****

All sounds far too complicated for me - there can't be many people who pay much on calls/BB beyond the fixed monthly cost can there?

I know! The young man clearly hasn't thought it through. You could have had an hour with Rooneys hooker for that. And her mate

Paying about £220 per quarter.

Are you the last person in the country on dial-up?

I think binners it talking sense on this one...... 😉

You could have had an hour with Rooneys hooker for that.

Maybe this is the deal that should be made? 'Son if you stop using the phone I'll make sure you get laid once a month.'

He has no access to the phone and the computer is in our kitchen. I am paying for over use it seems. My lad has Spotify running when he is doing other things on the computer I.e homework or Facebook.

I bet you have a 1GB download limit. Each song streamed(downloaded) will be about 5MB so he's listened to a lot of songs..

What does an itemised bill cost? A couple of quid? Easily worth it to see why you're getting insane phone bills.

I would speak to them as BT lowest tarrif is 10GB per month. Not sure if they charge per byte after that limit or just cut you off.

If thats the case ask to upgrade for a few quid extra a month.

I bet the cost is down to phone calls to mobiles though - any family been abroad over summer etc?

Taken from BT - [url= http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/10495/c/346/?s_cid=con_FURL_broadbandusagepolicy ]here[/url]

If you exceed your monthly usage allowance your service won't stop working; advisory emails will be sent to your BT primary email address if you reach 80 per cent of your usage allowance each month and further notification if you then exceed your allowance in a particular month.

If you exceed your usage allowance for two months in a row, we'll charge you £1 for each extra GB you use (rounded up to the nearest GB) starting from the second month you exceed your allowance. We'll continue charging if you keep exceeding your allowance in the following months. These charges will appear on your BT bill.

From 1st November 2010, if you exceed your usage allowance, you'll be charged for additional usage in units of up to 5 gigabytes (GB), at a charge of £5 per 5GB. Charges will apply from the second month you exceed your allowance and in any subsequent month that the usage allowance is exceeded. These charges will appear on your BT bill. To contact us about these changes visit

Here we go.
Unlimited anytime plan £53.32
BT Total broadband £47.97
Both charged in advance 8/9 - 7/12

Phone usage £23.04
Broadband Usage £37.00
Processing payment £4.50
One off charge £36.87?

Extra broadband usage
1/6 - 30/6 10gb £10
8/6 12gb £12
1/7 - 31/7 6gb £6
1/8 - 31/8 9gb £9
We've never received notice that we were reaching our monthly usage quota.

One off charge £36.87?

I'd query what that's for.

You're paying £16/month for broadband, then an extra £12/m on top of that of that for downloads of several Gb [i]over [/i]your existing plan. My guess is he's torrenting TV series and films. Or pron.

Spotify is data, what else would it be?

You either need to tell him to knock it off, or change to some form of unlimited plan. Personally, I'd tell BT to roll it tightly and grease it lightly, and look for an LLU provider (stick your details into www.samknows.com).

Also, you have an unlimited anytime plan, your phone usage is "minimal", and you've got 23 quid in non-inclusive phone calls. Hm?

Spotify runs for hours on end in our house and my combined phone/broadband bill is never more than £35/month.

ou're paying £16/month for broadband, then an extra £12/m on top of that of that for downloads of several Gb over your existing plan. My guess is he's torrenting TV series and films. Or pron.

Cougar
Mobiles aren't included that's £14.75 the rest is £0.71 for call back and £7.57 'other calls'

Whatever it's clearly not suiting the household.

Docrobster, 10G just checked.

are you on direct debit and they're taking out way more than you are using ? they're ****s for pulling that trick, took quite a large amount off us over the course of last year.

Spotify won't be the problem for the increase in costs as you don't actually down-load the songs, you only listen online. I have Spotify Premium on a lot, while my 13 year old daughter has the free version on constantly - the bill for the last quater arrived last week.....£116.

[i]you don't actually down-load the songs[/i]

well, you do but you just don't save them locally.

oldgit

Get them to split the bill, phone you pay and broadband your company can pay - then go for whatever package suits.

Also, do you have cable at home? The standard Virgin package covers everything we do and the internet/XBox is on somewhere all the time in our house.

well, you do but you just don't save them locally.

Why on earth would anyone NOT have a broadband deal from a provider like Virgin where you pay a fixed sum per month with unlimited use?

Yes, you can download them to listen off line, but that doesn't cost, if you buy the track to play it on an MP3 player or to burn to disc then you do. If you are exceeding your download limit and having to pay, then that is different.

wind-bag - anything that finds its way to your pc so you can listen to it has been downloaded, whether you have it available for future use or not. It may be compressed for 'listen only' but it still counts...

Spotify won't be the problem for the increase in costs as you don't actually down-load the songs, you only listen online. I have Spotify Premium on a lot, while my 13 year old daughter has the free version on constantly - the bill for the last quater arrived last week.....£116.

oh the nieve ity

how do you think you listen to them - by recieving the streaming data ....

but as others said - torrents or something along those lines - spotify doesnt use "that" much data -12GB of music in one day ! **** off

wwaswas - that is right, but from the way oldgit started the thread I was under the impression that he felt he was paying for the download, in addition to his download limit.

Is your wireless router properly secured - with WPA rather than WEP?

If the lad were downloading films an the like, he'd also have to be watching them in the kitchen.

I can't help but wonder if half your street isn't using your broadband 😆

Spotify won't be the problem for the increase in costs as you don't actually down-load the songs,

By that logic, my phone bill should be free, as the people I talk to don't actually record the calls.

You're not paying to "download", you're paying to receive and transmit data. Whether you save the music to disk or not is irrelevant, it's still data transmission. Uplug your router and see how long Spotify carries on going.

Is your wireless router properly secured - with WPA rather than WEP?

Good point. Also, is your PC mysteriously slow? Could be a virus or other malware.

My money's still on your lad torrenting Big 'n' Juicy vol 1-12 though.

You really need a new broadband and phone deal. Check SamKnows as above but you should be able to get fast, "unlimited" broadband and a load of inclusive phone for less than £25 per month. (I'm with O2 and i think it's 22.50).

They all still have a fair use policy but Spotify is not that bandwidth heavy - the high quality streams are 320kbps and theres a lot of hours of listening to hit the volumes you're talking about. Is he really listening all day every day?

I suspect some video as well - some big film downloads could be some gb each

Has he got an Xbox / PS3? Game demos on my Xbox can routinely exceed 1Gb in size.

I have just left BT due to having 3 phone calls on my last bill.
The first call was made when i was working away in spain, 2nd too were both made on a day when i was at work, i don't even have a phone in my house. I have asked Bt to explain them twice but so far no answer.

He has PS3, but we watch him to see what he's up to.

I do get warnings something about cross network?
And we often loose everything when BT Openzone overrides our own BT Homehub, I have to call India most months to have it reset. But this BT Openzone will somtimes override my HTC HD2 phones network?
Anything here I should be looking at?

From what you just wrote, it sounds like you have an Openzone network near your own. Are you sire that your network is secured against outside use? Could be that other folk are doing a search, finding yours and just using that instezad.

Don't forgot people that this bill is for a [b][i]quarter[/i][/b] not a month although its still very high !
I know BT have made some changes to the why they bill me for my calls and broadband which might explain the one off charge - not sure.
As for the Openzone connection, this runs off your router as a separate connection. You need to go into your setting and try removing it from the list of your networks to connect to. That should stop it switching.
I think my quarterly bill was just over £100. I use around 10Gb per month.
You need to learn how to swap the wireless connection back - its very straight forward and should take you all of 30 seconds not days on the phone to India.

Spotify barely touchs the side folks. i've looked into it before. Get yourself a download tracker and each computer and you should be able to monitor your DL and UL.

Just to put this into context,

I pay less per quarter than the OP, [i]including Sky TV.[/i]

Seriously. Go to SamKnows, find an LLU provider, and stop BT making your bottom sore. And have a word with your lad, he'll go blind.

Slightly off topic but I use OpenDNS to restrict access (Facebook is banned in our house) and also to track internet useage. Easy to set up (if you have a fixed IP address, slightly harder if not) and if you set up your router it covers all devices on that connection.

Slightly off topic but I use OpenDNS to restrict access (Facebook is banned in our house) and also to track internet useage.

Given that the OP struggles with wi-fi connections I suspect setting up custom DNS may be beyond him (and most non-geeks).

If kids really want access to a particular site they will find a way around your restriction anyway (e.g. use the IP address to avoid DNS and basic filtering; use a proxy to bypass your filter; figure out how to set up their own DNS etc etc). Teenage boys with time on their hands and one hand down their pants can be surprisingly resourceful and cunning. 😀

Also: you ban FaceBook??

I was thinking about this earlier and forgot to mention it.

"We watch what he does / his access is restricted" is very admirable, and very naive.

Also: you ban FaceBook??

Yes, we ban Facebook, what's wrong with that?

Nothing. It's entirely up to you what you want to censor in your own home.
Just seems a slightly surprising choice is all. I just read yesterday that people now spend more time on FaceBook than Google, so it's become a pretty big thing to try to ignore.

I suppose it's a bit different if your son's 6 compared to if he's 14.

I just read yesterday that people now spend more time on FaceBook than Google,

Something being popular is a good reason to ban it?

Popular, no. Waste of time (in my view), yes.

LOL, okay, well if you're going to try to ban every website that exists purely for entertainment and communicating with friends without having "a purpose" then I suspect you'll find yourself very busy over the next few millennia.

Good luck! 🙂

well if you're going to try to ban every website that exists purely for entertainment and communicating with friends without having "a purpose" then

you shouldn't be here? 😆

You know, I've never understood the mentality of people who complain about things that they've gone out of their way to be put out by. Like, people who'll see a forum thread's title, read through several pages of the thread [i]knowing it's about something they don't like,[/i] and then post an entry complaining about how boring it is. What, did we force you to read it?

You don't like Facebook, fine. I'm not a huge fan myself. However, some people disagree with you and enjoy using it. Where's the harm? Shall we ban all the movies you don't like, burn all the books you're not interested in?

What's more a waste of time; spending time on a 'pointless' website, or taking time out of your day to complain that other people are doing it?

Hang on here. I didn't complain about Facebook, I just passed a comment. You're the one who's wasting time complaining at my view about it. Maybe you should stop wasting your (and my) time.

What's more a waste of time; spending time on a 'pointless' website, or taking time out of your day to complain that other people are doing it?

I would say taking the time to [i]complain about people[/I] complaining about FaceBook is the biggest waste.

Whereas complaining about people [i]complaining about people[/i] complaining about FaceBook is entirely productive and useful way to spend the day.

Any complaints? 😉

richardmars, you are one big hypocrite thats for sure, spending time on a social networking site whilst you ban your family from another. I guess you could be saving up a rebelion for the future, although I don't know how old your kids are...

You are not Austrian are you?

Basically, my house, my rules. You may not like it, but do I care?

[i]do I care?[/i]

clearly a bit, I think.

Please dont let your lad goto Africa to use Spotify......

And we often loose everything when BT Openzone overrides our own BT Homehub, I have to call India most months to have it reset. But this BT Openzone will somtimes override my HTC HD2 phones network?

Assuming 1) it's not someone elses Openzone, and 2) you're using a home hub, the default is, I believe, to take some of your connection to create Openzone. You can get it disabled, or you can use your own router. This would then at least stop you connecting to the paid for connection?

I would say taking the time to complain about people complaining about FaceBook is the biggest waste.

Whereas complaining about people complaining about people complaining about FaceBook is entirely productive and useful way to spend the day.

Any complaints?

It wouldn't be the Internet if I didn't. (-:

And rich, sorry, my first paragraph there was unrelated to you. It was a badly laid-out post, I should read what I'm writing a bit more carefully.