Partner Article

BT piling financial woes on millions

BT has announced it will increase its phone and broadband prices by 6.5 per cent from next year. Prices are going up across the board, with line-rental and even charges for BT’s answer phone service and speaking clock increasing.

BT is also increasing the termination fees on customers looking to leave mid-contract by as much as 30 per cent. All these price increases are despite the mammoth telco announcing a £2.5billion profit in the year to April.

Cash-strapped Brits now have a ten-day get-out-clause. Under the terms and conditions of a BT contract you have 10 days from receiving notice of a price increase directly from BT to terminate your contract without incurring an early termination fee. Notification on the price increases are to be sent out this week.

Direct Save Telecom’s CEO, Stavros Tsolakis, says these price increases were inevitable and are clearly a result of BT’s huge investment in sports.

“These price increases were always coming, it had to find the sport money from somewhere. Now millions will be punished for this investment by prices going through the roof and for many this will mean more financial hardship.

“I only hope BT customers, and customers of Sky, Virgin and TalkTalk which are also increasing prices, use this as an opportunity to change provider. There are many fantastic broadband deals out there just now which will help hard-up families cut their bills dramatically. People should not be scared to change provider.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Michael Donaldson .