Not renewing Annual Line Rental

[#1]

Currently am on a 24 month b/band deal, paying ALR for the phone line. When the line rental runs out I will still have 12 months left on the b/band deal. I know new customers have to take both but can I still remain on the b/band deal if I switch line rental to another teleco.?? PN'S line rental is just getting too expensive especially now that we hardly use the line for calls.

[#2]

You may have a problem there, when the last price rises took effect late last year Plusnet stopped the Broadband only product for new customers as you say. The question is will they allow you to change line rental to another supplier in the middle of your broadband contract?

You will need Plusnet's view on this, as far as I know the only customers with who have recently cancelled their line rental are on the FTTP trial which is a special case as they don't need a copper line at all. They have to pay a surcharge for the broadband of £3 a month or so.

[#3]

@davidj66 

If you are on a fixed price contract it may be that, depending on Plusnet's rules when you took that contract out, your line rental costs are fixed at those relevant at the start of the contract. As far as I know if this is so then the LRS price is also fixed at the cost at that time. Therefore it may be that Plusnet's line costs are not increasing as much as you think and so they may be more competitive. You need to check with Plusnet what those would be when you are investigating whether or not you can move the line rental to another telco without terminating your contract and incurring any early termination charges.

[#4]

As far as I'm aware the line rental contract is separate from broadband ,as I took out the two at different times. So when ALR ends, there shouldn't any termination charges unless PN terminate the broadband contract themselves ,in which case I shouldn't be liable for any ETCs.

However, don't really want to move b/band away from PN. Wonder if they would allow me to negotiate a new 18 month contract for both when ALR ends even tho' the b/band has a further 12 months to go? Certainly the "new customer prices" are way better than ALR plus my current b/band deal.

[#5]

As I said, it depends on when you took out the broadband contract. If it was after Plusnet started to quote the costs inclusive of line rental then the broadband and line rental anre linked even if you chose to go down the LRS route. 

You may well be able to negotiate a new deal once the LRS expires, or even before. If you do it before, then the LRS will apply until it runs out (with the broadband cost reduced by the line rental cost) and then you would pay the monthly line rental charge (i.e your monthly cost would increase by the line rental cost) unless you took out LRS again.

One thing to be aware of is that Plusnet can only cope with one pending order on your account at a time and so, if you renewed your broadband contract you could not renew LRS until that new contract had come into effect. Therefore, it makes sense to renew the contract so that it is in effect before the LRS needs to be renewed. Not an issue if you are not going to renew LRS.

Hope you can get a decent deal! Whatever, I think you need to speak to Plusnet to clarify your circumstances and options.

[#6]

Thanks for your post @davidj66 

I'm sorry to see you're looking at leaving.

To confirm if you decide to move your phone away after your line rental saver expires but you're still within contract then we would charge an early termination fee, because the contract is for both broadband and phone. We just wouldn't charge a termination fee on the phone side of things for any months that are covered by line rental saver. 

If you agreed to the fixed price contract after 8th August 2018 but before 3rd December 2019 and it sounds like you have, then if you want to renew line rental saver while you're within this contract then you won't be subject to the new cost of line rental saver, it'll still be £197.88 for you. 

As line rental saver is a total saving of £30 over the year compared to monthly rate, in this instance you'd be saving £42 as the current monthly rate is £19.99 (that you're not subject to if your fixed price contract started between those dates above).

When your contract ends if you want to move your phone away to another BT-based provider, there's not much stopping you as your account will automatically downgrade to broadband only but you won't be able to re-contract or move to another broadband only product as we stopped selling these from the 3rd December 2019.

Our broadband only costs are £15.49 for ADSL, £20.49 for Unlimited Fibre and £25.49 for Unlimited Fibre Extra. 

I hope this helps. Let us know if there's anything you're unsure of or you have any further queries though

[edit]

Just to add if you do move your phone to another provider while wanting to retain your broadband with us, the provider would need to specifically leave the line connected to BTwholesale equipment at the exchange rather than move the line on to LLU kit and they'd also need to place a 'transfer' order rather than a 'working line takeover'. If the line moves onto LLU or a working line takeover order is placed, that would cease the broadband service we're providing. 

A transfer order would basically be a straight transfer of the line with no physical changes whereas a working line takeover would entail engineering work at the exchange generally to move the line onto a different port, resulting in a new number and the broadband ceased. 

[#7]

@Gandalf - thanks for the reply. However still not totally clear what the cost implications are! 

So ,if I move my phone line to another BT based provider, but leave my ADSL broadband with yourselves ,are you saying that I would have to pay the higher cost of £15.49 pm AND pay ETCs for ending my current 24 month deal early? If so, it would make no financial sense whatsoever; in fact ,paying £15.49 for b/band would negate any savings on line rental I could possibly make  😭

[#8 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for getting back to me @davidj66 

Apologies for the confusion. If you have standard broadband and you move your phone service while in a contract, that's correct you'll pay £15.49 for broadband only and an early termination charge for the phone side of the contract.

If you pay line rental saver within the contract you're currently within you'll be able to get it cheaper than new customers.

[#9]

@Gandalf - looks like I'm going to renew ALR then ,as any other route is going to cost me more in the next 12 months or so.

Will have a fresh look at the 24 month point - see what Retentions can offer me then !!

[#10]

No problem, sounds like a plan.

Let us know if you have any further queries.