Static IP address, VAT Invoice & Company Name in my address

[#1]

Hi.

Seeing as the online chat isn't working, and I don't want to be on the phone all day (It's a non-urgent call, so I don't want to hog a phone line), I thought I'd try "raising a support ticket" in the forum, to see if one of you lovely ladies or gents can help me out. 

I'm about to change my job. It's a work-from-home position, with 1 day a week in the office. My new employer has offered to pay my phone/internet bill. All that they require is that the phone & broadband bill has the company's name in there, so <My Name>,<Company Name>, <My Address>. If possible, a VAT invoice would be helpful, but I believe that because my bill is <£25, it shouldn't be an issue because of some HMRC condition.

Before anyone says anything, this is still a residential line, I'm not running a business, I just happen to be able to claim the money back from my employer.

As part of my employment, I need to connect to a VPN to the office and to an extremely secure VPN to a customer in the US which uses IP Whitelisting. If my IP changes, I'll lose my VPN to work, and the VPN to the customer (and the customer will lock my account). I'd like to add Static IP to my account. The instructions I found online didn't help - they said to go to the addins page, and select Static IP. I've been there, and it's not there as an option.

However, I've been to https://whatismyipaddress.com/, got my IP, and added it to https://whatismyipaddress.com/ip, and the address resolves to <myusername>.plus.net and it's "Likely static". Does this mean I already have a static IP address?

Thanks.

Pete.

[#2]

I believe in order to get a VAT invoice and the company name in your bill you’d need a business account (you don’t actually need to be a business to have one)

It looks like this was discussed at length a while ago and the outcome was that it’s not possible to have VAT bills produced on a residential account.

[#3]

Thanks. I'd read those too, but didn't think there was any harm in asking. So long as I can add an extra line in the address, that'll do them. Hell, I'll even put

<My Name>

<Company Name><House number>

<Street Address> 

if I have to! It's not like anything's ever posted to me.

To the Plusnet support person responding to this:

• Can you give me pros and cons of converting my account to a business account?
• I've got a lot of customer referrals to keep (I've recommended so many people to plusnet)
• Can I keep my tarriff?
• Will the fact I've only just started an 18 month lock in stop me converting.

Thanks.

Pete.

[#4]

To answer this one

and the address resolves to <myusername>.plus.net and it's "Likely static". Does this mean I already have a static IP address?

Yes, if the rdns is username.plus.net then it's static

[#5]

Not sure you’ll be able to put the company name on one of the lines of your address as I imagine your address would have to match PAF (Postcode Address File) so unless you can convince Royal Mail...

Key pro’s of a business account is 24/7 support, free static IP and the option to pay for enhanced care https://www.plus.net/help/my-account/about-enhanced-care/

It’s probably best to call the business customer options team on 0800 013 2632 to discuss a new deal, you’ll be able to move to a business account without having to pay a termination fee of your residential one. 

A con in your case would likely be the loss of your referrals unless you can convince the adviser you speak with to move the referrals across for you. 

[#6]

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@Thrall wrote:

A con in your case would likely be the loss of your referrals unless you can convince the adviser you speak with to move the referrals across for you. 

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@Thrall 

I'm not sure how things stand now, but it used to be the case that you could still collect on referrals even if you left PN completely.    

[#7]

Hi.
This is all super useful stuff. Thanks ever so much. I'll talk to the business team in the morning.

Temporary loss of the referrals is ok. I moved 15 years ago and parked my account while we moved in with family members for a few months, and reactivated it later. If I can do that now, I can do the business tarriff, and if I leave, I can restart my old account.

Thanks again.

Pete

[#8]

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@RobPN wrote:

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@Thrall wrote:

A con in your case would likely be the loss of your referrals unless you can convince the adviser you speak with to move the referrals across for you. 

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@Thrall 

I'm not sure how things stand now, but it used to be the case that you could still collect on referrals even if you left PN completely.    

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Reading this thread https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Account-Billing/Loosing-Hundreds-of-Referrals/td-p/1429478 since 2017 referrals are only paid out on broadband accounts

@PeteSmith Accounts can’t be reactivated once closed nowadays (unless it’s just to retain Plusnet email addresses) but you should in theory be able to transfer your referrals between broadband accounts, so from your res account to a new business one and vice versa if you want to switch back at the end of your business contract. Moving from business to residential within a contract will incur a termination fee