Next month the cost of BT line rental will increase from
£11.54 to
£12.04 a month for those receiving bills electronically, and from
£12.79 to
£13.29 if you receive paper bills. Call set fees will jump from
9.9p to
10.9p and daytime call rates will rise from
5.9p to
6.4p per minute.
BT is not alone in hiking costs. TalkTalk is also raising prices - its line rental charge will climb to
£12.04 a month from October 1, call set-up fees will increase from
9.25p a minute to
10.9p and daytime call rates will jump from
4.6p to
6.4p per minute.
BT is however offering reduced line rental if you can afford to pay up front before October 29. Its Line Rental Saver deal costs £113.88 for the year, which works out at £9.49 a month and includes free weekend calls.
How to cut costs
You can trim the cost of your home phone bills by receiving bills electronically and paying by direct debit, as most providers charge extra for paper bills and for you to pay by card or cash.
TalkTalk, for example, charges £1.45 a month for customers receiving paper bills, while Virgin Media charges £5 a month for customers that do not pay by direct debit.
The Post Office is the only major phone company not to charge its customers extra for card payments and paper bills.
Investigate bundles
Another way to keep the cost of your home phone bills down is to bundle them together either with your broadband, digital TV or both. According to moneysupermarket.com, the average saving you can make from bundling all these services together is currently £212.40.
Competition between providers has never been stronger. The number of unbundled lines - where rival providers such as Sky or TalkTalk offer services over BT's telephone network - has just passed the 7 million mark for the first time.
Back in 2005, there were just 123,000 unbundled lines and the majority of people could only get their landline and broadband services from BT.
But despite the fact there is much more choice around, many people say they still find switching too much hassle. As a result, the regulator Ofcom this week said it is considering ways to make the process smoother.
Mike Wilson, mobiles and broadband manager at moneysupermarket.com said: "It is great news for the industry and consumers that Ofcom is considering ways to make the switching processes for broadband and landlines quicker and easier.
"As its research shows, a shocking 45 per cent of people say it's too much hassle, meaning an astounding number of Brits are likely to be on unsuitable package for their needs and potentially forking out more than necessary.
"By proposing the new provider-led approach Ofcom has firmly placed the emphasis on the new provider to make the customer transition as simple as possible.
"This move should radically shake-up the market by increasing competition and making it easier for customers to get a better deal and encouraging them to shop around.
"I'd hope that this will lead to providers offering even better value packages to lure new customers knowing that with a simplified process there will be more people willing to make the move to save money."
Deals available now
There is already no shortage of different bundled deals to choose from if you want to switch now and you can even tailor your own package to suit your needs. The most basic packages which include digital TV, your home phone and broadband, cost under £20 a month plus line rental.
For example, BT's basic bundle costs £17.99 a month plus line rental at £12.79, and offers up to 70 digital TV channels, 20MB broadband and inclusive UK weekend calls.
Virgin's basic bundle costs £19 plus line rental at £11.99, and comes with unlimited UK weekend landline calls, over 65 digital TV channels and 10MB broadband, while Sky offers free UK evening and weekend calls, up to 212 non-subscription TV channels and 20MB broadband again for £19 a month, plus line rental at £11.
Just broadband and phone
If you already have a Freeview box, or aren't interested in having lots of digital TV channels, you could opt just to bundle your broadband and home phone together - savings are still likely to be substantial.
For example, TalkTalk's Essentials package costs £15.54 a month including line rental and comes with free UK evening and weekend calls and unlimited calls to other TalkTalk customers, as well as up to 24Mb broadband speeds and a 40GB monthly download limit.
Virgin's Broadband & Phone bundle costs £22.62 a month including line rental and gives unlimited UK weekend landline calls, unlimited calls to Virgin Mobile numbers at weekends and up to 10MB broadband speeds with unlimited downloads.
Meanwhile, BT's Talk & Surf package costs £26.11 including line rental and comes with unlimited weekend landline calls, and inclusive calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers at weekends and during the evenings. It also gives up to 20GB broadband speeds with a 10GB monthly download limit.
The TalkTalk and Virgin contracts both tie you in for 12 months, while BT's contract is for 18 months.
Please note: Any rates or deals mentioned in this article were available at the time of writing.
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