Warning

[KARL]

Those who have their landline rental with BT, their calls billing with someone else, AND the caller ID facility with the BT line, please note that BT have blocked the 1280 facility whereby you could deliberately route some calls through BT in order to qualify for free caller ID. This is put forward by them as "updating of exchanges" even though nothing (else) has been done at your exchange - it is a simple re-pricing exercise. If you were recently billed for the ID even though you would have expected it to be free because you did everything to qualify under the previous terms, then complain you were not advised and did not know and ask for a refund - but from now on you will be billed £7.50 per quarter regardless.

[lucca]

Why not leave BT then? I paid for rental, caller id and answerphone - paid plenty for it and then was "fined" every month for low use of a/phone (though I used it loads) until I'd had enough! I went elsewhere for a MUCH better and CHEAPER deal.

[KARL]

The line rental cost is, so far as I know, exactly the same with all providers in areas where there is no \"cable\" service available and does not involve getting a dish and TV packages or anything. Thus, when you don\'t want any call package/plan attached, the issue revolves only about what you get free with it (if anything) and that is now (so far as I have been able to ascertain, utterly uniform also so far as the ID display is concerned. I don\'t want anything other than a line and ID display, no call charge scheme, no answering service, no call diversion, no call waiting, nada, niente, nothing. If there is a clear cut cheapest way to get this on its own (stand alone) then I would very much like to know who the service provider is.

[lucca]

Mine is part of a broadband package - I already had bb and calls with one provider, and line rental/caller display/answerphone with BT. I was approached by Talktalk with a better-sounding offer, told my bb/calls provider who magically made me an even better offer! So, without seeking the "play one off against the other" scheme, I ended up with a better deal. Not sure what it would be without tha bb part of it, but it's always worth shopping around.

[lucca]

Forgot to mention:- the caller display part now costs 49p per month which is much cheaper than BT.

[TTG]

On a similar note but should be under the title "Warning". A 'ringback' request was marked as 50p on a Virgin Media bill!

[BenDToy]

I would happily change my line rental but no-one else other than BT seems to offer Call Sign (second number with a different ring tone) which I need. So stuck with them for now.