Ditch BT and save £126 a year

If you're one of the millions of Brits who get broadband through a BT landline, here's how you could save over £100 a year without getting rid of your home phone.

Over the past few months, we've highlighted how to Punish your broadband provider, together with how to Switch broadband more easily!.

But what if you want to save money on broadband but are not prepared to give up your landline?

The truth is, for many of us (myself included), the landline is still very much a part of our daily lives, and although I seldom use mine to make calls, I would still feel slightly at sea without one.

In addition, having a landline could also improve your credit worthiness, and could up your chances of being able to borrow money.

However, if you’re one of either the 15.8 million customers paying for a BT landline, plus a separate fee to another broadband provider (such as Sky or AOL), or one of BT’s 4.4 million own broadband customers, you are in effect paying twice for a single broadband connection.

This is because not only do you have to fork out £12.79 a month for BT line rental, but you pay an additional monthly fee for your broadband, which costs £15.99 a month.

But by ditching BT and switching to a broadband provider which offers its own landline service, you could save a lot of money by removing BT from the equation. The whole process is generally quite smooth, and in most cases you can keep your existing phone number.

Here’s a comparison of four alternative providers, together with what you'd pay with BT:

*First year cost does not include cost of calls outside of the monthly allowance, as part of your package or line rental. ** £8 for existing O2 mobile customers, otherwise £13. *** £7.50 for existing Orange mobile customers, otherwise £12.50.

As you can see, all four alternative providers prove cheaper than BT – in two cases by more than £100 over a year.

Just be aware that some of the offers in the table are about to end. For example, the Plusnet’s free broadband for four months offer will end on 1st October, while TalkTalk’s six months’ free broadband offer ends on the 30th September.

Indeed, BT’s own offer of three months’ free broadband will end on 1st October. No surprise to see BT’s best deals lasting only as long as the competition’s, is there?

Unfortunately, this means you do need to hurry if you want to take advantage of these deals.

Introductory offers

Obviously, the introductory deals offered by all of these providers distort the true cost of each plan.

So for a more realistic comparison, here’s how the providers size up over two years:

As you can see, over time the cost of BT broadband and line rental proves expensive when compared to other providers.

In fact, if you ditched BT and went for the cheapest option - O2 -The Basics + Evening & Weekend Calls – you’d save £252 over two years or £126 a year! What’s more, this package includes free calls to 22 international destinations and O2 is often commended for its broadband customer service.

However, it's only this cheap if you're an O2 mobile customer - and you'll need to hurry up if you do want to switch as this offer is due to end soon.

Which provider offers the best value?

Not all packages are the same of course. To be fair to be BT, it is the only provider to does include 0845 and 0870 numbers in its free calls package. So it you think you’d spend £126 a year in phonecalls to these numbers, then the BT Broadband and Anytime Calls deal could still work out the cheapest.

Similarly, heavy internet users may find the Orange Broadband & Off peak calls the most attractive, as it offers unlimited downloads in its package.

Finally, bear in mind that if you want to stick with your BT landline, Plusnet is offering the cheapest package at the moment, but this offer will expire on the 1st of October.

What do you think?

I would love to hear from lovemoney.com readers about their broadband experiences with providers that are cheaper than BT. Tales of customer service and broadband speeds are especially welcome. You guys make all the difference!

At the end of the day, switching may seem like more hassle than it's worth, and in terms of convenience, getting all your services from BT may seem the sensible option.

But considering what you could save both in the short and long term with an alternative provider, when you add up all the numbers, it may be a switch well worth doing.

More: Complain successfully about your broadband! | Switch broadband more easily!