TalkTalk and Plusnet to raise prices

From October TalkTalk and Plusnet will charge more for some of their home phone and broadband services. We take a look at the changes.

Talk Talk and Plusnet have announced a raft of price hikes that will come into effect from the beginning of October.

The changes largely impact home phone and broadband customers, with changes to line rental, call charges and some packages being made by both providers.

TalkTalk changes

TalkTalk’s changes will impact new and existing customers and will take effect from 1st October 2013.

Here’s what's happening:

Line rental - will go up from £14.95 a month to £15.40 a month, a 3% change.

Talk Talk Essentials - the monthly cost of this home phone and broadband package will rise from £6.50 a month to 7.50 a month, a 15% increase.

Old broadband packages - a selection of Talk Talk’s older broadband packages will cost £1 extra. You can see a full list of the legacy deals affected on the Talk Talk website.

Anytime UK calls boost - will now cost £5.50 a month instead of £5.00, a 10% increase.

UK daytime call charge - calls made during the day that currently cost 8.41p per minute will rise to 9p per minute, a 7% change.

UK mobile daytime rate - will go up from 11.3p per minute to 12p per minute, a 6.19% rise.

UK mobile evening rate - will increase from 5.3p per minute to 12p per minute, a difference of 6.7p that represents a 126% increase!

Plusnet changes

The price shakeup from Plusnet mainly impacts customers who joined before 8th May 2013 with home phone, Value or Extra broadband deals.

Line rental - will go up from £13.99 to £14.99, a 7.15% increase.

Line rental saver - this cost effective line rental option, which sees you pay for the full year up-front, will go up from £125.88 a year to £137.88, a 9.53% increase.

Talk Anytime - the monthly cost of this call plan will go up from £4 to £4.50, a 12.5% change.

Talk Anytime International - this plan will increase from £6 a month to £6.50 a month, an 8.33% rise.

Value and Extra broadband - these broadband-only deals will cost £1.50 extra from October, unless customers switch to Plusnet home phone.

The company is also making changes to its call charges and updating its terms and conditions which will impact all customers.

Call set-up fees - will go up from 13.1p to 13.87p. This is a 6.56% increase.

Chargeable calls - like 01, 02, 03, 0845 and 0870 numbers will increase from 7.95p per minute to 8.41p, a 5.79% change.

UK mobile evening rate - will experience a massive 60% jump from 7.5p per minute to 12p per minute. But UK mobile daytime calls will come down from 12.5p per minute to 12p per minute.

A change to Plusnet’s Terms and Conditions means all Plusnet customers will need to give 14 days’ notice if they want to leave. Also Plusnet’s cessation charge – a charge incurred if you disconnect broadband without switching provider - will increase from £25 to £30. It’s the first time this has gone up since 2009.

Like Talk Talk, Plusnet will be implementing these changes on 1st October.

What you can do

Plusnet began contacting customers that will be impacted by the changes last month and by 1st September all should have heard from the firm.

Those affected will be able to terminate their contracts without incurring a fee. But if you wish to do this you need to contact Plusnet within ten days of receiving notification.

Meanwhile TalkTalk’s customers have a 30-day period to leave penalty-free, which started on 1st August. However, you need to prove the changes are of "material detriment" in order to be released.

The cheapest deals

If you're unhappy with the changes and want to get a better deal take a look at the top offers on home phone and broadband packages right now.

*Includes line rental, any upfront costs and any discounts available with broadbandchoices.co.uk.

**EE/ T-Mobile/ Orange customers only

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