The minimum call requirement of 2 calls a month for line rental saver customers ended a few months ago.

Rumour has it  the 2 minimum calls required for the free caller display and free 1571 will be ending soon too. As its hinted BT will be charging for caller display etc when new price rises are announced.

So my info was good then.

Thank you for the link some people have got the impression that they only pay one £1.75p a month. But the mail suggest not.These are the relevant bits.

"Previously free BT Answer 1571 and BT Privacy with Caller Display will now each cost £1.75 a month. Customers will be 'opted in' if they have ever used the services in the past."

BT Answer 1571 is an answer phone service that callers can access by dialing '1571'. The company said that it will consider any customer who has ever dialed 1571, even if it was several years ago, as having opted into the service and will add £1.75 to their monthly bill. They can avoid this by responding to the letter they will receive next week to opt out, and BT said they can cancel at any time.
BT Privacy with Caller Display has been offered for free since 2005 and was taken up by those who wished to avoid nuisance calls. Customers needed to request the service, at which point BT would have also signed them up to the Telephone Preference Service to avoid cold-calls. Anyone that requested it will now have £1.75 added to their bill unless they act.

Customers opted into BT Answer 1571 can continue to get the service for free if they agree to sign up to line rental with the company for another year."

bigjohn wrote on Sep 30^th, 2013 at 5:48am:

How does this work with respect to the contract periods of different elements of a single provision of service?

For example, one signs up for Line Rental Saver (for 12 months) in June and also a new 12 month phone and broadband contract. This means that the two run concurrently and so when one ends the other does. One "only" needs to wait until the following June to leave.

But now that a "new" 12 month contract for free caller display is to be entered into in January, the two elements will be 6 months out of sync (in this example). So in order to terminate the service with BT - whether to transfer to another provider or end completely - one would have to either pay a penalty or not re-subscribe to Line Rental Saver. Whether a penalty for contract termination is incurred, or line rental is paid on the conventional monthly or quarterly basis, the cost incurred is greater. There is also the possibility that the enticement of the "saving" carrot on the line rental is too great and one overlooks the fact that the two won't end together. I wonder how many people have been caught out by this one.

It is perhaps worthy of note that automatically-renewing (or so-called "rolling") contracts were banned, but that there are still things out there that could leave people in a predicament should they need to terminate service or transfer it to another provider.

On the one hand we have "savings" and offers when signing up, but may be paying for it on exit.