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BT Friends & Family
Hidden Catch

Beware: BT's automated Friends & Family feature could end up costing you more than it saves!

I first read about the new service in the February 2006 edition of BT Update, the leaflet that arrived two days prior to that month's phone bill. Actually, the first thing I noticed was how BT "will" increase the basic line rental price by 50p from 1 January 2006 - pretending to give advance notice, despite it already being February.

Still, not to worry - as the same booklet highlighted a number of "ways to save with BT", one of which was the new BT Friends & Family Auto Update.

BT Friends & Family Auto Update

At first glance, this newly announced service appeared to be a great way to save time and money. However, a careful reading of BT's own wording proved to be much more telling than you might suspect. BT Update introduced this new service, "which automatically gives you discounts on eligible numbers, saving you time and could save you money" [the emphasis is mine, the incorrect grammar is theirs!].

Why is this "telling"? Because there was a hidden catch, which BT didn't explain and which could mean I ended up paying a lot more for home phone calls using this Auto Update version of Friends & Family.

The normal Friends & Family service allowed you to nominate up to 15 phone numbers including up to six international numbers. You'd then receive an ongoing 10% discount on calls to all of those numbers, except for calls to your chosen "Best Friend's" number, on which you'd receive 20% discount.

The new service automatically updates your list of most frequently dialled numbers - including picking from fixed line, mobile phone and international numbers based on your previous calling patterns. You'd still get to save 20% on calls to your Best Friend, which remained as a permanent choice, still selected by you.

That all sounds fine - until you realise that customers on BT Together Option 1 would only get discounts applied on up to five phone numbers (four automatically selected ones, plus Best Friend) instead of the maximum of fifteen potentially discounted numbers that they had with the regular Friends & Family scheme. In other words, customers on BT Together Option 1 stood to lose discounts on calls to up to ten numbers in return for having their top four selected automatically!

- Was this pointed out in the literature? No!
- Was this explained to me when I called BT to opt-in to the new service? No!

Only those customers on BT Together Option 3 actually got close to having an equivalent range of discounted numbers as before, with 15 in total.

One other point that's worth keeping in mind: Friends & Family Auto Update chooses its numbers at the end of each quarter - even if you're billed by monthly direct debit. Over time, this means you could potentially have numbers selected for you by BT that you aren't even going to be dialling any more!

The moral? Don't ever be afraid to look BT's gift horses in the mouth - you may be glad you did!

In this case, take a few minutes to look at your recent phone bills and work out whether you'd be better off under the new scheme before you rush to opt into it (and opt in you must, if you want to benefit from it).

Whilst you're reviewing your phone bills, why not check whether you could save even more by switching to a different home phone supplier? Unless you plan to switch to a cable operator, no changes are needed to your phone wiring or connections - the technical aspects all take place at your local exchange, under instruction from your new supplier. See the following links for more information:

uSwitch - home phone price comparison and switching service. TalkTalk - this home phone service from the Carphone Warehouse group features free calls between members. BT Shop - buy phones, answering machines, PCs & more direct from BT.

 

Originally from Captain Consumer's old blog, 24 Feb 2006.

Last updated 23 August 2007.