TalkTalk announces price hikes

The broadband and home phone provider, which only increased its line rental prices and some call charges a few months ago, has today released details of further rises to come into force from 1 October.

Key Points

• Some price hikes from 1 October

• Line rental up by £1.40 per month

• Charge for paper bills up 42p per month

The hike follows BT which said earlier this week it will raise prices by up to 5% for millions of landline customers from 3 December (see the BT to hike landline costs news story).

TalkTalk customers, who saw their line rental increase by 30p on 1 May (see the BT and TalkTalk hike phone prices news story), will from 1 October now see costs go up by a massive £1.20 per month, jumping from £12.60 to £13.80 per month.

From the 1 October the charge for receiving paper bills will also increase by 42p from £1.48 to £1.90 per month.

Some call charges will also increase from 1 November, with call return and voicemail call return charges going up from 12.53p per call and 12.26p per call to 20p per call respectively, and the price of calling the speaking clock will jump from 30.69p to 50p per call.

How to escape your contract

Under TalkTalk terms and conditions, as a price rise is considered to be to your 'detriment' you have 10 days from receiving notice of a price rise to terminate your contract without incurring an early termination fee.

The terms state: "If you object to a change that we believe is to your material detriment you may terminate your contract without charge provided that you notify us in accordance with the provisions of clause nine and within 10 days of our notification to you of the relevant change."

TalkTalk says customers will be notified of the price changes in their September bills, which are in the process of being sent out now, and has confirmed you'll have 10 days from receiving this to cancel your contract without penalty.

From 1 October TalkTalk will also offer a new Value Line Rental service, which will cost a one-off payment of £114 for the year (equivalent to £9.50 per month), saving you £51.60 a year compared to its standard line rental cost.

If you're a current customer and have less than 12 months to run on your contract then you can move to the new 12 month Value Line Rental service, where your existing call package will be renewed for 12 months and your monthly line rental cancelled without a fee, at the point of taking out the new contract.

How to beat price hikes

To halve the cost of line rental, unless you've a cable or Kingston Communications line, you can get Primus's Line Rental Saver, which is currently £6.79 per month for a year without any inclusive calls.

Alternatively, Primus's Home Phone Saver is £7.99, including landline, evening and weekend calls.

Also, check whether you can sign up to a no-frills 'override' calls provider, such as 18185, which, when dialled as a prefix, will allow you to cut the cost of daytime calls to landlines to 5p per call or 1p/min from a Sky or Virgin landline.

In addition, 18185 charges a 5p connection fee then from 6p per minute to call mobiles, although the per minute price is higher at weekends.