Primus increases home phone charges

The hikes, which came into force last Sunday, include rises in costs to call landlines, mobiles and internationally.

Yet Primus is by no means alone in raising costs. BT raised prices for the third time in 14 months in December, TalkTalk hiked prices in October and Virgin increased costs in August.

The key Primus changes

• Non-inclusive daytime calls to UK landlines have risen from an average of up to 6.5p/min to 7.4p/min.

• UK landline call connection fees have risen from an average of 11.5p to 12.9p.

• International calls to mobiles and landlines have increased by 2p/min.

• Calls to UK mobiles are now 16p/min (daytime), 14p/min (evening) and 12p/min (weekend), an average increase of 2p/min.

How to beat the price hikes

MoneySavingExpert.com consumer products analyst Becca Talbot says: "While Primus's line rental still remains the cheapest on the market at £6.79/month, this increase in call costs will push up some customers' bills.

"If you regularly use your landline and are on one of the cheaper Primus packages, consider whether it's worth switching to one with inclusive evening and weekend calls, to help keep costs down."

If you'd rather not switch, there's another way to cut call costs. Primus has confirmed it still allows its customers to use no-frills 'override' calls providers.

These special numbers, such as 18185, let you cut the cost of daytime calls to landlines and mobiles when dialled as a prefix (see the Cheap Home Phones guide for full details).

Primus spokesman Geoff Pestell points out that the rises are the first in 18 months. He says: "We've held on as much as we can over the past two years, but wholesale prices have gone up considerably."