Home phones

Plusnet is to hike its home phone and broadband prices for a second consecutive year, with some customers paying up to £30/year more from 1 September. But if you're affected, you can leave your contract penalty-free, or if you're willing to stay, you can beat the hike by haggling.

The vast majority of MoneySavingExpert.com users aged under 65 would appear to be hanging up their home phone for good, according to our online poll, which follows calls for broadband-only customers to be exempt from landline costs.

Around 10 million BT customers are facing above-inflation price increases from 3 July, with the cost of line rental rising by £1/month, some broadband packages increasing by up to 15% and BT Sport up 20%. But if you act now, it's possible to beat the hikes.

The price of Sky TV packages will rise this summer for new and existing customers, MoneySavingExpert.com has learned - but there are ways to beat it.

BT is to launch a "breakthrough" new service that will see the telecoms giant redirect millions of calls automatically and allow BT customers to divert them themselves.

BT's £12.5 billon buyout of mobile phone giant EE has been given the go-ahead after a six-month inquiry by the competition regulator. But if you're an EE customer, you won't see any change to your contract when the merger goes ahead, probably at the end of this month.

TalkTalk customers attempting to claim a free upgrade offered to them in the wake of October's high-profile hack have been left frustrated after logging in to their accounts to find they were unable to select the upgrade they wanted.

The data protection watchdog is to contact more than 1,000 firms that buy and sell people's personal details to ensure they are acting lawfully.

- A YEAR'S BT line & fibre b'band for £285 plus get a £100 Sains vch - A YEAR'S Plusnet line & standard b'band for £111 (equiv £9.24/mth) - How Sky, Virgin and TalkTalk custs can leave or slash £100s off costs

Four million TalkTalk customers will be able to choose a free upgrade to their service from 1 December, following the data hack last month which resulted in more than 150,000 users having their personal details accessed.