Category: Life: Work and Techy

I’m adding the details of BT’s discount schemes in 2000 for archival reasons. Although in 2013, this information should no longer be needed (it was back in 2000ish when I originally wrote it). So please be aware this is massively outdated and probably no longer relevant information, but I like to archive stuff 😉

BT offer its customers a range of discounts to help reduce the cost of your telephone calls. Here we present a list of the most common discounts that a residential customer can have on internet calls (information correct as of 31^st March 2000).
If you wish to take advantage of these discount schemes and you are on a BT line, then please call BT’s residential customer services line on 150 where an operator will be able to contact you. If you are on cable (or have another telephone provider), please contact them for their list of discount schemes.

BT Discounts on Local rate calls

This list of discount schemes is only applicable to residential line users, and is arranged in order of discount on weekend rate calls (sorted from ‘smallest discount’ to ‘largest discount’ at the bottom of the list).
Daytime calls are weekdays (Monday to Friday inclusive) made between the hours of 8am and 6pm inclusive, Evening calls are before 8am and after 6pm on weekdays, and Weekend calls are all calls made after midnight Friday (ie 00:01 on Saturdays onwards) till Midnight on Sunday (ie until 23:59 on Sundays). Call prices are shown in pence per minute.

No discounts

Costs: None
Daytime: 4.00ppm
Evening: 1.50ppm
Weekend: 1.00ppm

BT Together

Cost: £11.99 per month (includes line rental)
Daytime: 3.00ppm
Evening: 1.00ppm
Weekend: 1.00ppm
BT Together also includes 200 minutes of free local calls per month, a 5% reduction on calls to mobile phones, 4ppm charge for national daytime calls, 2ppm charge for national evening and weekend calls and reduced overseas charges.

Nominate your internet number as a ‘Friend and Family Number’

Cost: None
Daytime: 3.60ppm
Evening: 1.35ppm
Weekend: 0.90ppm
(10% saving)
Friends and Family is a residential discount scheme that is free to join. You can nominate up to ten number, including one international and one mobile number. You receive a 10% discount on all direct dialled calls to those numbers.

BT Together with your internet number as a ‘Friend and Family Number’

Cost: £11.99 per month (includes line rental)
Daytime: 2.90ppm
Evening: 0.90ppm
Weekend: 0.90ppm
(10% saving over BT Together charges).
Also includes 200 minutes of free local rate calls per month.

Have BT Call & Save

Cost: None
Daytime: 3.60ppm
Evening: 1.35ppm
Weekend: 0.90ppm
(10% saving)
BT Call & Save is free to join and can save you 10% on most calls. Once your quarterly bill reaches £25 (including VAT) on qualifying calls, you save 10% on any additional qualifying calls made. BT Call & Save is recommended if you spend between £25 and £75 per quarter on calls. You cannot combine ‘Option 15’ with ‘BT Call & Save’.

Have the Option 15 select service

Cost: £3.20 per quarter
Daytime: 3.56ppm
Evening: 1.36ppm
Weekend: 0.89ppm
(11% saving)
If direct dialled call charges on your quarterly phone bill are consistently more than £31 (including VAT), you could save money by choosing the discount scheme ‘Option 15’. For a charge of £3.20 per quarter, Option 15 gives you an 11% discount on your direct dialled calls – local, national and international calls. You cannot combine ‘Option 15’ with ‘BT Call & Save’.

Nominate your internet number as your ‘BestFriend’

Cost: None
Daytime: 3.20ppm
Evening: 1.20ppm
Weekend: 0.80ppm
(20% saving)
You can nominate one of your Friends and Family numbers as a ‘BestFriend’ entitling you to an extra 10% discount to calls to that number (making a total saving of 20%).

Have BT Call & Save and nominate your internet number as a ‘Friend and Family Number’

Cost: None
Daytime: 3.20ppm
Evening: 1.20ppm
Weekend: 0.80ppm
(20% saving)
Combining the previously mentioned ‘Friends and Family’ scheme with the BT Call & Save discount scheme, you can save 20% on your internet calls. BT Call & Save is free to join and can save you 10% on most calls, while ‘Friends and Family’ gives you the addition 10% saving. BT Call & Save is recommended if you spend between £25 and £75 per quarter on calls. You cannot combine ‘Option 15’ with ‘BT Call & Save’.

BT Together with your internet number as your ‘BestFriend’ number

Cost: £11.99 per month (includes line rental)
Daytime: 2.80ppm
Evening: 0.80ppm
Weekend: 0.80ppm
(20% saving over BT Together charges).
Also includes 200 minutes of free local rate calls per month.

Have Option 15 with your internet number as a ‘Friend and Family Number’

Cost: £3.20 per quarter
Daytime: 3.16ppm
Evening: 1.19ppm
Weekend: 0.79ppm
(21% saving)
Combining the ‘Option 15’ saving of 11%, plus the ‘Friend and Family’ discount of 10%, this selection saves you 21% off your calls for just £3.20 per quarter.

Have BT Call & Save and nominate your internet number as your ‘BestFriend’

Cost: None
Daytime: 2.80ppm
Evening: 1.05ppm
Weekend: 0.70ppm
(30% saving)
Combining the previously mentioned ‘Friends and Family BestFriend’ scheme with the BT Call & Save discount scheme, you can save 20% on your internet calls. BT Call & Save is free to join and can save you 10% on most calls, while ‘Friends and Family’ gives you the another 10% saving and the selection of your internet number as your ‘Best Friend’ gives you another 10%. BT Call & Save is recommended if you spend between £25 and £75 per quarter on calls. You cannot combine ‘Option 15’ with ‘BT Call & Save’.

Have Option 15 with your internet number as your ‘BestFriend’

Cost: £3.20 per quarter
Daytime: 2.76ppm
Evening: 1.04ppm
Weekend: 0.69ppm
(31% saving)
Combining the ‘Option 15’ saving of 11%, plus the ‘Friend and Family BestFriend’ discount of 20%, for just £3.20 per quarter you can have a total of 31% discount on your internet calls.

I’m adding the details of how to Change the default internet connection in Windows. Although in 2013, this information should no longer be needed (it was back in 2000ish when I originally wrote it). So please be aware this is massively outdated and probably no longer relevant information, but I like to archive stuff 😉

If you wish to decide for yourself which ISP to connect to, the easiest way is to start the connection manually yourself.
Open Dialup Networking by double clicking on the ‘My Computer’ icon from your desktop.
In the Dialup Networking folder you will see all your ISP connections including your Freeserve connection.
Double click on whichever connection you wish to use, enter your password if it isn’t there and press ‘Connect’. (If you make a copy of each connection and put it on the desktop this will make the procedure easier next time.)
Once you are connected you will see an icon in your system tray on your taskbar which looks like two computers connected to each other.
Setting the connection used when Internet Explorer 4 is started
Go to ‘View’, then ‘Internet Options’ and select ‘Connection’.
The circle marked ‘Connect to the Internet using a modem’ should already be checked. Press the button marked ‘Settings’.
From the first box at the top you can select which connection should be used as default.
If you don’t want Windows to dial up a connection when you open the browser, after you start Internet Explorer 4, when the connection dialogue appears, click on ‘Work Offline’.
Setting the connection used when Outlook Express is started
Select ‘Tools’ from the Outlook Express menu bar. Then go to ‘Options’ – under the ‘Dial Up’ tab you will see options listed for which connection to dial.
Dialup connections for all the Email accounts that you are accessing under Outlook Express will be shown here.
You may not wish to connect to the internet when you start Outlook Express, in which case you can select ‘Do not dial a connection’.
If you wish to specify a particular connection to dial for a particular email account, you should do this by going to the ‘Tools’ menu, then selecting ‘Accounts’, then selecting the ‘Mail’ tab. Highlight whichever mail account you want to set the connection for and select ‘Properties’. Under the ‘Connection’ tab, you can specify which ISP connection to use.