Terms and conditions

Your terms and conditions for BT Telephony, BT Total Broadband, BT Vision, BT Mobile, BT Broadband Talk, BT Pre-Pay Mobile Broadband, Value Added Services and BT Multi Play Services


These terms and conditions come into effect from 31 December 2009.


Important information:

The terms and conditions of each of the above services are made up of this important information and the following terms (including any other document we refer to in those terms).

  • The Residential Standard Terms;
  • The Multi Play Service Agreement (MPSA) if applicable;
  • The relevant Service Terms;
  • The Special Offer Terms if applicable,
  • The Tariff Guide
  • Paper-free Terms and Conditions;

If any of these documents contradict each other, the terms will apply in the order set out above, save where the Special Offer Terms stipulate a price which shall take precedence over the Tariff Guide.

Your agreement with BT Payment Services Limited.

In addition, if you take BT Telephony Services, BT Mobile, BT Total Broadband or BT Vision from us, or any combination of these services under the Multi Play Service Agreement, and you choose not to pay by Direct Debit or monthly payment plan, we require you to enter into a separate agreement with BT Payment Services Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of BT, who will collect and process your payment. See the terms and conditions of that agreement.

To go directly to a specific section of the document, please click on the links through to the relevant Service Terms or Tariff Guide.


Residential Standard Terms

The services we provide

  1. We provide you with your chosen services, including Telephony, Broadband, BT Infinity, Vision, Mobile, BT Broadband Talk, BT Pre Pay Mobile and, any other consumer services and any equipment we provide.
  2. These terms apply to the service described in the relevant service terms (telephony, broadband, bt infinity, mobile, vision, value added services) any Multi Play Service Agreement (MPSA) you may have with BT, the Tariff Guide and any Special Offer Terms.
  3. The services and equipment we provide to you under these terms must not be used for business purposes.

Providing the service (access/permits)

  1. You agree to follow any reasonable instructions that we may give you, and to allow us access to your premises if we need it.
  2. You also agree to get any permission needed from someone else if we have to cross their land or put our equipment on their premises.
  3. You agree to look after any of our equipment. If you do not do so and the equipment is damaged, you may have to pay for it to be repaired or replaced.

Where we provide your communications services

  1. We will deliver any equipment to the UK address you give us. We will provide the service in the UK unless the service terms say otherwise.

When we provide your communications services

  1. Your agreement with us starts on the date we accept your order for the service. The minimum period starts from the date we start to provide you with the service as set out in the relevant service terms and the MPSA (if applicable).
  2. If the service is intended to last for a minimum period, details will be set out in the Special Offer terms or the Tariff Guide.

Cancellation

  1. You may cancel your agreement for the service before the service start date set out in the service terms. If you do so we will not charge you for the service.
  2. You may cancel your order for any equipment we have provided to allow you to use the service or for any other equipment you have requested, up to 10 calendar days after we deliver it. If you cancel any order for equipment you must return it (undamaged and in its original packaging), following our instructions and at your cost. We will refund any payment you have made for the equipment. If we have to collect the equipment we will charge you our reasonable costs for doing so. These rights are in addition to any other legal right you may have to cancel your agreement.

Returning faulty equipment

  1. If you return any equipment as faulty, we may test it and if it is working, we will send it back to you. If we do so, we may charge you our costs for testing and postage. This does not affect your legal rights relating to equipment which is faulty or wrongly described.

Your use of your communications service

  1. You may only use the service for your own personal use and enjoyment. You must always follow our acceptable use policies in the way that you use your chosen services which can be found on www.bt.com/acceptableuse.
  2. You agree that any content, software or other copyright material we supply to you is for your own private use, and that you must not copy, change or publish the material or supply it to any other person or use it for any business purpose.
  3. If we provide you with a phone number, you agree to the following:
  1. That the number must not be advertised in or on a BT phone box. If this happens, we may suspend or end your agreement for the service. However, we will write to you before we take this action.
  2. That you do not own the phone number and that you will not transfer it to anyone else or try to do so.
  1. If you want to connect equipment to our network other than by using a BT main phone socket, you must get our permission. You agree not to connect equipment to our network:
  1. that does not bear the European Consumer Equipment Standards 'CE' mark; or
  2. that may harm the network or other customers' equipment.

If you do, you must disconnect it immediately.

  1. If you have an internet access service from us, you accept that you are using the internet at your own risk. You are responsible for making sure any equipment you use to access the service is protected against viruses.
  2. You are responsible for properly using any user IDs, personal identification numbers (PINs) and passwords needed for the service, if any, and must take all necessary steps to make sure that you keep these confidential and secure, use them properly and do not make these available to unauthorised people.

Ending the service

  1. Once we have provided the service, you may tell us to stop providing it at any time by giving us 14 days' written notice, either by email to any email address we may have given you or by letter to the address on your last BT bill or any other address we have given you, for that purpose. We can stop providing the service by giving you 28 days' written notice.
  2. If you choose to end the service within any relevant minimum period or if you cancel your direct debit instructions; we may end your agreement for the service. If we do this within the minimum period of your agreement you will have to pay the termination charges set out for each of the services in the relevant service terms by way of compensation to us for ending your service early. You can find details of these charges in the Tariff Guide and on www.bt.com/termcharges.
  3. If you or we end the agreement for the service, we will pay back to you any money we owe you relating to that agreement. We will first take off any money you owe us under that agreement or any other agreement between us. Where we provide you with a range of communications services and you owe us money for one service we reserve the right to charge you for that service via the bills we send you for your other services.

Moving home

  1. If you move home within the UK, and let us know at least seven days before you do so we will continue to provide your communications service at your new address in line with our home mover page and the terms set out in the relevant service terms.

Paying for the service

  1. You agree to pay all charges for the equipment and the service, including any additional charges detailed in these terms, the Tariff Guide or the Price List, whether you use the service or someone else does. The method of payment will be either as set out in the service terms or as we otherwise agree with you.
  2. If you make a payment by means other than direct debit or monthly payment plan before we have written to you with the terms and conditions for this separate contract (and therefore your agreement begins with BT Payment Services Limited), you must pay a payment processing fee of £1.50 per month or £4.50 for every three month period to BT Payment Services Limited. This fee is not subject to VAT. All amounts due which are not paid by direct debit or monthly payment plan will be collected by BT Payments Services Limited.
  3. We will normally bill you upfront (in advance) for any rental charges for the service. We will bill you later for any usage charges for your communications services. If possible, charges will appear on your next bill, but sometimes charges may appear on a later bill.
  4. We will send any bills to your home address unless you tell us otherwise. You may also see your bills online at www.bt.com/youraccount. We will send your first bill shortly after we have provided the service to you for the first time. After that, we will send bills at regular intervals. However, we may sometimes send you a bill at a different time, for example if the amount of money you owe us is considerably higher than expected.
  5. You agree to pay the charges as soon as you receive your bill. You may also need to pay a deposit or a payment upfront before you can receive the service or goods.
  6. If you do not pay your bill, we will send you a reminder or call you. If we do not receive payment within 10 calendar days of the date of that reminder (seven days if you pay monthly), we may add a late payment charge of £7.50 to your next bill by way of compensation to us for breaking the terms of this agreement. We may also charge you £10 by way of compensation to us for any direct debit or cheque payments which are returned to us because you do not have enough funds in your account. The charges set out in this paragraph are not subject to VAT.
  7. We will generally not suspend or end the service or the agreement for non-payment of your bill until 28 days after your payment was due (21 days if you pay monthly). However, sometimes we may take this action earlier. For example, we may do this if you have not paid a recent bill.
  8. If you do not pay your bill, we may ask a debt-collection agency to collect the payment on our behalf. If we do, you will have to pay us an extra amount by way of compensation to us for breaking the terms of this agreement. This will not be more than the reasonable costs we have to pay the agency, who will add the amount to your debt on our behalf (this will depend on the amount you owe us). Any extra amount added to your bill will not be subject to VAT. This paragraph applies even if your agreement with us has ended.
  9. By agreeing to take service from BT you also agree to allow us to share your payment history data with BT with credit reference agencies. If we choose to do so we will share your personal data under contract and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 with recognised and reputable credit reference agencies such as, for example, Experian and/or Equifax.
  10. If you agree that we should not send you a paper bill, you will receive a discount of £1.25 on your account for every month in which you spend at least £11.54 on rental charges, provided that you pay your bills by direct debit or monthly payment plan. We will tell you by email when your bill is available to view on-line. Not all of our services are available for paper-free billing.

Our rights when we provide the service

  1. We may monitor and record calls relating to customer services and telemarketing. We do this for training purposes and to improve the quality of our customer services. We also record all calls to the 999 or 112 emergency services.
  2. Occasionally, we may have to:
  1. interrupt the service. If we do so, we will restore it as quickly as we can;
  2. change your area code or phone number, or access numbers; or
  3. make minor changes to certain technical specifications, including limits for transferring information which are associated with the service.

Our Responsibility to you when we provide the service

  1. We accept responsibility if you are injured or die as a result of our negligence. We will not limit this responsibility.
  2. We also accept responsibility for loss or damage to your physical property arising from our negligence. We will pay up to £1 million in any 12-month period for this loss or damage.
  3. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that the service or the equipment we provide will never be faulty.
  4. Unless the service terms say otherwise, we have no responsibility to pay you compensation for financial loss, for any information which is lost or corrupted, or for any loss that could not have been reasonably expected because you have used the service or equipment we provide for business.
  5. Except as described in paragraphs 36 and 37, we will not pay you more than £10,000 in compensation (even if we have been negligent) in any 12-month period unless the service terms say otherwise.
  6. Nothing in paragraphs 36 to 40 affects your legal rights relating to equipment which is faulty or has been described wrongly.

Matters beyond our reasonable control

  1. Sometimes we may not be able to do what we have agreed because of something beyond our reasonable control. In these cases, we do not accept responsibility for not providing you with your chosen communications services.

If you break the agreement

  1. For serious misuse described in paragraph 14 we may suspend or end the agreement for the service immediately. Otherwise we will normally give you an opportunity to put matters right within a reasonable time if you break the agreement.
  2. However, if you do not do so, we may suspend or end the agreement for the service. We may also suspend or restrict the service or end the agreement for the service if you break any other agreement you have with us and do not put matters right within a reasonable time. If we suspend the service or end the agreement for the service, we will tell you what needs to be done before we can restore the service.

Sorting out disputes

  1. We will try to work through any disputes that you may have with us. However, if we cannot do this, you may refer the matter to any relevant service which sorts out disputes. Details of these, and of how to refer a dispute, are set out in our Code of Practice for Consumers and Small Businesses.

Changing the terms (notification)

  1. Sometimes, we will need to change the charges and the terms and conditions of the service. We will publish details of all changes online at www.bt.com.
  2. We will also let you know about a price increase or a change to the terms and conditions that we believe is likely to cause you material disadvantage at least one month before it happens. We will let you know about other price changes and changes to the terms and conditions with your next available bill or by an alternative method if this is simpler.
  3. For changes we need to make to meet legal and regulatory requirements, we may not be able to meet the timescale detailed in paragraph 46. We will let you know about these changes as soon as we can.
  4. If we have made a change which is to your material disadvantage, you will not have to pay a charge if you decide to end your agreement early, unless the Tariff Guide says otherwise. However, once we have told you about such a change, you must let us know that you want to end the agreement within 10 days.

Other things we need to tell you

  1. You accept that the agreement for the service is personal to you and agree not to transfer it to anyone else, or to try to do so. However, we may take instructions from a person who we think, with good reason, is acting with your permission.
  2. When we need to contact you, we will use your billing address, e-mail address, mobile or fixed phone number. If you need to contact us, please use the address on your last bill or any other postal address, e-mail address or phone number we have given to you for that purpose.

Back to top

Your agreement with BT Payment Services Limited

  1. Subject to paragraph 3, the fees under this agreement apply to you if you take BT Telephony Services, BT Total Broadband, or BT Vision, and you choose not to pay your bill by direct debit or by monthly payment plan. This agreement starts when, having received a copy of these terms and conditions, you first make a payment for one of those services by any method other than direct debit or monthly payment plan.
  2. You have a statutory right to cancel your agreement with BT Payment Services Limited ("BTPS"). That cancellation right will expire fourteen calendar days beginning on the day after you make your first payment as described in paragraph 1. You may cancel by writing to us at BT Payment Services, c/o Bridge Court, The Close, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 3BA, by emailing us at residential.services@bt.com, or by sending a fax to 0208 8109192. If you cancel but have already asked BTPS to process a payment on your behalf, for example by making a payment, you must still pay the fee for the processing of that payment. If you do not cancel this agreement, it will have effect until it is terminated.
  3. You will not be charged a payment processing fee if you are a BT Basic, Pay & Call, Light User Scheme or In Contact Plus Customer.
  4. You agree that unless you pay your bill by direct debit or monthly payment plan, you will pay BTPS a fee of £1.50 per month, if you pay your bills monthly, or £4.50 per quarter, if you pay quarterly, for payment collection and processing services. These fees are not subject to VAT. You agree to make the payment in the same manner and at the same time as you pay your BT bill.
  5. BTPS agrees to collect and process promptly all payments made by you and to ensure that they are applied as necessary in settlement of the charges raised by BT to which they relate. BTPS will use the financial information provided by you only for the purposes of this agreement.
  6. Sometimes, BTPS will need to change the charge or the terms of this agreement. BTPS will publish the details of all changes online at www.bt.com/pricing.
  7. BTPS will also let you know about a change, including an increase in the fee, that it believes is likely to cause you material disadvantage, at least one month before it happens. BTPS will let you know about any other changes with your next available bill or via an alternative method if this is simpler.
  8. If BTPS makes a change to this agreement that is to your material disadvantage, you may terminate your BT Telephony Services, BT Total Broadband, or BT Vision agreement. You will not then have to pay a charge for ending that service early, provided that you let BT know that you want to end the agreement(s) within 10 days of having been informed of the change. BTPS will let you know that you have a right to end your BT Telephony Services, BT Total Broadband or BT Vision agreement early when it informs you of what it reasonably believes to be a change to this agreement that is to your material disadvantage.
  9. This agreement is not subject to a minimum term and will continue unless and until it is terminated in accordance with this paragraph. The agreement will terminate once you have paid your last bill, if you no longer take any of the services referred to in paragraph 1.
  10. Insofar as you have any dealings with BT regarding this agreement, BT is acting as agent for BTPS.
  11. This agreement is not covered by an out of court dispute resolution process.
  12. The contractual terms and all communications in connection with the payment processing service are supplied in English.

Back to top

Paper-free Terms and Conditions

Paper-free billing means you'll receive your BT bill online. You'll stop receiving a paper bill through the post. When your bill is available we'll send you an email to let you know. You can then log in via the Your Account section on BT.com to view your bill and download and print it if you need to.

When you sign up to paper-free billing and pay your BT bill by Direct Debit, you'll receive a £1.25 discount on your monthly line rental. This discount does not apply if you have both paper billing and online billing or if you have paper-free billing but don't pay your BT bill by direct debit. You must also spend at least £11.54 (before any other line rental discounts are applied) on line rental charges per month to be eligible for the paper-free discount. One-off charges such as usage charges, brought forward amounts, payment processing fees and any other non rental charges do not count as rental charges.

Plus, with paper-free billing:

  • You'll reduce the amount of paper you use
  • You'll get free 24/7 secure online access to your account
  • You can view your call costs which are updated daily

Your bills will be held online for a maximum of 6 months. If you wish to keep a record of your invoices for personal use simply save it to your computer hard drive or make a paper copy by printing it out.

Paper-free billing is provided free of charge, but your Internet service provider may charge you to connect to bt.com.

Paper-free billing is available to all BT residential customers. The paper-free billing discount is not available to customers taking BT's social telephony services, which include BT Basic, Light User Scheme and In Contact Plus.

Bills are only available in English at present.

You must keep your BT.com user account updated with a valid email address as we will email you to let you know when your bill is available to view. If you are a Monthly Payment Plan customer and wish to clear all or part of the balance of your account when you get your bill, you can make a payment using the online debit card payment option. The payment will be shown on your next bill.

Similarly, if you are a Monthly Payment Plan customer and you order additional equipment from BT, we may send you a separate bill which you will need to pay as well as your normal monthly payments. You can also pay this using the online debit card payment option.

If you need a VAT statement, you can download it as a PDF file. This can then be saved to your computer hard drive or printed out. Please contact us at ebilling@bt.com if you require a VAT statement

If you change from paper to paper-free billing or from paper-free to paper billing more than twice in any 12-month period, we will remove the paper-free discount from your account. If this happens, you will need to change back to paper-free billing and continue with it for six months before you will be able to get the discount again.

If you break any of the terms and conditions outlined above, or any other term that applies to the telephone service we provide to you, eg non-payment of your bill, we may remove the paperfree billing discount from your account. We will tell you about this first and then return you to the normal paper billing service.You may go back to paper billing at any time, you just need to contact us at ebilling@bt.com or call us on Freefone 0800 328 9642.

We will only pass your details on to third parties as explained in our terms and conditions and in our privacy policy, which you can view online at www.bt.com/privacypolicy.

Back to top