BT to keep ringing up the till until 7pm

BT IS changing the time at which customers can start making off-peak calls, pushing it back from 6pm to 7pm.

This week customers will receive letters and e-mails telling them about the changes.

The new pricing regime could mean higher bills for millions of people.

The changes come into effect from 1 April. The new free evening call period will last from 7pm to 7am, rather than 6pm to 6am.

Unless customers can wait until after 7pm, they will find themselves charged the daytime rate.

A customer on BT's Evening and Weekend price plan will pay 5.9p a minute for calls between 6pm and 7pm, which has also been increased by 5.4p.

This means that someone who makes 20 minutes of calls a day during that time will see their quarterly telephone bill rise by more than 75.

BT insisted that the deal was still good value, and people who wanted to make a lot of calls between 6pm and 7pm could switch to its Anytime package, which offers free calls to British landlines at any time for 15 a quarter.

"BT has written directly to all customers informing them about the change in daytime hours from 6pm–6am to 7pm–7am," a BT spokesman said.

"The new times bring BT into line with the mobile operators' definition of daytime.

"Although 6pm is a busy time for short, organisational calls, the peak hour to settle down for a longer chat is between 8pm and 9pm."

Steve Weller, from price comparison website USwitch, said many people would have to watch out and "break old habits".

"Many people hang on until one minute past 6pm and they will need to hold off for an extra hour or make sure they move to a different price plan," he said.