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Bell has the perfect gift for themselves this holiday season: significant rate increases on phone, broadband and television service that will leave some customers paying at least $120 more a year for service.
Stop the Cap! reader Alex Perrier shared the bad news with us:
“What a great Christmas gift,” Perrier writes. “With few exceptions, all Bell home services get a ‘price update.'”
Home phone customers may be in for some bill shock if they happen to use on-demand calling features or directory assistance. Some of those rates are increasing by more than 500%.
Home phone packages
The monthly fee for all Bell Home phone packages (Home phone Lite, Home phone Basic, Home phone Choice, Home phone Complete) are increasing by $2.03 effective January 1, 2013.
Long distance plans
| Bell long distance plan | Effective January 1, 2013, the monthly price will increase by: |
|---|---|
| Canada and U.S. 500 Minute Block of Time | $2 |
| Canada and U.S. 1000 Minute Block of Time | $2 |
| Digital Bundle | $2 |
| Anytime Block of Time | $3 |
Features
Effective January 1, 2013, the price of Home phone pay-per-use calling features (Last Call Return, Busy Call Return and Three-Way Calling) will increase by $0.45 to $2.95 per use. The monthly cap on Home phone pay-per-use calling features will also increase to $29.50
Effective January 1, 2013, Directory Assistance will increase by $0.50 to $3.00 per use.
Bell TV
| Bell Satellite TV and Bell Fibe TV | Effective January 1, 2013, the monthly price will increase by: |
|---|---|
| Good | $2.14 |
| Select | $2.22 |
| Better | $3.28 |
| Best | $3.45 |
| All other TV plans | $3.00 |
| Super Écran | Rate will be $15.15 as of January 1, 2013 |
Bell Internet
| Bell Internet | Effective January 1, 2013, the monthly price will increase by: |
|---|---|
| All Dial-up services | $2.00 |
All Bell Residential Internet services (excluding unlimited usage services)
|
$3.00 |
| High Speed and Ultra unlimited usage services | $5.00 |
Note: Bell Internet 5 and Bell Internet 5 Plus are excluded from the price increase.
With all these huge rate hikes, i wonder if anyone even buys these services from Bell anymore! For example, i remember the “Let Bell notify you if this line becomes free in the next thirty minutes. Press star. A 95¢ charge applies.” message played on the phone. Now the feature costs two bucks more! Maybe for about a dollar, i’d use the feature once in a while, but nearly three!? Their network’s paid off and they’re rich! What’s the excuse now? The directory assistance, i can understand a little, because there’s an actual human getting paid. But why charge $3… Read more »
I saw the $3 increase notice on my bill today. Bell actually “accidentally” charged me a $100 service termination fee (+HST of course) because my last internet contract expired Oct 26 and I renegotiated a new contract on Oct 9. That got reversed after I took 30 minutes out of my day to haggle with “customer service”. So I negotiated to lock in a rate of $xx.xx. Now a few weeks later my rate is increasing! Bell proved that they wouldn’t hesitate to charge me for violating our contract. How can my rate increase? That changes our mutually agreed upon… Read more »