BT forced to back down on charges

BT has abandoned plans to impose a new charge on customers and increase a second one after pressure from the industry watchdog.

The company wanted to make any user switching to a rival provider pay a £ 5 penalty.

It also planned to increase the charge for barring outbound calls from a landline from £11.50 to £17.50.

Both moves have been scrapped, however, following discussions with the industry regulator Ofcom. Several other rises are going ahead.

As the Daily Mail revealed six weeks ago, BT will levy a charge on the 5.5million customers who pay their bills by cheque or cash instead of direct debit.

This works out at £4.50 a quarter, netting the firm £100million a year.

BT is also increasing the penalty fee for late payment to £7.50.

The details of the concessions emerged following an attack on BT by a price comparison website.

Uswitch accused BT, which makes £ 2.359billion a year, of ripping off customers.

But John Petter, of its consumer division, said the majority were pleased with the service they received.

"More customers are coming back to BT than for any time for the last four years," he added.