What do you want from a bundle? - In association with BT

Sep 30 2010 By Mary Barabe

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The idea that taking as many products out with the same provider as possible to save money is one that has been around for a long time. It happens with gas and electricity suppliers, it happens with holiday companies and it happens with hundred of other businesses up and down the land, including communications suppliers.

But bundling shouldn't just be about price. There are plenty of other advantages to it too.

One bill: It can be easy to miss a bill, or forget about a direct debit, when there are dozens of them every month. But some providers will put all of their services down on one bill, so you can keep track of your costs more easily.

Everything is designed to work together: Technology is a wonderful thing, and the options available to consumers - particularly when it comes to telephone, broadband and television services - are amazing. But often they are expected to work together - you need a telephone line to access some television features, and internet connections affect so many parts of our lives it's difficult to know where to start. If you get all your services from the same provider, you're much more likely to get a seamless service than if you have a variety of providers, each with slightly different ways of doing things.

One point of contact: It's a sad fact that technology does on occasion go wrong. And often one of the most frustrating things about getting it fixed is working out exactly where the problem lies - is it the phone line, is it the router, is it the connection? With many different providers, you could find yourself being pushed from pillar to post, with each company blaming the problem on something else. With a single provider, they will know it's their responsibility and will work to get the fault fixed.

Special offers: While you may not necessarily get a discount for taking all the services from one provider, they often have special deals which allow you some sort of freebie - an upgraded service, a free pay tv movie, or a new piece of equipment, for example. And in some cases, you may also be invited to trial new services - faster broadband, or a new television channel.

It's easier: While shopping around remains vital, having one firm carry out all your services makes life easier. You only have to wait in for one delivery or installation, you can buy the product with one phone call or click of a mouse, and it will all start working at the same time. And if you ever need to cancel, than that's going to be easier too.

So while bundling has its advantages, you need to be careful which bundle you take out. Make sure that you want and will use every part of the package - if one of them offers, say, data back up as part of the deal and you're never going to use it, you're wasting your money, A package is only as good as its constituent parts so make sure you get exactly what you want.

All BT Total Broadband options give you reliable broadband and a BT Home Hub as standard that has an unbeatable wireless connection compared to other UK broadband providers. Up to 20Mb broadband available now in selected areas.