‘Off peak’ redefined as Sky and Talk Talk follow BT

Confused.com is warning Sky and Talk Talk customers that calls between the hour of 6pm and 7pm will no longer be free after the Bank Holiday weekend (June 1 2010) as Sky and Talk Talk follow BT's lead in changing the start time of its evening off-peak period.

The change means anyone who wants to make a phone call between 6am and 7pm will now have to pay 5.9p per minute or 5.8p per minute respectively as they've also increased their prices by 26%.  Previously customers were able to talk during this time free.

Gareth Kloet, head of utilities at Confused.com, said: "This change hasn't been widely publicised and there are probably many customers who won't be aware of it. It is likely there were letters to those affected but we can't discount the fact that we've all been guilty of putting letters from utility companies aside to read later and forgetting them so the message may have been lost. More aggressive publicity would have been better.

Customers now have two choices: either wait until after 7pm for those free calls or shop around for a better deal which is more suited to their needs. With the avalanche of digital TV, internet and phone packages there's a great deal of choice which can easily be compared using a comparison site like Confused.com."