BT, the UK’s incumbent provider of fixed line calls and broadband internet services have relaunched their BT Credit Card. The BT card, issued by MBNA, is unique in that unlike some cards which allow you to save points towards petrol, air miles, holiday vouchers and other freebies, every time you shop with the BT card, you instantly knock money off of your monthly phone bill.

Unlike other points reward schemes, the monetary value of the point is automatically deducted from your BT bill, meaning that you don’t have to go through any lengthy claims procedures in order for you to get your hard-earned bonuses – the discount is applied the second you spend, and will be reflected in your BT statement.

Currently, you get 1p off your bill for every £2 you spend up to £250 in a month, after which the rate switches to the more regular rate of 1p for every £1 you spend in a month over that – the ceiling spend limit on the card is £750 each month.

Whilst we admit that this isn’t the most impressive pounds-to-points ratio going, but there’s more to the BT Shareholder Credit Card than meets the eye; in addition to the total of £75 you can put towards the cost of BT home phone and broadband products, you can also qualify for an additional £18 per year against your BT bill if you set up recurring authority to your BT Credit Card, bringing the maximum potential saving up to £93 a year on one card.

This would see BT customers on the BT Broadband Option 1 package, which includes free evening and weekend calls, reduce the total annual cost of the service from £159 a year to £66.

Also, if another person in your household uses a BT Credit Card, then you could save an additional £75 on top of the £93, bringing the total saving potential up to £168 a year, which would see the price of the BT Broadband Option 3 package, which provides unlimited downloads, drop from around £273 a year to just £105.

This is a pretty decent saving, and as broadband is increasingly becoming valued as a utility rather than a luxury by UK households, a welcome one at that. We’re curious as to whether customers will be able to look beyond that initial £250 1p for every £2 monthly limit though.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 11:29 am and is filed under Credit Cards, Savings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.