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[MSE Archna]

What's the deal?

Sign up to Virgin's 3 for £25 deal (TV, phone and broadband) before midnight 30 April, and comparison site Simplify Digital is offering a tidy £70 cashback.

Taking the cashback into account, but remembering there's a £30 installation charge you get TV, line rental, calls and broadband for £21.66/month over the first 12 months. Compared to to Sky's basic package, around £27/month, this isn't bad at all, though in recent weeks Sky's had promo deals too (any new good ones will be in the weekly e-mail.

How does it work?

Pretty simple, sign up to Virgin via Simplify Digital*, and you'll automatically be sent a cheque for £70, 90 days after installation. It's important to understand if you go direct to Virgin and sign up you will NOT get this cashback.

Cashback is often available for this type of deal from cashback sites, yet this is paying more than any of those at the moment, and its a direct cheque from a site regulated by Ofcom, so it's less hassle and there shouldn't be any issues getting paid out (though if you want a different package then the cashback sites give you more flexibility).

What do you get?

The cashback is only available for the 3 for £25 deal. With this, you get:

• Up to 10Mb broadband, with unlimited downloads. Plus a free wireless router.

• Medium TV package with 45 channels. Includes Virgin 1, Dave and iPlayer

• Free weekend calls. Unlimited weekend calls up to 60 mins.

The savings above have been worked out over the first year (the minimum contract length). After that you'll be paying the full whack, so it's worth diarising and considering at that point whether you really want this deal or could get it cheaper.

Get £115 cashback if you're willing to play

As a straight no hassle deal, this is good. However if you're willing to play by using a cashback site you can get it for less. Sign up via one of the cashback sites like Topcashback*, Quidco* or CashbackKing* and you'll get £65 cashback from the cashback site plus another £50 off your bill from Virgin. Remember though this type of cashback is never 100% guaranteed. For more info read the Top Cashback Sites article.

Cut call costs further

Virgin calls are generally more expensive compared to BT but it's possible to slash the cost using special override providers. For full details read the Cheap Home Phones article

A note for existing customers

This deal, like most in the telecom industry is only for new customers, however existing customers can see it as haggling ammunition. Simply tell Virgin you've seen it, and want to get a similar deal yourself, this is especially powerful if you are considering ditching virgin due to cost, tell it that and you've real bargaining power. For more see the Virgin Haggling link.

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* Using these links helps the site stay ad-free and free to use, as they’re ‘affiliated links’ which invisibly take you via commercial price comparison services like Moneysupermarket or Find, which then pay this site per click.

You shouldn’t notice any difference, the links don’t impact the product at all and the editorial line (the things I write) is NEVER impacted by the revenue. If it isn’t possible to get an affiliate link for the best product, it is still recommended and still included. The following http://www.simplifydigital.co.uk/spe...nd-tv-phone-25 is an identical unaffiliated link provided for the sake of transparency. Click on the following link for more details on how this site's financed.

[Jen_31]

It's nice to know virgin media are still ripping us off cos we got a letter this morning get all 3 for £33 pound

[victor_ray]

If you are going to order that package, do it online through the topcashback site where you will get £65 as a cash back and you get £50 discounted of your first bill through Virgin Media £30 which is taken off for installation.

In total you should get back £85 and all 3 services for £25 with a free wireless router.

[Skeenfleent]

The quoted offer in the original article is sub-standard broadband. Virgin scam the user by calling it "10Mbps" when a) you'll never get that speed in reality [don't try to out-tech me on that, I know what I'm talking about] and much worse, b) they actually REGRESSED the upload speed to 384kbps (from 500kbps) - which is sub-standard by today's speeds.
If you think the upload speed isn't critical, imagine just two people using the broadband at once - one playing online games and one uploading photos. It will cause instant problems, and that's not even a heavy-use scenario.
My mate's Be broadband (as a rough example) has something like 16Mbps download and 1.5Mbps upload at least. The ratio is better, but once you get to about 1Mbps, it's enough to do say four things at once. Virgin's is enough to do one or two if you're lucky.
Even their XXL 50Mbps only has 1.5Mbps upload, which is awful for a product twice or three times the Be price...

[Neil Dooley]

I have just phoned Virgin as an existing customer (paying£35pm), told them the deal & they matched straight away (no cash back though). Happy enough though to save £10pm & I didnt even have to threaten to cancel my contract, which is a first from past experience of them. NB: mention Martin Lewis website as well as I think that helped. Cheers Marty.

[kazza2]

I'm an existing Virgin customer and phoned a few weeks ago. Not only did we get an upgrade from 2MB/s to 10 but our bill was reduced by £3 to £25.

All I had to do was phone and ask for it, which is dishonest of Virgin but that's what I expect!

[jo-ent]

I received Virgin's letter last weekend saying their prices were going up and rang them to say I wasn't happy and wanted a discount. I got through to customer service, but they wouldn't offer me anything. So I then said I was thinking of leaving Virgin and was put through to another department (I assume 'customer retentions'). Had a very long (half hour) conversation, but the guy refused to offer me a discount.
This was before they started offering this new deal - I think I will try again now. But can anyone advise the best number to call to get straight through to someone who actually has the authority to do something? Thanks!

[rogerj]

THIS IS ONE VERY EXPENSIVE VIRGIN. THEIR CALLS ARE AMONG THE MOST EXPENSIVE IN THE BUSINESS. So what you save on their overpriced £25 deal they claw back in call costs and connection charge.

Why not use a BT Line £11.25 a month
incl free weekend 0845/0870/local+national calls

PlusNet broadband £5.99 a month
Free Router/no connection charge/Speed 8 Meg /Download 10 Gig

Feeview for TV

Total £17.24 a month

If you want free calls 24-7 including free 0845/ 0870 add on £4.95.
Cheaper than Virgin. And BT offers a better service.

[Hey Dude]

There was a thread on MSE - some time ago about haggling with Virgin.

I called them and for £23.95 each month I get:

TV Medium
Phone Xtra Large
Broadband Large

I use say no to 0870 to avoid paying for any non-landline phonecalls although I do call mobiles from time-to-time.

Most months my bill is well under £30.

Seems like a good deal to me!

Duder

[jhp]

Originally Posted by Hey Dude

There was a thread on MSE - some time ago about haggling with Virgin.

I called them and for £23.95 each month I get:

TV Medium
Phone Xtra Large
Broadband Large

I use say no to 0870 to avoid paying for any non-landline phonecalls although I do call mobiles from time-to-time.

Most months my bill is well under £30.

Seems like a good deal to me!

Duder

Great !!! But not a lot of good for new customers thinking of signing up.

[Hey Dude]

I don't know...

I've been with Telewest/Blueyonder/Virgin for ages....

I guess if you can get a good intro deal - and later call them and say 'I want A, B and C for £X a month' (as I did) and they say 'Yes' - it's got to be a winner??

Good luck

Duder

[mamatre]

I hate Virgin, had nothing but problems, and dont seem to be able to talk to someone that 1, I can understand or 2, they can understand me.
2 years ago Virgin set up a new dd in my bank taking £33 a month, when I finally found out they said it was an error, would refund me and give me a dicount of £12.50 for as long as I stay with them.
Fine til last year my bill came in at £72. I got on the phone, was crying as I just cannot afford this, told them I wanted to leave and what had happened to my discount, the virgin man said the discount was only for a year, I argued that is not what the woman had said, so I told him I wanted to leave, I would go freeview, and talktalk, he said he could knock my bill right down for me to £42 a month. A saving of £30, that will do for me........til the bills started coming in, all over £60!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lying cheating *******

[callum9999]

Originally Posted by rogerj

THIS IS ONE VERY EXPENSIVE VIRGIN. THEIR CALLS ARE AMONG THE MOST EXPENSIVE IN THE BUSINESS. So what you save on their overpriced £25 deal they claw back in call costs and connection charge.

Why not use a BT Line £11.25 a month
incl free weekend 0845/0870/local+national calls

PlusNet broadband £5.99 a month
Free Router/no connection charge/Speed 8 Meg /Download 10 Gig

Feeview for TV

Total £17.24 a month

If you want free calls 24-7 including free 0845/ 0870 add on £4.95.
Cheaper than Virgin. And BT offers a better service.

Freeview isn't really comparable with virgin though is it. For a lot of people, neither is the broadband you quoted. I know several people who can only get around 2-3mb through BT but get around 8-10mb with the cable broadband.

[reduceditem]

Originally Posted by mamatre

I hate Virgin, had nothing but problems, and dont seem to be able to talk to someone that 1, I can understand or 2, they can understand me.
2 years ago Virgin set up a new dd in my bank taking £33 a month, when I finally found out they said it was an error, would refund me and give me a dicount of £12.50 for as long as I stay with them.
Fine til last year my bill came in at £72. I got on the phone, was crying as I just cannot afford this, told them I wanted to leave and what had happened to my discount, the virgin man said the discount was only for a year, I argued that is not what the woman had said, so I told him I wanted to leave, I would go freeview, and talktalk, he said he could knock my bill right down for me to £42 a month. A saving of £30, that will do for me........til the bills started coming in, all over £60!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lying cheating *******

The lesson here is this: if you get a 'bill credit' or reduced payments from ANY company, take them at their word, but ALWAYS phone up a couple of days later to check that the credit has been applied or to ask them to confirm your monthly payments....if the first person you spoke to did as they said they would it will be clear, if they did not you have the chance to resolve it before payments come out of the bank.

[chicko]

the way that virgin open NEW direct debits without consent is fraudulent

they did it to my mum a few years ago, and werent even billing her for this extra amount.

when i called to sort out for her, they played dumb for weeks, then eventually said the best they could do was to give her a discount for the next 18 months. then they put the price up during that 18 month period.

i honestly dont trust them