Reducing call costs to mobiles, 0870 and 0845 with a Virgin Media landline

bennash_2

Hi,

Can anyone shed some light on the home phone confusion with Virgin Media. I am with Virgin talk unlimited and I live in an area where my mobile phone isn't in reception, so I am forced to use the home phone for everyting as I work part time from home. Currently I use 0871, 0844 etc for getting cheap calls to 0845, 0870 and mobile numbers. But then I see virgin charge more pence per minute for some of these numbers. My phone bills monthly are currently about £70 - £80... that is with internet included but my question is does anyone know.

1. The cheapest ways to phone mobile phones (weekdays and weekends) without being stung with the 0871 etc call charge per minute.
2. The cheapest ways to phone 0845 numbers, evening and weekends.
3. Any further tips about reducing this bill.

Tribulation

Register with 18185

http://www.18185.co.uk/mobilerates.php

The above link shows their rates for calling from a Virgin line with their 0808 freephone number.

4p a min to mobiles at the weekend
3p a min 0845 24/7
5p a min weekdays 0870
1p a min weekends 0870

Still 10p per min to phone mobiles in the week though but the other savings are well worth it.

Heinz

There is no way of calling 0843, 0844, 0871, 0872 or 0873 numbers more cheaply than VM charges you because there asre no override providers for those number ranges.

However, if you have a www.18185.co.uk A/C, using their cable users' freephone gateway number (0808 1 703 703) will probably be cheaper than dialling direct on VM

Their charges are:

0845 - 5p connection + 3p/minute at all times;
0870 - 5p connection + 5p/minute weekdays, 1p/minute @ weekends.

Tribulation

On another thread when I asked a similar question, I was advised

Stuart_W wrote: »

Join the Phone Co-op's Caller Plus tariff on your virgin landline.

You can then access 0844 and 0871 numbers at the same price as BT per minute (so a 5p/min 0844 number actually costs 5p/min) - and you pay per second with NO connection fee and a minimum call charge of just 1p +VAT.

You would have to ring 0800 781 5xxx to access The Phone Co-op
then the 0844 number to access which ever indirect supplier you're using.
And then have to ring the person you're calling.

A lot of numbers, but potentially a lot of saving, too.

I found the Phone co-ops site to be a little confusing though and as I haven't got my virgin phone installed yet, have not tried it myself.

shadowspy24

If you are not bound to a fixed contract with virgin then i would suggest that you switch to talktalk. If you do this through a cashback website you will make £24.

If you get the essentials package which is £17.49 incl line rental plus the anytime boost and the mobile boost your base charges will be £25.49 a month.

For this you will receive free calls to 0845/0870 numbers, free 8Mb broadband and calls to mobiles for 5.87p/min in daytime and 3.43p/min in evenings + 8p connection charge. Depending on how much you call mobiles I'm guessing your bill will be nowhere near the £70-80 you're paying now.

By the way i should point out i am in no way affiliated with talk talk. i just have their service and it seems good. HTH

Tribulation

Trouble is, if you have Virgin TV, they charge you £11 for their phone line and you have zero choice about it whether you want it or not.

shadowspy24

depends which channels you watch. You can switch to sky for £16 a month and pick what channel you want. I think they have pretty much every channel.

ACDeag

Tribulation wrote: »

Trouble is, if you have Virgin TV, they charge you £11 for their phone line and you have zero choice about it whether you want it or not.

You can have TV without phone, they do not advertise it though, you have to ask. I believe they only offer the XL package and there is a surcharge for not having a phoneline but the surcharge is not £11.

Tribulation

shadowspy24 wrote: »

depends which channels you watch. You can switch to sky for £16 a month and pick what channel you want. I think they have pretty much every channel.

But I want Virgin, their TV service is both better and cheaper.

Channel wise everything I watch is on both.

HD wise, Sky charges £9.75 a month, Virgin now have more HD channels than they used to, not as many as Sky but don't charge for it (not interested in sports or movie channels)

Virgin has 3 tuners in their box, Sky has 2. It's surprising how often we want to record two prime time TV programs and watch a 3rd.

With Virgin I have an extra set top box in my bedroom, their largest TV package (no movies or sports) and a V+ box in my living room, all for £26.50

With Sky, for the same TV package (ok it has a load more rubbish channels that I never watch), with HD and without the extra box in the bedroom costs £32.25, if I wanted to add an extra box int he bedroom it would push the price to £42

Virgin = £26.50
Sky = £42 for the same package

But, the thing Virgin has over sky is that it also has VOD, Iplayer, ITVplayer, 4od

No contest really

shadowspy24

Well how much do you pay for your phone line then? I'm guessing it's about £11 line rental then there must be a bit more for the package you want and the charges that you rack up calling 0844 numbers. You can phone up virgin and ask them how much they would charge you if you quit there phone service. If the cost there is minimal then you might aswell pay it and go to talktalk cos like i said before all you would pay them a month is £25.49 plus your mobile costs and it probably won't be anywhere near £70-80 depending on how much you call mobiles. 0845/0870 will be inclusive in the package.

BTW is the V+ box wifi enabled or something to give you iplayer and all that what?

Tribulation

shadowspy24 wrote: »

BTW is the V+ box wifi enabled or something to give you iplayer and all that what?

As far as I'm aware (not getting it until next Saturday) it's all sent down the cable, some deal Virgin have with them all.

After my first year is up I will look at getting another phone provider, but I'm due £150 cashback from quidco and a £20 credit from Virgin for taking out all 3 services with Virgin, so for the first year it's worth me being with them.