Feeling like I must have missed a meeting

NIKKID

Mum and I both have virgin mobile phones and for years we haven't had cause to change them as we've been happy with service and price. Suddenly without even bothering to let us know we have learned that for the past two months the tariff for texting from one virgin phone to another has gone up by a whopping 375% from 0.04 to 0.15 pence. I know it isn't a massive amount of money but we have been merrily texting with no idea that there was such a huge increase. Their customer service is worse than atrocious and we can't get a word of explanation out of anyone. They seem to think it okay to nearly quadruple the amount we are paying.

Anyone else with virgin and had this price hike???

gjchester

NIKKID wrote: »

Mum and I both have virgin mobile phones and for years we haven't had cause to change them as we've been happy with service and price. Suddenly without even bothering to let us know we have learned that for the past two months the tariff for texting from one virgin phone to another has gone up by a whopping 375% from 0.04 to 0.15 pence. I know it isn't a massive amount of money but we have been merrily texting with no idea that there was such a huge increase. Their customer service is worse than atrocious and we can't get a word of explanation out of anyone. They seem to think it okay to nearly quadruple the amount we are paying.

Anyone else with virgin and had this price hike???

Search the boards and you'll see it happened 3 months ago. Most people seem to have got a text telling them ot the changes.

You may want to look at the contracts there are probably better ones with inclusive bundles that are cheaper now, especially if you want to keep your phones, or simply get the PAC code amd move providers.

Stuart_W

Are you on a contract deal, or the original Pay As You Go by Direct Debit deal? You will probably both be able to save by moving to a new SIM card of some sort, and keeping your current phones. What usage are you after in terms of minutes/texts/data(if applicable) and do you prefer monthly billing or PAYG?

NIKKID

We've been on the same deal for about 10 years would you believe so I'm assuming it is the original pay as you go. What upset me is that they just didn't bother to notify us and then had the temerity to blame my 74 year old mother for not knowing about the increase because she wasn't online. I've only had full internet access myself for about a year so I didn't know either. They claimed they had no means to contact us!!!! They know where to take the cash though.

We are really looking for basic - Mum's not very tech minded and if we get her anything elaborate she'll be put off using it although she is savvy normally she always claims tech stuff bothers her. Ours are just the most simple phones so we can keep in contact and for emergencies. Normally our bills were less than £8 and that was mostly for texting. She did say this time she'd like a new handset with a camera this time out as our handsets themselves are a few years old.

Personally I prefer monthly billing.

Myself I would love one of the new 3G phones with all the bells and whistles but I'm wary of incurring costs. I haven't found a straightforward breakdown of what it costs to run one of these. My current handset can connect internet wise apparently but again, not sure of what it costs so I've never dared try it. :eek::eek:

grumbler

NIKKID wrote: »

.. Normally our bills were less than £8 and that was mostly for texting.

Vote with your feet.
With chitter-chatter you can get 100m+100t for £6. Extra free booster can be either unlimited texts or (pseudo-)unlimited internet or unlimited calls to landlines.

With giffgaff you can have 60m+300t for £5 and free calls to each other. For £10 you get unlimited both texts and internet.

Stuart_W

The Original Virgin Pay As You Go by Direct Debit does offer monthly paper billing.

If you are looking for light usage with monthly billing, the following SIM-card only offers may be looking at.

Vectone £1.00 per month - this gets you 30 minutes and 30 texts (and 30MB of data if you want to explore what your phone can do)

TalkMobile £1.00 per month - this gets you 25 minutes and 50 texts

Vectone £5.00 per month - 100 minutes and unlimited texts

Phone Co-op £2.00 per month - nothing free, 7p/min 7p/text
(I mention this as only the phone co-op offers inclusive paper billing, which may be preferable for someone not online who has been used to a monthly bill and may prefer not to top up)

If you want a new phone, you'll need to buy one separately. These are SIM-only offers and do not include a phone. I'm quite happy with a phone that does nothing more than calls and texts, but there aren't many of us left on this board!