To Bundle Or Not to Bundle?

strawberri_shortcake

Hi! Long time lurker and first time poster on this fab site!



Having gone merticulously through the various articles on the site it is patently obvious where I can cut back on our growing budget and actually save some money for once!

Current Non-Bundle Outgoings

• £52 per month for Sky+ downstairs, and multiroom upstairs
  
• £18 per month for Wannadoo/Orange Internet Access
  
• £17 per month approx for BT line rental at £11 and various calls

I have been looking at the various options.

It is hard to come to any definate conclusions regarding top providers in each area as users have had such mixed experiences but here goes:

• Purchase a bundle phone/broadband/tv package with Virgin? (Though not keen on the idea of moving broadband to Virgin and would have to be a customer for a while before blagging my way onto the £30 deal)
  
• Keep Sky downstairs but reduce to the basic package, bin the £10 multiroom upstairs and get a freeview box instead. If so, do I more my phone to them as well which would continue my free weekend/evening calls to landlines (not including the £11 line rental to BT)
  
• Bite the bullet, hope for the best and change my telephone and internet provider to Talk Talk and hope I am in the minority of customers who do not have any problems in order to benefit from their cheap rates? (If so, must I really purchase their modem or could I continue to use my own alongside my Belken network wireless router?)

Finally, I could avoid the bundles and:

• Reduce Sky to the basic package for £28, bin the multiroom and get a freeview box for upstairs (free once the box is purchased from eBay)
  
• Move my phoneline only to TalkTalk for the £3.89 + £11 BT Line Rental (I don't want to move this to anyone else)
  
• Retain Wannadoo/Orange broadband at £18 due to excellent service (including Customer Care) and try and blag a Livebox out of them too for free calls (somehow!)

I'm not looking for you to sort my entire budget out for me but any suggestions regarding any of the above would be appreciated!!

Thanks!

darwin-rover

So you're paying £87 a month . Virgin do the VIP deal for £85 a month , and you'll get the same if not better services
XL tv with Sky Movies and Sports
V+ box , (High Def with 160gig hard drive , 3 tuners)
Normal tv box
XL phone , unlimited UK landline calls 24hrs a day , cheap int. calls , cheap mobile calls
XL BB , 10meg soon to be 20meg , unlimited downloads
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/product.do?id=11029

Purchase a bundle phone/broadband/tv package with Virgin? (Though not keen on the idea of moving broadband to Virgin and would have to be a customer for a while before blagging my way onto the £30 deal)

While VMs phone and TV dont win awards , their BB does . I believe they're now the biggest internet provider in the UK ?
What £30 deal are you talking about and why would you have to wait a while before being put onto it ?

ioscorpio

Can't you get get free broadband from Sky on what you are paying them. They do a deal for £26 see speak surf.

If you are happy with Orange badger them to reduce your cost, people on here have got their monthly cost down to £9.99 with a livebox. If you have an Orange mobile contract you should be able to get if for free or £5 with the livebox. I just took out an Orange mobile 12 contract and still got free broadband, even thou the advertising says you have to be on an 18 month contract.

strawberri_shortcake

Thanks for the replies!

Since posting I've done some more research and the Vodafone deal looks amazing! Combined broadband and phoneline for existing customers, including line rental. Even more heartening is the fact that there are so many satisfied customers.

I think I'll be switching to Vodafone. Sky could offer us free broadband (but not phone calls as they are not yet active in our area). I would prefer to move away from them altogether because I detest them as a corporation.

peter999

strawberri_shortcake wrote: »

...and would have to be a customer for a while before blagging my way onto the £30 deal)

Virgin 3 for £30 deal is open to new customers.

The big savings come when everything is bundled & that can only be with Virgin Media who offer cable TV as possible replacement for Sky.

Why not get a quote from Virgin on complete package you want.

If you want lot of services, they might give you a fantastic price.

peter999

darwin-rover

strawberri_shortcake wrote: »

Since posting I've done some more research and the Vodafone deal looks amazing! Combined broadband and phoneline for existing customers, including line rental. .

£25 for Vodafone Mobile customers , £35 if you dont have a Vodafone contract . Not bad , but Id hardly call it amazing .

strawberri_shortcake

darwin-rover wrote: »

£25 for Vodafone Mobile customers , £35 if you dont have a Vodafone contract . Not bad , but Id hardly call it amazing .

I do make a lot of national phonecalls during the day during half-terms (I work as a TA at a local school) and this would benefit my hone bill. However, the Virgin package does look pretty good. My partner is going to call Virgin to enquire about this later in the week and see if we can make any further savings. I doubt it, but you never know.

peter999

strawberri_shortcake wrote: »

I do make a lot of national phonecalls during the day during half-terms (I work as a TA at a local school) and this would benefit my hone bill. However, the Virgin package does look pretty good. My partner is going to call Virgin to enquire about this later in the week and see if we can make any further savings. I doubt it, but you never know.

What services do you actually want ??
Do you want what your currently have or will you cutback ??

peter999

strawberri_shortcake

peter999 wrote: »

What services do you actually want ??
Do you want what your currently have or will you cutback ??

peter999

I do like Sky+ but it's not a necessity so happy to cut that back. I must have a good broadband provider and I would like to be able to use the telephone to call people when I'm off rather than being a tightwad and waiting until 6pm.

darwin-rover

You can go for the 3 for £30 bundle , and upgrade the phoneline to XL for another £10 (from 1st May) , free UK calls 24hrs a day .
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/product.do?id=11039
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/product.do?id=10258

strawberri_shortcake

darwin-rover wrote: »

You can go for the 3 for £30 bundle , and upgrade the phoneline to XL for another £10 (from 1st May) , free UK calls 24hrs a day .
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/product.do?id=11039
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/product.do?id=10258

PERFECT!

That is exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for. Worse half is going to call them tomorrow. I wonder if they'll offer it for any less if we move from Sky? Very, very doubtful but if you don't ask.....