Virgin Media fleecing me?

quantum

I seem to be paying £48.89 per month for Broadband and phone. This includes talk international, talk unlimited, itemised bill, talk mobile, call divert.
Last year the same cost me £36,48 pm. How did it go up this much?

What are my alternatives? I presume I need to go for another cable supplier?

Help I am lost in all this!
THANKS.

littleboo

There aren't any other cable suppliers, if you want to move away from Virgin then you'll need to get a BT line installed by a supplier of your choice, and use ADSL for broadband, or FTTC if its available. Do you need all those features that you currently have ?

kwikbreaks

Virgin Media treat existing customers as cash cows, If you are daft enough to continually pay more than new customer prices (excluding limited time half price etc.) they will be only too happy to take your largess. The only way to avoid being fleeced by them is to call in every time your minimum contract term is up and tell them you are considering moving to a different provider (best to check what is on offer but TalkTalk are a sure bet to mention). Don't accept any deal that isn't less than the new customer price from their website. Accepting the new deal will mean a new minimum term - make sure it's only a 12 month term.

Every time there is a price increase they should let you know in advance - should be post but sometimes email only. Any increase means you can cancel wihin 30 days of the notice penalty free so they are an opportunity too - I eventually got fed up constantly haggling and moved on but wangled reductions instead of increases several times.