How to reduce Sky bill without missing out. .?

juspsychojo

Can someone please advise me? I'm currently with Sky, paying £52 a month for the Variety tv bundle, unlimited broadband and sky line rental. I'm on maternity leave so money is tight n wanting to shed a few £s from the bill if we could but without losing much of what we're accustomed to! We really want to keep some channels like Sky Atlantic, Fox, Disney Junior- as well as preferably keeping pause n record abilities. Any suggestions? Im not able to get virgin in the area I live so don't feel I can ring and threaten to leave as I've got nowhere to go lol. I dont know anything about NowTV, would that possibly solve this problem!? Any help appreciated, thanks

macman

Are you out of minimum term? In which case you hold all the cards, so call them up, ask for your PAC, get through to retentions and cut a deal.
To keep the Sky+ PVR functions you need to have a subscription, the only way around that is to switch to a Freesat PVR, but then you will lose the subscription channels.
You can certainly say (not threaten) that you will take the line rental, calls and broadband elsewhere if you don't receive an acceptable offer.

flipperg22

I've just called Sky, as I was also keen to cut my monthly costs. I've just come out of a 12 month deal where I had free line rental, so my monthly costs were about to shoot back up to £55.65 which included Sky HD Original package, Sky Broadband Unlimited, and Sky Talk/Line Rental.

I spoke to customer services and said I was looking to cut my costs and quoted the current close to equivalent deals with BT Vision and Talk Talk. They immediately offered me £5.63 off my TV package, but I said I still wasn't happy and it would still save me more money by moving.

They then put me through to the disconnections department (aka retentions), who after looking at a couple of deals, offered me £5 off my TV package for 10 months, £5 off my broadband package for 10 months, and £6.41 off my line rental for 10 months. All in all, that's saving me £164.10 over 10 months, and they've also given me a credit of £30 as a good will gesture. I asked why the deals were over 10 months rather than a year, and they said that's the format of all their deals now, and in 9 1/2 months time I should ring back to see what the deals are then.

So all in all, nearly £200 saved over 10 months for a 20 minute phone call - well worth it

duchy

I speak to the Sky retentions team on a very regular basis as part of my own job role and the vast majority of them are really good and if there's a deal to be found will find it so definitely call up and say as you are on maternity leave you need to cut costs and don't want to leave but may not be able to afford to stay.

Generally they go that extra mile for the nicer customers rather than the abusive ones despite what some posters on here sometimes claim !

SeduLOUs

There's always something they can do either in the form of reduced costs or freebie extras.

At the end of my minimum term I originally thought I wanted a cheaper deal, but in the end settled happily for paying the same amount per month but with a free 2TB box and Sky multiroom (installed with the old box) included in my package.

Edinburgh65

I cancelled Virgin Media just before Christmas, and bought a Now TV box for £9.99 from Amazon. I pay £5.99 per month to get access to all (I think!) of the Sky TV channels etc that you are keen to retain. I pay an additional £9.99 per month to get Sky Movies. You can cancel or add the bundles from one month to the next, and are not committed to a long term contract. I think it's great.

datlex

I would look first at www.broadbandchoices.co.uk or similar to see what is available in your area. I personally have found Sky are up for meeting offers. If you are able to point them to these then it is easier for them to see them.


My Sky broadband and landline are £18.90 a month (£2.50 plus £16.40). Sky's current unlimited broadband price is £3.75 by looks of things.


I have Now TV for which I usually pay about £5 a month by looking for latest deals.


If you buy it separately you can get it for £9.99 for the basic box. Depending on offers on at time you can get the box bundled with passes. Currently the standard price seems to be £19.99 for a box plus 3 months ent pass. (just under £6.67 a month for those three months)


Sky does have a deal which includes NOW TV. http://www.sky.com/shop/nowbundle/ It costs £10 plus the £16.40 line rental. (for some reason this does not show up when you search on sky direct). This may be easier for you.


From personal experience of NOW TV I would say it is good. The channels you get are:
Sky1
Sky Living
Sky Atlantic
Gold
Comedy Central
ITV Encore
Fox
MTV
Sky Arts 1
Discovery
Nickelodeon
Disney Chnl
Nick Jr.


Most of the live content shown on these are available at time of watching. After it is shown, it becomes available on catch up. They also have box sets of a lot of the programs. (both these don't have adverts) The box also gives access to the 4 main terrestrial channel groupings on demand players.


Obviously you would still have free to air channels available through your sky dish.

Fightsback

Cancel your TV subscription and read some free library books, assuming your local one hasn't closed thanks to cuts.

:money:

Churchill42

I just called Sky and said I was thinking about cancelling our Sky Tv subscription as the cost keeps creeping up. Customer Service person I spoke to was very good. After being on the phone for quite a time I ended up with £17.50 per month off for exactly the same package. 22% reduction so I am happy with that.

wolf12

Churchill42, did you have to sign up for another 12 months or is that on a rolling month by month contract?
I spoke to sky yesterday and they were not budging on anything more than £10 a month off my Bill but they wanted to tie me into another 12 months contract.

macman

Retention deals invariably tie you into another minimum term contract, It's quid pro quo, why would they discount the price so that you can still leave in 30 days?