Virgin TV...stay or what alternatives?
jacob_a
Forumite 1 Post
I am currently a Virgin Media customer but my contract will be expiring next month. I am being quoted a £22 per month price increase to stay with VM on the same package (Player TV, 100mb Internet & Phone).
Frankly the TV channels are pretty limited and I'm sure I would survive fine with Freeview/FreeSat, the internet is brilliant and I don't use the phone at all.
Would I get away with leaving VM and then signing up in my OH's name using his bank account? The same package is on offer to new customers for just £2 per month more than I currently pay.
Alternatively I could just leave and source my internet elsewhere but don't know if there is an alternative TV box that I can get that will run off VM wiring etc? Otherwise I understand that I will need an aerial man to come out and sort out the wiring/aerial set-up.
Any suggestions or advice greatly appreciated!
TIA
Frankly the TV channels are pretty limited and I'm sure I would survive fine with Freeview/FreeSat, the internet is brilliant and I don't use the phone at all.
Would I get away with leaving VM and then signing up in my OH's name using his bank account? The same package is on offer to new customers for just £2 per month more than I currently pay.
Alternatively I could just leave and source my internet elsewhere but don't know if there is an alternative TV box that I can get that will run off VM wiring etc? Otherwise I understand that I will need an aerial man to come out and sort out the wiring/aerial set-up.
Any suggestions or advice greatly appreciated!
TIA
0
This discussion has been closed.
Latest MSE News and Guides
Replies
If you are a VM customer, you have wiring/fibre to your home that is dedicated to VM. All other suppliers use wiring that is provided and maintained by BT Opensource.
As such, there probably won't be much alternative to getting rid of the entire VM installation and starting from new. I doubt that the VM TV box would work (for catchup) with a different BB provider.
The benefit of starting from new, though, is that the best deals elsewhere are much cheaper than VM, as a general rule. The best approach is to work out what you need, and price up the options from one or more suppliers that could provide it. Then you can check speeds and availability.
https://broadband.moneysavingexpert.com/
I've got: Mix TV V6 Tivo Box, 100mb Broadband, Talk Weekends
Last year's monthly bill was £36.00 - This was with a £19.00 p/month discount for line rental as I never use the landline and I made them well aware of my disdain to pay it, hence the discount.
Called on Sunday evening to cancel (couldn't do as retentions closed at 6.00pm) but was told by CS that they couldn't do anything with the price and my new bills would be £55.00 p/month.
Called on Monday (to cancel again) and was offered £29.00 p/month, with no loss of services. Snapped his hand off...!
Normally it takes registering a cancellation, and then wait for retentions to call you back in the days following.
And then it takes around 3 or 4 of those calls for a good deal to be made.
Always have a back up though - I have been looking at moving to Sky (rightly or wrongly) and I would if Virgin didn't give me an offer I couldn't agree to.
Just call them back, register a cancellation then wait to see what you're offered.
There is a Virgin retention deals thread where these get discussed in the main forum above this: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=68.
It is always worth cancelling and they then generally call back with offers to stay.
And yes, the OP could sign up in partners name as a new customer, but would lose their phone number. If they do, don't forget to go through Quidco/TopCashback for cashback too!