Help! Paid £99 last month for Virgin?! 12 September 2018 at 10:46AM in TV MoneySaving 4 replies 1.1K views

poro

Hello, last month our virgin TV, broadband and phone cost just shy of £100. So I am looking to swap, but have no clue about it..we barely use our house phone, or watch the TV but do rely on a quick internet speed. We have been with virgin for years, have no TV aerial so am confused about what we can apply for as well that won't cost £££ for installation?
Please help us! I cannot make heads or tails of any of it.
Am I best trying to just tell Virgin we are leaving because their price is ridiculous?!

spadoosh

TV - IN all likelihood youll need a tv licence for starters. From then you have freeview/freesat. They have an amount of free to air channels providing you have a means to receive them (a freeview/sat enabled tv or a box). Going further you get the subscription models. Netflix, prime video, now tv, theyll have content you cant access via freeview/sat and of course the likes of sky and virgin. Freeview is done by old school aerial (although its a digital signal) and freesat is done by satellite, you can use a sky satellite dish if you have one installed.

Phone - It sounds like youre paying for something that isnt needed with virgin. They're fibreoptic so theres no need at all for a landline, although when i had it it was cheaper getting a phone and broadband package than just the broadband. If you leave virgin youll probably end up having broadband via phone line so will need a phone line.

Broadband - Virgins is really good. That said, im a massive gamer, will often play a film whilst gaming, whilst OH is watching netflix, whilst watching other videos on facebook and ill also be downloading some pretty big files all without any hiccup on a pretty basic ~30mbps sky broadband package. I think most people go overkill on their internet unnecessarily. For a 30mbps, unlimited broadband connection you should be looking at about £20 per month.

So a freeview box with no ability to record (lets you watch all the free channels) = £10
Various apps (itv hub, iplayer etc) allow catchup = free
Phone and broadband (respectable 30mps download) = ~£20permonth

Im just in the mmiddle of doing the same myself, although im struggling with wanting sport and wanting to record live tv bumping up the costs. The problem is sky/virgin offer a one stop shop that makes it as easy as possible where as when you dont want to pay youve got to be willing to make sacrifices and researching whats most suitable for you.

Bigphil1474

As above, but bear in mind that if you are on the VM cable network, if you switch providers, the new provider will be through your telephone line. There may be a set up fee as they will have to sort that phone line out. VM are no cheaper with or without line rental from what I've seen. You won't get the same BB speed outside of VM. Sounds like you are overpaying because of the TV - BB and phone should be no more than £50, can be a lot less. I pay £35 with anytime calls, but I'm in first year contract. If you are out of contract, ring them, and see what price will be without TV and what speed BB you are paying for - you may be able to drop a speed, which should be cheaper.
I have VM cable BB and phone (no tv). I have a Youview box which allows me to watch one channel while recording up to 2 others. The box has catch up apps built in (i-player, C4 etc.) Total cost for TV is £0, plus TV license. Other boxes are available.

JJ_Egan

Key here is how long is left on the current contract .
Or is the OP out of contract and overpaying monthly .

Cornucopia

poro wrote: »

Hello, last month our virgin TV, broadband and phone cost just shy of £100. So I am looking to swap, but have no clue about it..we barely use our house phone, or watch the TV but do rely on a quick internet speed. We have been with virgin for years, have no TV aerial so am confused about what we can apply for as well that won't cost £££ for installation?
Please help us! I cannot make heads or tails of any of it.
Am I best trying to just tell Virgin we are leaving because their price is ridiculous?!

You can certainly start by haggling with Virgin.

Virgin infrastructure in your home/street is unique to them, so moving elsewhere will require all new connections, and if you have no BT line at your home, this can get expensive.

The best way to get help on what the best/cheapest is to tell us what you actually need/want from your service:-

- What Broadband speed do you need? (Most VM customers, IME, are paying over the odds because they have BB speeds that are much higher than they need). Basic Fibre BB (c. 30Mbps) will be sufficient for a typical household viewing TV over Internet. If basic broadband (ADSL) is suitably fast in your area then that will be cheaper than Fibre (generally).

- What TV service are you looking for? Traditional channels (which ones?) or could you make do with catch-up/box sets only.

- Sport, Movies, Netflix, Amazon?

- Do you want to dispense with your TV Licence (by viewing only commercial TV catch-up/films/video-on-demand)?

- Do you want to record TV or are you happy to just use catch-up?


I pay the equivalent of £28pm for Fibre BB, Now TV Entertainment and Now TV Films (Sky Cinema). I do not require a TV Licence because I do not watch live channels or BBC iPlayer. That's around the target figure you could get to, depending on your requirements (or less if you buy your own equipment for Freeview or Freesat).