Should I cancel my Virgin Media DD?

ScottR95

So I am currently paying £70 p/m for Mixit TV, 100mbps Broadband & Talk anytime. However I have been on VirginMedia website and I can get the same but instead of 100mbps I can get 350mbps for £50 p/m. I rang VirginMedia retention team and advised them of this and of course they wouldn’t give me the same deal or even price match it. They offered me £55 p/m which i would still be paying more for a lower service which made no sense. So I said I want to cancel my services (as I can avoid cancellation charge as I received an email from them) but the advisor said I would have to pay Febs payment and my service would stop on 25th. Then he also said I would have to pay March as that would cover me for Febs month service. However I don’t want to pay March also when my service is stopping from Feb! If I cancel my DD will that be fine? 

Neil_Jones

No.

Virgin you pay a month in advance for (as you always have done) but if you leave partway through a billing month you get a pro-rata refund.  So if you are billed on the 1st (for example) and your cost is £30 a month, if you leave on the 10th then in simple terms you would only be charged up until the 10th, and get £20 back for the unused portion of the month once your final bill is generated.

All cancelling your direct debit will do is best case scenario letters about it, please contact us, and worse case scenario is a trashed credit record and you'll still owe them the money.

ScottR95

Ok so it’s best just to cancel now really and let services run till 25th Feb and then my March payment come out. I’m looking to rejoin as a new customer (in a different name to someone who is living at my address) If I cancel the current contract and rejoin online under different name etc will this still be ok? As I’ve heard rumours Virgin can find out and stop that from happening?

Neil_Jones

ScottR95 said:

Ok so it’s best just to cancel now really and let services run till 25th Feb and then my March payment come out. I’m looking to rejoin as a new customer (in a different name to someone who is living at my address) If I cancel the current contract and rejoin online under different name etc will this still be ok? As I’ve heard rumours Virgin can find out and stop that from happening?

I believe you have to have been absent from the service at the address (not just the name) for 12 months to be eligible for new customer deals.  Search the forum to make sure.  You may get a call from retentions before Feb 25th in the meantime.  However you may want to reconsider whether you actually need 350Mbps as you can probably do better elsewhere.

Note that you need to give 30/31 days notice to leave anyway, so if it straddles a billing period which it almost certainly will and you intervene by cancelling the debit, you're just going to complicate things.  Best let it run and you'll get the pro-rata refund later.  This is no different to if you leave any provider, you always pay a month in advance.  If it was for the month just gone then technically you'd always be in debt to them.

illiad

So do you want to remove VM entirely??  what ISP are you going to?

If you go to your 'billing' page it will tell you when your payments are due..

ScottR95

Update: I am cancelling VM as I’m out of contract in April and they are trying to take payments up to £70! When a new customer on same package can get it for £53 along with BT channels free. Am I right in saying I can cancel and rejoin in a different name? As I’ve heard a lot of rumours I would have to wait 14 days before a new service can be used at the same household?

Brewer21

I've cancelled my services with VM recently, they should tell you how much your final bill is and when it will be taken. This is what I was told, in a later phone call they also said they will owe me £16 as I would have overpaid. This payment will be refunded via a cheque to the bill payer/account holder. I cancelled my DD with the bank as soon as the last payment was called for but VM say they automatically do that anyway but I wouldn't trust that, just me.
One other note, they ask for the equipment back and send you a package to return it post paid. In doing that you could hardly switch names at the same address and start again can you and I guess no refund (final payment) would be forthcoming if you fail to return the equipment. They also say if not returned it will be charged to you. So something to think about. BTW I went to Sky because VM wouldn't lower my price, I was out of contract.