Reasonable price?

144 Posts


Sky intend to put my unlimited broadband (copper wire) up to £26.01 per month from April. I was migrated to Sky when they took over BE and still use the Thompson BeBox ("g" wi-fi) BE gave me, so that cost Sky nothing. I'm out of contract. £7.50 of the charge is for NOT having telephone services and TV from them - I get my telephone from BT - and that charge has persisted since they took over BE. Do you think the Sky charges are reasonable for what I get? The actual service is reliable and speed is as advertised.
Thanks.
Thanks.
0
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Is there a particular reason why you have split Phone & BB contracts?
Overall, your price looks high compared to generally available offers for combined BB & Landline, and presumably you will be paying BT, too?
When I joined BE many moons ago, it was my first time subscribing to a broadband service and I wanted to keep my BT phone service and number, which BE allowed without financial penalty. I took the 16meg copper wire service using the BT landline infrastructure - there was no fibre option at that time. If I use ethernet connection to the BeBox I get about 11meg, and if I use wi-fi I get about 8megs. Quite adequate for my needs.
Some years later, Sky took BE over and although Sky didn't normally allow broadband and telephone services to be split, for BE legacy customers an exception was made albeit with a penalty charge.
I have allowed the situation to persist because I wanted above all to keep my BT number so my only option would be to take a BT package (or so I thought - I don't know how true that is these days). And yes, I pay BT for my landline rental and calls package too. Currently just under £40 a month and also just about to go up a bit!
I'm paying BT just under £50 for my landline, broadband and television. They don't do packages like they used to do as they offer more flexibility now with their different services, which seems to work better. My prices are set to rise shortly too but BT assures me that they won't be extortionate. We'll see!
Why don't you try phoning them, it's a free call and you're under no obligation. Just outline your situation and tell them that you feel you're paying too much right now and would like to see what they could offer you. Even if you would rather carry on splitting the services as you have been doing, just under £40 for your BT landline rental and calls package is too much - you could ask them if they can give you a better price.
In my experience, contacting companies when your contract is coming to an end is well worth it. When I moved into my current property a few years ago, I was obliviously paying £69 a month to BT for landline and broadband only. When I came to my senses and realised that was a lot of money just for two services, I phoned and asked what they could do to help lower my costs. I ended up with a package that cost £35 a month, including TV, which I hadn't had before. If I hadn't phoned them, who knows how long I'd have carried on overpaying. Obviously prices have increased over the years but I don't think it's bad. Now I make sure to phone towards the end of a contract. I've even phoned half way through a contract sometimes and renegotiated, without penalty.
Even if you want to stay with Sky, I'd definitely phone BT and ask them to give you a better price for your landline and calls. It will cost you nothing and hopefully will be beneficial.
(I'm with Vodafone home BB, on their best offer from 2 years ago - £23pm for 70Mbps fibre BB. Apart from one outage, I've found it very reliable, and I've never had to call their call centre).
I'd start by moving one of your products to the supplier of the other in order to have them together in one place. That should (a) put you on a standard product, (b) reduce your price immediately, and (c) put you in a better position to move around in future.
You have always been able to move your phone number with your service and this is now a normal and reliable process.
You could e.g. look at Plusnet (a BT-owned offshoot).
It sounds like you could be paying several times what you could be for similar service.
Have you read https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/broadband-and-tv/cheap-broadband/ ?
Saved £30 a month, kept my phone number and got a faster speed.
The transfer happened on the day of my choosing and took less than five minutes to just pull the plugs out of the BT router and shove them into the Vodaphone unit. I'd already set up the VF router with same wifi SSID and password as the old BT router so everything in the house came straight back on line.
I will inwardly digest them and act, soon.
Thanks again!
Most FTTC broadband packages from BT, Sky, Vodafone etc include a landline. If you can get FTTP via Openreach, you can either opt for Broadband only, or have a landline number as well with something called "Digital Voice" via the aforementioned three providers.