confused by broadband+TV options

[Bluebirdnick]

Evening all. I've been a virgin media customer for so many years that the frequent price rises mean that my fairly basic package costs about £85 a month. I am sure I can do better and have been playing around with comparison sites but I keep tripping up because I don't understand enough about the way this stuff works.

What we currently have is:
broadband (average download speeds of 50mbps+)
TV - the one up from the most basic package I think, with no additional sports, movies etc
Phone, with no free calls

What I VALUE about virgin is:
1) broadband speed
2) the tivo box that allows me to easily record TV without the need for another remote control
3) that it all comes into the house in a cable. I don't think we have an aerial, and I am pretty sure we don't have a working BT phone line. And I don't want a satellite dish on the house if poss.

My research tells me that:

- BT and TalkTalk packages may be bad because I need a phone line and aerial
- Sky packages may be bad because I still require a satellite dish (but that may be phased out?)
- Now Broadband packages are no good because the box doesn't allow me to record

Are there other options that I am not seeing here? E.g. can I buy a box that records the telly, separate to the broadband? And is there any way to use my existing broadband connection with a new supplier to avoid having to have more wires etc? Any advice would be much apprecated, I've been looking at this all day and I cannot work out what to do!

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

If you really want to save money, make do with Freeview/ Freesat. A suitable TV will allow you to record live programs (probably only one at any one time) and will allow you to watch catchup via the Internet.

That's what I have and I would not thank you for more. I have a special deal I negotiated with my ISP, for fibre BB and line rental, that costs me around £23.

 

[matlob]

Hi
If you are happy with virgin and coming out of contact if you ring up to cancel they will drop the price to keep you more than likely.
May be best to stay witH virgin if you don’t have a phone line.

 

[Iamchamps]

Like above if you are out of contract call them. Before doing that go to their website look at what a new customer price would be for what you have and tell them to match it or you will cancel.

 

[Bluebirdnick]

Thanks all. I am definitely willing to stay with Virgin if they get the price down to something sensible, but realistically they need to half their current pricing and throw in free calls and they may not do that so need a Plan B! I'll try them now though.

 

[matlob]

The first person you speak too won’t offer much of a discount. You will need to get through to cancellations where they can reduce it more for you. Look what you can get with other providers and quote their costs. I.e bt tv with line rental and fast broadband is approx £50 per month. Check on bt website to see what speeds your postcode can get. If it’s fast that will help the negotiations.

 

[Bluebirdnick]

Thanks. I called cancellations. I had a letter this week saying that they will be increasing the bill by £4.49. The pre-recorded message as you go through to cancellations says something like "we see you have been affected by the recent price increase but good news - we can give you a discount of £2.50 a month. press 1 to accept or 2 to speak to someone". Nice try! As it happens the call center is closed now, and the opening hours mean I've no real chance of getting through to them ever. I've sent them a message via a form on their website requesting that they match the price that they would charge a new customer (£29), or cancel my contract (the minimum contract term expired years ago).

My plan is geniunely to leave virgin, but if they remove the financial advantage of doing so I'll stay.

 

[matlob]

If you are paying 85 and can get it for 29 it may be that you are paying for channels/extras that you don’t need.
It’s best to renegotiate every year. Bit like car insurance where they put the price up until you tell them not too.

 

[Bluebirdnick]

Thanks. I think I may have more than the basic package for TV, but it is still pretty basic. I totally agree about renegotiating every year but for some reason I just never get around to it with the broadband. I actually had no idea what I was paying for it - I thought it was about £50 but I checked my bills and it's a lot more than that! Lesson learned.

I've been doing a bit of digging and BT will actually install an aerial for £80 as part of the setup. I don't think we have one at the moment. We had the roof replaced a year or so ago and so had a full scaffold up. I was going to stick one on then because it would have been simple to do so, but got a slipped disc which prevented me from doing anything and I don't think I got someone else in to do it at the time. So I will probably go with an aerial and BT, if Virgin don't play ball. The effective cost is well under £50 a month, and the cashback and other incentives for signing up would more than cover the cost of the aerial (which will be useful to have in future years if, as you suggest, I switch suppliers each year!)

 

[JBR]

I too have been with Virgin for many years. My current bill is £41.98 per month, and that is only for WiFi and internet connection. We pay a further £9 a month for Vonage (internet telephony - most calls are free). That's over £50 all in - no television, etc.

I have recently received notification that Virgin are going to bump up our monthly bill by £3.50 a month.

Granted, we have 100Mb download speed (although it's usually quite a bit lower), but I'm not sure we really need such a speed, and probably not fibre at all as we don't download films, etc.

I have been thinking of ditching Virgin for a while now, and I think our needs would be easily met by an average 10Mb, so I'm sure we'd be happy using a non-fibre supplier.

I think I'll do what has been suggested above and call Cancellations, but first find out the best non-fibre deals locally. We'll need a telephone line installing, of course.

Can anyone recommend any particular company?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I too have been with Virgin for many years. My current bill is £41.98 per month, and that is only for WiFi and internet connection. We pay a further £9 a month for Vonage (internet telephony - most calls are free). That's over £50 all in - no television, etc.

Can anyone recommend any particular company?

That is an awful lot, for not very much.

There are three systems..

All copper from the exchange to you door, speeds up to 20Mb.
Fibre to the local box in your street (fttc), then copper - speeds up to 40Mb
Fibre right to your door, speeds to 100Mb.

I had the first option until around 18 months ago, getting 16Mb, then moved to fttc with the same ISP (Plusnet) now getting 40Mb. My package was until last week - line + fttc + free UK and mobile calls anytime, for £30.48, a deal I negotiated with them for an 18month contract. Last month I decided to move my mobile to Plusnet, so for £7 I get 3Gb data, unlimited calls, unlimited texts. I was paying £8 per month for the free anytime calls on my landline package, so I cancelled that, to save the £8 - why pay twice? My landline works as normal, I just do not use it for any outgoing calls and now only pay £22.48 + £7 for the mobile. When my 18month contract comes to an end, I shall renegotiate with Plusnet as a favourite - service has been absolutely great and English staff.

I had no idea that a 'anytime calls package to landline and mobile numbers' could be £1 per month cheaper on a mobile, than on a landline.

I only use my fibre broadband for Internet, email and TV catchup.

As with gas and electricity - What is available, from which ISP's and the cost, varies from one area to another.

 

[JP_]

Like Harry, I just have Freeview. The TV (an LG) has a USB port that allows for recording etc. but I never record anything. I have Amazon and iPlayer on the TV (which I use) and there is also NowTV, Netflix, plus access to download stuff through Google/YouTube or LG's own library. So I only pay about £8 a month for the Amazon Prime, and what I save on free deliveries pretty much pays for it.

I do have BT infinity, which I think is a bit expensive, but we do use a hell of a lot of bandwidth. When I last checked, each of the two xboxs, TV and computers used around 2000Gb data a month.
The previous deal I had had an allowance of 30Gb a month!

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Like Harry, I just have Freeview. The TV (an LG) has a USB port that allows for recording etc. but I never record anything.

Likewise, I almost never record anything, but having an HDD plugged into the USB on my LG allows me to pause what ever I am watching live. If there are ads in the program and I have previously paused it for a few minutes, I can skip forward through the ads, rather than have to watch them.

 

[JP_]

Yeah. I stlll have a saterllite and freesat box, and the freesat box is like that, can pause and rewind up to 2 hours of live TV (if same channel kept on).
But the freeview picture is much better than freesat and much easier to use too. I still have a lot of stuff on the freesat box that was recorded years ago and I've still not watched it!
All the main channels have apps now, so less need to record anything

 

[JBR]

That is an awful lot, for not very much.

There are three systems..

All copper from the exchange to you door, speeds up to 20Mb.
Fibre to the local box in your street (fttc), then copper - speeds up to 40Mb
Fibre right to your door, speeds to 100Mb.

Thanks for your response and, yes, £50 a month is an awful lot for WiFi and telephone.

Actually, the system we have is fibre to the local box, just a few yards down the street, and copper from that to our house. I know the latter is copper because I watched them install it. Nevertheless, we can get about 70Mb to our computers and smartphones (and that's with radio signals and not ethernet connection from the router), which I think is pretty good as it isn't fibre right to our door. Virgin, incidentally, is the only fibre supplier around here.

I shall certainly look into what 'copper only' deals are available and compare prices and services. I have heard that Plusnet is a good option, which you confirm.

When deciding, I should also mention that my wife also watches such things as Netflix and BBC i-player both on the TV and her smartphone. Would the (quite common) copper-connection speeds of "average 10Mb" be sufficient to provide a suitable connection for those purposes?

We've also taken on board your idea of using the (compulsory) landline telephone for incoming calls only, on the grounds that there would be no additional charges for making calls if we don't make any(!), and using our mobile phones for all outgoing calls. We're both on Three PAYG and find that their call charges are as cheap as any.

Thanks for your help.