General : New price rises 2021!

[biddy]

Originally Posted by MrBeans

Hi, I recently received the letter informing me my price is increasing to £4.50 p/m but not until my current contract ends (which is at the beginning of May). The letter says I can change or cancel my current contract anytime before the 26th February without any cancellation charges.

I am currently paying £110 p/m going up to £139 if I continue after May, I am on the Ultimate Oomph bundle with 2 V6 boxes (however I only use one as I don't have a TV in the bedroom, just the lounge).

I did phone up retentions this weekend and asked about the new TV 360 boxes/package and they said they could upgrade me to that with the new WiFi boosters but it would put my current package up to £120 p/m but would mean no further price rise for 18 months. I said I would think about it first and get back to them.

I was hoping to be paying less not more but if I'm being honest with myself, I've been watching less and less TV since March and have mostly been watching YouTube and streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. I am just wondering whether to cancel everything and just take out a new contract for broadband and home phone only.

What do you guys think? Is it worth renegotiating? Virgin have always said that I wouldn't save much by ditching the TV and just having broadband and that I only get the deal I do as it's part of a bundle so it's never seemed worth my changing really.

Any advice would be great please.

I'm no expert, but I would say you would make a big saving if you ditched the TV from your package.

When looking at the Broadband and Phone only deals, if you can't get a retentions price, even the normal out of contract price you'd be better off.
Broadband M100 plus phone - new customers - £34pm then £51pm
M200 plus phone - new customers - £40pm then £57pm
M350 plus phone - new customers - £46pm then £63pm
Of course these are talk weekend phone prices.

So, even if you went for M350 and could not get a "deal" it would be £63pm which is a saving of £57pm going of the new quoted price. or £1,026 over the life of an 18 month contract. Assuming you REALLY want to get rid of TV.

Personally, I got rid of the reliance of having the phone (not even plugged in) as all we use are mobiles. I just got a new retentions deal about a month ago, but if they had played hardball, I would have dropped down to M200 broadband only for £50pm.

[1701-e]

Drop the sky premium stuff and the second V6 would cut that down to under£70.

[RobboEdin]

I would ignore the above.
As an Ultimate Oomph customer, you will have to keep all your services until you complete your minimum period or bear early disconnection fees for any service you cancel.

[Jaymoss]

Originally Posted by ozsat

Sky do 18 month contracts - BT now only do 24 month and are reducing the available channel line-up almost monthly.

I TBH am most likely going to go with BT this year as I called and got a UK dude who could not help me so put my 30 days notice in. From what I have read round and about they are letting some people go without good offer. The 24 month contract I find kinda attractive as it means I do not have to haggle for that extra time and at least on Open Reach Network I can swap every contract end and keep on new customer deals likely for the rest of my life

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by Jaymoss

I TBH am most likely going to go with BT this year as I called and got a UK dude who could not help me so put my 30 days notice in. From what I have read round and about they are letting some people go without good offer. The 24 month contract I find kinda attractive as it means I do not have to haggle for that extra time and at least on Open Reach Network I can swap every contract end and keep on new customer deals likely for the rest of my life

Bet you get a call back from a nicer VM bloke

[Jaymoss]

Originally Posted by Mr K

Bet you get a call back from a nicer VM bloke

here's hoping

[MrBeans]

Originally Posted by RobboEdin

I would ignore the above.
As an Ultimate Oomph customer, you will have to keep all your services until you complete your minimum period or bear early disconnection fees for any service you cancel.

I am not sure if that's the case as my letter from Virgin about the incoming price rises states I have until 26th February to either change or cancel my package without any cancellation fees which is why I was considering cancelling.

I can hang on until my contract runs out in May (probably speak to someone at the end of April) to achieve the same result as I'm in no rush to cancel anything just yet.

I did used to watch a lot more TV but since the pandemic I've not been that interested in what's on (due to there being a lot of repeats and a lot of shows just not being the same due to changes in the way they are filmed because of various restrictions) and don't want to see anything related to the pandemic (both on TV or elsewhere) and find it's somewhat unavoidable as it's even mentioned in adverts and so on. At least with You Tube and streaming services I can pick what I watch and have an element of control over what is displayed in my recommendations etc.

I know things may change in the future and stuff will possibly go back to normal but that may be a while away yet and at the moment I'm paying for something I hardly use other than for the internet side of my package.

[RobboEdin]

Cancel all services would be OK.
Change means change the levels of your services but cancel no individual service.

[ozsat]

BT are winding down their own tv operation and moving to Now TV.

Originally Posted by Jaymoss

I TBH am most likely going to go with BT this year as I called and got a UK dude who could not help me so put my 30 days notice in. From what I have read round and about they are letting some people go without good offer. The 24 month contract I find kinda attractive as it means I do not have to haggle for that extra time and at least on Open Reach Network I can swap every contract end and keep on new customer deals likely for the rest of my life

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by ozsat

BT are winding down their own tv operation and moving to Now TV.

To be fair to BT, they have improved their TV offering substantially. The VIP package offers:

All the Freeview channels
Sky Atlantic, Sky One, Sky Witness, Sky Arts and more channels with the NOW TV Entertainment Pass
All 11 Sky Sports channels with the NOW TV Sky Sports Pass
All four BT Sport channels and BoxNation from BT
All the Sky Cinema channels with the NOW TV Sky Cinema Pass (RRP £11.99 per month)

This is supplemented by access to Netflix and Amazon Prime, so it is a reasonable selection, and a big improvement from not so long ago when there was not much more than the terrestrials, BT Sport and AMC.

I think they are concentrating on streaming apps now though, so look out for Disney + and Discovery+ in the near future.

[ozsat]

All BT did was add the Now TV pack - and to encourage users to switch are closing most of the (non-BT) channels which are not in the Now TV pack.

[japitts]

Originally Posted by MrBeans

I did used to watch a lot more TV but since the pandemic I've not been that interested in what's on (due to there being a lot of repeats and a lot of shows just not being the same due to changes in the way they are filmed because of various restrictions)

A few of the pay channels (Sky Witness & Fox notably) have brought forward new series of US/Canadian-imports.

Quite a lot of my recorded bits are those at the moment.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by ozsat

All BT did was add the Now TV pack - and to encourage users to switch are closing most of the (non-BT) channels which are not in the Now TV pack.

There’s a novel way Virgin Media users can do this too, via an app on their TV, games console, chromecast or other smart stick. Including those supplied by Now TV themselves.

There’s someone round here paying thruppence and ha’penny for it too.

[Legendkiller2k]

Originally Posted by ozsat

All BT did was add the Now TV pack - and to encourage users to switch are closing most of the (non-BT) channels which are not in the Now TV pack.

Tbh i can see BT doing something similar with the Plusnet tv service soon too.

[cheekyangus]

Originally Posted by Legendkiller2k

Tbh i can see BT doing something similar with the Plusnet tv service soon too.

I swear I read a few weeks ago Plusnet TV was being discontinued.