Virgin Media/Sky Bills

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Usually my Virgin Media bill was around £80, but I have had it at around £108 before. I live with my girlfriend and 2 year old.

My current bill is at £90, and a lot seems to be the telephone usage (at £14) I'm already paying £11 line rental a month, and I'm pretty sure this includes the weekend calls package could be wrong though) got the XL package with sports, movies... Boradband... Telephone... All was around £82 typically...

I've signed on with E-Billing, which offers a £1 discount
I've set up a direct debit, which offers a £5 discount

so £6 total, which doesn't seem like a lot, but definitly helps the bil to look a bit more affordable... Recently with updated Credit card bills, and increased energy with British Gas, definilty need this bill down.. Anything you guys know of that could help??? I know there's a couple of people here that do cost cutting in various ways - maybe even in the TV department of their lifes. I've checked the itemised billing, unfortunatly it only shows calls over 50p, which showed a total of 6 calls - five of those were 0845 numbers (company numbers) and came up around £1-£1.70 each (definitly not local rate) is there a way to get around contacting these companies without the 0845 number? Numbers that these companys probably have investment in to screw over th average joe like me? I'm 23 years of age, and really just struggling with house to house bills and settling in first time

 

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If you are struggling with bills, etc, i would suggest two things:

First, pay a visit to moneysavingexpert.com, and see what you can do to drop payments, etc.

Secondly, re-evaluate your needs. Do you really need sky/virgin/whatever tv? How much are you paying a month for it? These things are usually at least 20 quid a month, sometimes higher. Could you be using that better elsewhere? You can always buy a freeview box instead.

The same goes for broadband. How much are you paying and for what? Are you using the maximum capability of the package, and for what? could you reduce your subscription on that side at all?

There are many many ways to spend less, most of them just require a realistic look at your life and what you really need. Having a little one makes things a little more complicated, but still not impossible.

 

If you're sure you need all of the additional channels (check this though lol) my advice would be to play Sky and Virgin off against each other.

Threaten to leave one to join the other and they'll start offering more and more. IIRC I saw a virgin ad for 3 for £30 (broadband, tv, phone) drop down to £26 now so you could start with that argument.


Another great site to use would be moneysavingexpert.com. It's free and independant and.... damn! Beaten to it by Fergal1982. lol

...*mumble* stupid topic review preview.

But yeah, assess your needs and differentiate between what you need and what you want.

EDIT - Oh Fergal ... plus rep for you matey

 

You have been given good advice by the other two, I was with Virgin package was costing me on average £60 a month, When I moved house coundnt get Virgin anymore and turned to Talktalk, now I have free phone calls day and night as long as I dont go over 1hr 10 mins and if you find you are getting close to that time as my lovley Wife does often just hang up and call the person back again. and they throw in free broadband all for £21 a month and I have a free view TV. I use the savings to go to the pub and watch the football. (When allowed by herself).

 

That £11 isn't actually line rental. That's the cost of the base telephone package

 

Try http://www.saynoto0870.com/ to find alternative local rate numbers to using 0845 numbers, It's free and has the option for adding new numbers to the database too

 

I was going to say that. I use that site too, saved a fortune over the years.

 

You do know that virgin media customers can call customer services free by dialling 150 from your virgin media phone?

 

I'd like to help here - but I'm not sure why you have headlined this as Virgin and Sky - who are competitors.

Who are you actually with?

You complain about 0845 - but don't give details. It is perfectly possible to run up a big bill on 0845 - just be on a long time!

Harry.