To not want to pay £88 a month to Sky!

[Poppyanddaisy55]

They are putting up my subscription by £5 from next month. I'm sick of the extortionate cost but am not clued up on alternatives at all. We have fibre broadband (which is a necessity with 4 family members all using a lot of wifi) No movies or sport. And landline which is NEVER used. Dh watches all top Sky tv such as GofT etc. I cant even remember the channels they are all on (Atlantic maybe?) This is non negotiable too. Also have Sky plus again, defo want something similar. The catch up tv option has never worked despite several phone calls so we gave up. On top of this we also pay separately for Netflix and Spotify. Please mumsnetters is there an equal alternative? Can we get rid of a landline? I also have a Totum student card so not sure if this makes me eligible for any further discounts.

They put ours up from £52 p/m to £75 last September. I rang up and told them to cancel and that I was moving to virgin. After being referred to the 'specialist cancellation team' I signed a new contract for £44 p/m.

What with eveyone wanting to cancel their non-refundable Sky Sports at the moment, they've sent most of their call centre staff home, so you'll never get through.

I've emailed them! Looked at a similar package with Bt for £50 less per month!!

I sacked them off completely in January as they wanted to raise my bill to £127 per month!

It was incredibly difficult to cancel, they wanted to give me discount after discount but I had done my research before calling and knew I could get UFO broadband for £24 pm plus a firestick type subscription for £80 for everything else. I had to be quite rude to them in the end as they just wouldn’t listen and kept trying to get me to stay, threatened to cut broadband immediately, TV 30 days later, still had to pay next months bills etc. Its so underhand and quite frankly I’ve had enough of their tactics over the years so was able to stand firm.

We ended up 3 weeks without wifi, and with 2 teenagers in the house you can imagine how popular I was! But it was the best decision ever, so much cheaper and I’ve spent the cash we’ve saved on a shiny new TV for the den room so the kids can watch their own stuff in there (and I don't have to have youtube nonsense in the living room)

Oh, and it comes with new landline but I haven't even plugged a phone in

I don’t have sky on the basis it’s owned by Rupert Murdoch, besides I resent paying so much for TV when Freesat/Freeview plus Netflix/Prime covers a lot. Don’t get Sport, but I’m ok with that.

@Strangerthingshere

No, you won't be able to record or pause.

But you can have that feature, i think for £10 per month.

We also call and get this bill reduced, but it's so annoying and such a time suck to have to do this every year for sky, insurance etc because the prices shoot up.

Now TV, Netflix and amazon. If you keep cancelling now TV, they keep the price low (most I've paid is £3.50 a month). Netflix is £7.99, amazon prime is £7.99 so in total just under £20. Even if you pay for now TV at top price you still come in under £25. You could get movies as well and keep cancelling that to get a discounted price of about £7.99.

More and better choice of TV shows that way.

I currently pay Sky £15 per month for the full family package without sports or movies. I pay virgin £31 for broadband. I have paid Sky between £12 and £17 for about 3 years now.

With Sky, I called and told them I couldn't afford it (I was cutting down at the time) and if I could suspend or cancel for a few months to a year. They've offered me a discount ever since. When it expires, I ring them again and they put the discount back on.

You can certainly get it cheaper.

Does a TV package count as a utility bill?

If it is, then you might be able to switch using a cashback web site. It definitely works with internet and mobile. The process is as follows:

1. Make sure that your existing contract is in its last month.
2. Go onto the cashback web site and search for a utility provider e.g. BT.
3. Sign up to e.g. BT. For internet, I recommend something at around £25/month. For mobile, I recommend sim-free for around £15/month.
4. Your new provider e.g. BT will cancel your old provider without any intervention. No awkward phone calls needed. They do it all for you!
5. Your new equipment e.g. sim card / modem will arrive on the date that you chose.
6. On the switchover date (again you choose), you unplug the old equipment and plug in the new equipment.
7. Your old provider will probably ask you to send your old equipment (modem). They usually send you a box with postage pre-paid.
8. A couple of months later, you get your cashback, usually in the region of £50-£100.

Sky TV is terrible value at any price - pay a monthly subscription and still get tonnes of adverts? No thanks.