TV/Broadband

[GinisLife]

I've started using an app called Yolt to track my spending v income and it's focussed my mind on what's going out of my account. I'm spending £125 per month on Virginbroadband/Sky TV. I'm probably paying for a phone line in this too but it doesn't work to receive calls and I have no home phone number. There must be better/cheaper options . Trouble is the broadband is fibre and it's quick and I do watch a lot of random channels on Sky not available on terrestrial. Any suggestions for how to cut it down ? I also pay for Netflix & Spotify. It's ridiculous money.

Get your TV from Virgin (they have most Sky channels)

Look at freesat , they have loads of channels and as per the name....... it’s free! (After a small outlay for the box)

@19lottie82 is there somewhere you can look what channels you get ?

@T1meT0F0rget what's the cost of Virgin TV ?

Freesat.co.uk

@GinisLife You're likely being charged for line rental in your package, so not having a phone plugged in is not relevant. (It is a complete rip off I agree.)

I have Virgin TV and to be honest even I feel robbed every month, we have TV (2 rooms), Unlimited WiFi and line rental, the package price is just under £70 a month.

Would you consider Freeview/Freesat? Although the available channels are quite limited in comparison. Have a look on one of the comparison sites, this will tell you which company/bundle is the best value.

Try money saving expert website to compare

Try Amazon Prime

You might be better off getting your services separately. Money saving expert is a good place to start. As an example I get Plusnet BB, the normal not superfast, for £18.99 a month. Unlimited which is good as we watch tv via the broadband. I have a Netflix account which I've had for so long it still only costs £5.99 a month. Then I have NOW tv on a monthly basis. So if I want to have Sky Cinema I pay for a one month pass, Entertainment for box sets costs around £8 a month. The difference is you can stop and start, you don't have to pay the full year. You can also buy monthly passes for kids tv which is about £3.99 a month. Worth looking into. As an aside, for the last 2 years I have bought a full year Sky Cinema pass and a full year Entertainment pass for £99 the two. I'm now waiting for the same Black Friday offer

I do change my broadband regularly to keep the cost low but I have the time to do that, you might not. I guess I'm saying that you can find entertainment much cheaper if you shop around and don't get everything from one provider! HTH

broadband choices or uswitch may help. You are paying a loyalty tax with that massive bill.

ideas:

NowTV is same as skytv except you can't record. There's only one freesat recorder box on the UK market and it is pretty crap, you could buy just a freesat box and then add a hard drive if you need this. Now TV basic pass is £9 a month and you should be able to get a better introductory offer.

going rate for non-fibre is around £20 a month, you may not actually need fibre but if you do it should only be a few quid more.

all phone lines should receive calls and you should have a phone number. MN sniggers at landlines and if you are happy to carry a mobile you probably don't need a landline most of the time. However broadband does need a line of some sort, it isn't done by magic. Keep a cheap corded phone in the house for emergencies as if the power goes, so does mobile service.

I pay £40pm combined for Fibre broadband and TV from Sky. Is it sports channels and multi room bumping it up? I pay for Sky in one room and my kids are old enough to have gadgets like tablets to watch Sky in their rooms so I don't need multi room

Phone Sky and tell them you're thinking of cancelling as it's too expensive. You are pretty much guaranteed to be offered at least half price for the next 12-18 months.

Thanks for all your suggestions. I can't lose my super fast broadband 🙄. I work from home and use the internet all day as I use cloud based software. We do have Sky Que with 4 boxes so I guess that's where a lot of the cost comes from. It's just sooooo much money every month. How did we ever get to this and it be normal ? Grrrrrr

If you're out of contract, you need to play the suppliers off against each other.

If you're with Sky, see what Virgin Media charge for what you actually need, and then phone Sky and tell them you will sign up with VM unless they offer you a better deal. Choose whichever one offers you the best deal, and repeat at the end of every contract. Dull, but the alternative is paying a lot more money, so worth doing.

But make sure you are also only paying for what you watch/use. I have no idea what 'Sky Que with 4 boxes' is but that sounds like something that would cost a lot. Do you really need 4 boxes and are they regularly all in use at the same time?

It's always worth keeping an eye on Moneysavingexpert as they give advice on how to get the best deal and also sometimes have exclusive offers not available elsewhere.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/cheaper-sky-cheap-cable/

www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/cheap-broadband/

If you have a good 4g signal you don't need a landline for broadband. Three do a broadband router which doesn't require a landline for £21 a month with unlimited data. We get a download speed of 45 mbs.