Virgin Media customers are facing an expensive start to the year following the announcement of a major price hike, which will hit bills in March. Costs for both broadband and TV will go up on average by £3.63 per month although some users may find themselves forking out as much as £4.50 extra to stay connected at the same speeds. The changes will come into force from March 1, 2021 but it seems there’s a nifty little trick to help avoid this new increase.
A number of customers have shared the simple advice on a Facebook page called “Extreme Couponing and Bargains”. And according to the posts, it seems a phone call is all it takes to get a sizeable discount from Virgin.
Some claim that Virgin Media customers can instantly get £4.50 off their next bill simply by following an automated option when you call the helpline to cancel your contract.
“Bit of advice for anyone else annoyed with the huge Virgin price hike….. when you go through to cancellations there’s an automated option to discount your bill for six months,” one customer explained. “I’m not sure if this applies to everyone but it’s worth a try! My price increase was £4.50 and that’s the discount I was offered.”
READ MORE: Roku users just gained 75 new shows that you won’t find on Fire TV or Chromecast
If that price cut isn’t enough for you, other Virgin Media customers recommend speaking to the retentions team.
“That automatic discount is a pittance. I ignored it and told them I was cancelling,” bragged one very chuffed Virgin customer on the social media group. “They offered me a better discount that I refused. I went through to cancellation aka customer retention and got a discount of half price.”
It’s worth noting that these discounts will only be available if your current contract has expired, but nevertheless, it’s certainly worth a try.
This was confirmed by one user who had tried the phone call. “Had a letter from Virgin Media this week. They are putting the price of our contract up. Phoned them to see if they could reduce it. Nope,” they explained.
Express.co.uk has approached Virgin for comment on whether customers can expect lower prices when calling the cancellation line. Although the company wouldn’t comment on individual discounts, Virgin did offer some insight into why prices are increasing in the first place.
“Through continued investment, improvement and innovation we’re committed to providing great value and a top service for our customers,” a Virgin Media spokesperson said. “Over the last year our customers have used their connectivity more than ever before, with data use increasing at the fastest rate we’ve ever seen. We’re already investing more than £1bn in our network each year and consistently give our customers more megabits for their money, but to help meet this demand we do sometimes need to review our prices.
“Changing prices is never an easy decision, which is why, unlike other providers, this is our first cable price change in 18 months. We are currently writing to cable customers to transparently communicate these changes and we will continue to work tirelessly to ensure we deliver for our customers and keep them connected at a time when it has never been more important.”
Not everyone will be affected by this change with vulnerable customers such as those on Virgin’s Essential broadband package for people receiving Universal Credit, as well as Talk Protected landline customers not see their prices change.
Although this isn’t the best news to greet users at the start of 2021, it is worth remembering that Virgin hasn’t increased the price of its broadband or TV for almost 18 months so this hike probably shouldn’t come as a shock.
