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Making this thread specifically for VM customers. Virgin Media has started notifying customers about incoming price hikes for this year. Would be interested in seeing what deals people are getting this year through the usual back and forth.
Email states 7th March as cut off date for cancellation (may vary so check your own to make sure) and 1st April as date price rise takes affect.
Email states 7th March as cut off date for cancellation (may vary so check your own to make sure) and 1st April as date price rise takes affect.
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NOTE: Vulnerable customers will not see their prices change in 2023, including those on their ‘Essential Broadband‘ social tariff(s) and ‘Talk Protected‘ landline customers.
They are also making a change to their T&Cs which introduces an annual inflation linked price rise based on the Retail Price Index +3.9%. This will come into effect from April 2024 and is then effective from April each year.” So you won’t be able to exit penalty free when next year’s hikes are unveiled. (edited)
That is dirty as hell.
I renegotiated my Virgin Broadband contract in November, but I've received no notification of a price increase. Probably because I'm already paying over the odds... £29/mth for 250mb (they absolutely wouldn't budge on price when I went through retentions).
I find it disturbing that people pay vastly different prices for what is an essential utility these days.
retentions wont give you a good deal. You need the outbound team. To access them, just enable marketing preferences, cancel your contract and wait a day for the call from them. They give you the best deals
Been on the ultimate oomph (formerly VIP) package for quite a few years now and never paid more than the new customer price simply by CANCELLING as soon as i could each time. Don't waste your time speaking to the CS agents, cancelling gets you on the list of the special retentions team whose sole job is to get you to stay! They have far more leeway than the office bods! IME once the cancellation request goes through (30 days notice) you will get a call from retentions within 3 days (it may be a mobile number as last time i did this most of them were working from home but they may be back in the office now).
It's all a bit of a game and you have to show them you are serious about leaving and the only real of doing that is to CANCEL. Don't take no for an answer be firm but not aggressive and you should be fine. In the MSE survey IIRC VM came top of the easiest companies to haggle with. Don't worry, it's not personal for the staff so they won't take offence lol, they don't own the company! (edited)
How much do you pay for the Oomph bundle may I ask?
The increase is based on the normal full price not what you are paying atm
Success, got a call from retentions a day after cancelling, but was silent when I picked up. I rang the number back which was an automated message telling me I could ring 02037436947, which I got through to right away.
I went from 28 quid a month to 23 quid a month for 200Mb broadband (which is upgraded to 350Mb due to Volt). They also confirmed I wouldn't get the 7 quid price rice in April either. Had to agree to another 18-month contract for this though.
It's worth noting though that these discounted prices we're getting are a result of "discounts" being applied to our package. Why this is important is because the annual price rise percentage is based on your actual, non-discounted package cost (50 quid pm for 200Mb broadband), which is why I was going to get a whopping 7 quid price rise (25% increase from the 28 quid I was paying pm).
I'm saying all this because come next April (i.e. April 2024), I'll still be in an 18-month contract (with 5 months left) when my package price will in all likelihood be increase by 7 quid again. Except next year I won't be able to cancel the contract on account of this increase as it's only this year that Virgin are changing their terms (hence the letters we received), and allowed people to back out early.
It still works out better for me to accept this 23 quid pm new tariff, but just wanted to flag this all the same! It's worth taking into account the inevitable annual price rise when accepting these "deals".
I agree that is seems the current (2023) increase is being calculated percentage-wise based on the undiscounted price.
But next year (2024) it seems the RPI+3.9% increase will be calculated based on the discounted price.
Here are the new terms and conditions:
prod.ctassets.virginmedia.com/upl…pdf
In page 8 / section K it shows an example of a £50 package discounted to £40, where RPI is 5%, so the increase is 8.9%, and the £40 becomes £43.56. If they were going to do it the old way they would add 8.9% to £50 giving £54.45, and then take £10 discount off, leaving £44.45.
Not much consolation, but at least the percentage figures they state in the future should bear some relation to reality, unlike the current situation.- For anyone wondering how to contact Virgin by WhatsApp, just call them on 0345 454 1111 and one of the automated options is to press "1" to talk to us via text.
They text you to start the conversation and then after saying you want to leave they send you a WhatsApp message to start the conversation. The bot asks why you want to leave, the supplier you're going to and the cost - as well as security questions - name. account number, date of direct debit and cost of last bill. Probably takes about 10 mins then have to wait for someone to message back. 
If you phone up the number in the email you instantly get an automated message saying they will reduce your bill by £3.50
Then the guy who I actually spoke to tried to tell me he could do an 18month deal for exactly the same as what I already have for £15 more than what I am paying. Told him he was crazy. Have asked to cancel, worse case my partner will have to sign up as new customer moving to the address.
You are only offered the £3.50 discount on your first call.
I ignored it and spoke to an agent in retentions who offered new contract paying £13.75 mth more than I'm paying now.
Said I'll go back and accept the £3.50 for 6 mths then sort it, that option is not available on subsequent calls.
Just got off the phone (again..hah) and actually got through to someone in the UK for once which made a massive difference.
He's cleared the £7 price rise for a start and while he was reviewing the account, he found confirmation from last year that my discounts should be applied for the full 18 months so he's fixed that as well and confirmed that my monthly package price will remain £17 a month for the remaining 12 months of the contract.
He's going to ring me early next week to confirm that billing have made the necessary corrections but it looks like I can finally put this to bed now.
I wouldn’t be so sure. In my experience, Virgin never phone you back.- Can’t believe what some of you are paying or the troubles you have negotiating with them. Cancel and go through with it, don’t phone them to negotiate, cancel and wait for them to phone you and negotiate with you. I pay £52 for 1 gig internet, sky&bt sports, sky movies, and a Netflix subscription. This being the first time in 15years i have paid either sky or Virgin more than £50 a month for their top end internet/Tv package.
How long have you been with VM? 
Managed to get Gig1 on its own for £28 per month and not effected by next years price hike. I literally ignored all the calls after canceling and eventually a local Virgin media sales rep called me and applied multiple discounts and got it down to £28pm, call was over and done with in 4 minutes
Winner!
Do you have a Volt sim or anything similar? How did the 'local' sales rep have your number and know to call you? If they offer me 1Gig at £30 I'll stay.
Will this work? The house virgin account is in my wife's name. so she can cancel and then I can re-join the following month? Unfortunately we are stuck with Virgin as BT superfast broadband is not in our area yet.
As soon as you cancel, you can make an order in your name.
I did that, selected the latest date for install (as cancelation is 30 days notice), which was just short of 30 days.
Then got an email stating they changing the date to just after the cancelation date.
All done, no real downtime other than fitting the new router
Copied old router SSID/Pass to new router and didnt need to change any devices.- I'll add a data point: I was paying £19 / mth for 125Mb. Cancelled yesterday and got a callback today.
Initially offered to keep me on 125Mb for £19 - I declined. Then offered 250Mb at £19. I said if they could make it cheaper I'll think about it, as it would save me the hassle of getting a new deal and changing hubs, etc.
They came back with a £17 for 250Mb offer, which I accepted. 18 month contract. I believe my original deal was for broadband + phone and the new is for just broadband.
Not as good as the £14 deal someone managed to get above, but that did appear to be an error on Virgin's part. And this still undercuts the MSE £18 deal for new customers so I was happy to oblige. (edited)
I may happen to be that someone. It was a bit of a pain getting them to honour what was sold to me, but got there in the end.
Can I ask what your pre-discount price is please? Mine shows £50 before any discounts for just M250 broadband which seems a bit excessive. I ask because the annual increase is based on the pre-discount price which we might not be able to avoid next year - or so I've read. - Just a heads up for anyone who didn’t notice they had a deadline to cancel and it had passed. I proceeded to put in my cancellation despite the cancellation charge and I got the call from retentions who cleared the increase with no issues.
So, as per an earlier post of mine I gave my notice last week via WhatsApp…
Then declined the offers from callback no1 last week two days after cancellation.
2nd call back today from a nice manc chap on a mobile number.
Two offers:
1.keep current pack of m350 & landline for 18mths at £28 (was paying £38 which was rising to £45 which is why I was cancelling).
2.No phone line, but upgrade to m500 broadband for £19 (18mth contract) and an o2 sim 6gb for £6 (12mth contract - ideal for my son to replace Lebara now that discount finished)…total £25 a month and with volt boost BB will be the 1Gb service. Happy with that
Definitely check if the 500MB is before or after Volt. Usually if they're including an O2 SIM at the same time, it means it's a Volt bundle ie. The broadband comes Volted. Other than that even without the option to Volt to 1Gb, this is a great deal.- I'm with Virgin and getting 350mb fibre and anytime landline calls for £17 a month, so even with the price rises it's going to still be pretty good compared to what else is out there. Could certainly be a case of not wanting to cut off your nose to spite your face, or whatever the kids might say.
Kids definitely don't say that
Not until they start paying the bills at least 
Whilst I'm happy with their broadband and speed...their customer service is absolutely appalling!
Spoke to someone I could barely understand who kept saying I would have to pay a cancellation fee even though it clearly states in the email I receieved I wouldn't have to pay a penny. Gave up with her in the end and hung up.
Called back a day later and spoke to someone else who was much better. I can cancel without a penalty fee but instead he got me down from £31 a month for 350mb to £24 for the remainder of my contract. Then said to call back 30 days before my contract is up to get a better price.
Anyone else find it mental that everyone pays all sorts of different prices for their Virgin packages? Just set a bloody reasonable price so we don't have to go through this every single year! (edited)
GDPR - Right to be forgotten (edited)
Thanks to everyone on this thread. I've been paying £41 a month for 500mb fiber - price rise was going to take it to £48. BT offer £30 for the same speed so I went through to cancel.
Took about 40 mins of speaking to various people but eventually they processed the cancellation - THEN on the same call after cancelling she said she could now get a further discount etc etc and was able to come all the way down and match the £30 a month (LOL)
So got there in the end. She committed to the price staying at £30 for the full 18 months although I'm not sure how true that will be - but seeing as the rise would be in April 2024 (RPI etc) then I could just cancel a few months later if needed.
Ultimately a big win here as not only saved money from the price increase, but actually reduced my current expendire b just over £120 a year. Thanks everyone!able to point to the BT offer link of £30? I might use same tactic as I am paying £36 and been asked the £7 increase. Just seen its £30.99 for 500mb so I take it you will be doing the Volt and double it to 1GB? @MercilessKiller (edited)
I decided enough was enough and cancelled my contract with virgin media -
Since Youfibre is operating in my area i decided to sign up to 500mb package for £25 a month + £5 for a static ip for 18 months (got the 1st 6 Months free) im getting 500mb down and 500mb up
(edited)
Did those who got a discount have to sign up for another contract, e.g. 18 months?Yes, mine is new 18 month contract. Volt 1Gb broadband £31 month with £12 further off making it £19.
The £5 SIM I took out alongside it is a 12 month deal (5Gb data volted to 10Gb, unlimited calls & texts).
Total monthly for both is £25:
(edited)- Looks like I'll have to cancel or negotiate a new price, paying £24 for 200Mbps.thast not bad at all!
- Actually a painless experience for once. Rang 150, went through to billing enquiries and spoke to someone in under a minute. Told them I didn't want the price increase. He offered me a new 18 month contract for my current price, no ROI increase this April but will be subject to one next April. Contract will end in August 2024 so I can suck up 5-6 months of slight increase then. No haggling or cancellation required.
I'm paying £18/month for 250mb internet and weekend phone calls. I'm happy with that. (edited) 
Shortly calling up myself for my parents internet. Currently on £18.25 for 100mb (maybe its 125 now but its 100 on the re-signed contract).
Will be putting in cancellation for them as its increasing by £7 or so. Hoping they'll call back - they usually do...
One thing to note, when a similar increase happened last time and my parents auto accepted the discount, it kicked off every other original discount on the account so increased dramatically!
Just be wary if you do take the "£3.50 discount for 6 months" or whatever it is!
17 for 250 and anytime calls ps had to take out a new 18 contract till aug 2024. (edited)
How did you get that? They wouldn't go below £30 for me for 250Mb and Anytime Calls and I specifically demanded £17 etc. Did you reject the offers after cancelling and wait for a 2nd round of callbacks? How difficult was it to get it and how exactly did you get it? I'm thinking of cancelling again now as I'm really annoyed with all this. It's so wrong that some people are paying £17 a month and all I could get from them by trying everything was £30 for the exact same thing. How long have you been with them? Is this like a super loyalty scheme? Also do you have lots of competition in your area offering similar speeds? (edited)
What are people saying when you ring retentions instead of retentions chasing you?
I've not had a call back but I'm more than happy to jump ship, only issue would be the pratting about with sending boxes back.
Just said I’m still waiting for the stuff to send the boxes back
good tip, never use their email address, saves a lot of time and grief when you change companies (edited)
To summarise my experience:
Called 02037436947. Was told I have to cancel before they can do anything. Called 03454541111 to cancel. Was offered to remove the price increase but declined. Got a call back from 08004089340 few days later who said they can offer much better deals. Initially they offered me an upgrade from 125M to 250M for the same price I was already paying with no price rise this year. Declined and asked for a better deal on 125M so they knocked a further £6 off p/m. Which I accepted. Was told they can offer special discounts but they can only use X amount a month which they'd already used. Best time to haggle is start of the month when they have these discounts to give away.
Over all it wasn't too stressful. Worst part was trying to cancel. Sounded a very busy call centre and was difficult to hear. The call back was very pleasant. No BS. We both know why we're there. I laid my cards on the table early on in regards of provider and deal I'd be leaving for in the hopes they'd get close enough to the offer. They actually beat it to be fair to them. Seen others here get slightly cheaper deals or quicker speeds for not a lot more but I'm very happy the outcome.
Lot of info apart from the price you were paying vs the new offer price and services you got in the end.
Managed to keep my 350mbps broadband for £16,40.
nice- Very late but my contract ends in september. Hopefully ill find another provider by then are they pre warning me about september? TIA
Ring now and get a discount until the end of your existing contract. 
can we still cancel the contract? mine increases in May but missed to talk due to bereavement in family. Spoke to Virgin, and they were not willing to cancel without early termination fee
Call their bluff,I've done it before, hand in cancellation and say you'll pay the fee,they'll ring you back to keep you and offer you better deal,worse case Is you cancel your cancellation the day before disconnection- Once you have cancelled, how long do you have to wait before being contacted by the outbound team?In previuous years I've normally had a call within a week.
- I have just called to say I got my email of the price increase (but I haven't) and wanted to cancel as they had already told me my increase will be £7 from 1st May. Started going through the cancellation process and the VM agent said my account is showing that I need to pay a cancellation fee and he couldnt cancel without a fee, so made an excuse to end the call and left it for now until I get my email/letterThat's good to know... I started panicing once I saw this post - but didn't receive an email/letter about any price increase. I spoke to CS via WhatsApp and was told that my £37 for 1Gig would go up to £44 from April. I said I'll wait for an official letter/email before I give notice.
Interestingly I've not had a CPI/RPI price increase at all over the last few years and assumed that this year it would be the same. The price that was agreed at the time would be what I'd have to pay for the duration of the contract. It's an 18 month contract that ends in Jan 2024. 
I've also received the email - is there a notice period if you decide to end your contract due to contract changes like this - or is it technically possible to ring them up and have the service stopped right away (or on a pre-agreed date)?30 days notice
I called the automated line and selected options to leave and they automatically offered me £3.50 off for 6 months. Would this however still include the price increase??YES - Do not accept it. By accepting it you are agreeing to paying the full price rise after.
Guys i need your help! I've just gone through to customer service who i said i want to cancel to they then put me through to the 'cancellation' team, I told them i want to cancel, they didnt really haggle and give me good new quotes for the package im on 250mb/mix it tv / phone line. so i pushed and said i want to cancel, she said ok no problem and no has served me my 30 days notice... Will someone now call me back you guys think?
Ive been a Virgin media customer for last 11 years! cant believe how bad the retention team was!
Im worried no on one will call me back.
Thoughts?Yes they will call you back - likely tomorrow. Also you can speak to the same people yourself just by calling the numbers people have posted in this thread above. You don't even have to wait for them to call you back - the call connects to the same people. (edited)
I've just found out this applies to me and my bill is going up £7. If I cancel do I still have internet for 30 days to sort another supplier out as I WFH?
They will disconnect you on day 30, they will confirm by email the exact date your service ends. Play the waiting game with them and when they ring you in a few days or a week they should offer you a good deal if they don't then refuse and wait for them to ring again which they will. (edited)
If you don't cancel and stay with them, are you tied into another minimum term if you get an offer price?
I ask because it's likely we will be selling our home this year and Virgin would not be in the area to take it with us (if that even is a thing these days), so I don't want to save a little bit of money for a short time and then end up with a large bill to exit their contract.
Bad timing for our existing offer endingMoving to a non Virgin Media area while mid-contract used to be a problem, because, as you suggest, they would try and charge a significant early disconnection fee.
But just over a year ago they changed their policy - news.virginmediao2.co.uk/vir…rs/
Read that page, but as I understand it, as long as you can prove your new address, and they don't serve it, then they will waive the charge.
I still haven't received a letter (or email unless I accidentally deleted it).
Current sub is £35 a month for 250Mb broadband and would like to get costs right down so will go for the cancellation route and hope for better offer.
I assume that I don't have to wait for letter/email before I can lawfully cancel?
I believe everyone has the right to cancel with Virgin who is in contract. Ring them up and say you've seen the price rise and you would like to cancel. They'll take some details and then say what they can offer. Say no to it all and also say no to retentions when you are put through to them as well. All offers on the cancellation call will be worthless!
Hiya, can you request a new hub 5 router even if you are not on a 1gb package? Do you need any sort of extra installation for that speed?
Best offer I got was 20pm for a 250MB or £17 for M125.....I told the agent I would think about it and since then they have called me 6 times at least. Not sure if I should reject the offer again and push for a better deal/ speed .i actually asked on whatsapp yesterday thinking they'll say no but the agent set it all up and the delivery is confirmed to be coming on Tuesday according to the VM app, im on 500mb so assumed he'd say no.
the entire whatsapp conversation took less than 5 minutes which is the fastest ive ever seen (edited)
I was on 1GB broadband for £32. Due to go up another £7.
Called to cancel as per usual. Let them waffle on and said I wanted to cancel anyhow.
Go put through to bogus retentions and was offered no to great a deal. And at the end of the call the operator said I'll remove you from the call list. They do this sometimes if they are feeling in a bad mood or know you are waiting for proper outbound retentions to give you a better deal and want to stop it.
Obviously go no outbound call from retentions for a week so phoned one of the numbers mentioned in this thread. I don't think these are proper outbound retentions as they have a virgin media logo when calling. Anyhow they offered me 250Mbs for £22 so decided to go for that as I don't need 1GB. I was just curious to test last negotiation time.
Remove you from list?
Those that are affected, should've got the below. Note you only have until the 4th of April, without paying any cancellation fees.
This is the email i received:
Hello 'Dan_82'
We're writing to tell you about some changes that'll affect your package price, our services, and the way our price rises will work from 2024 onwards. Please make sure you read this whole email carefully.
As you can probably imagine, with costs like energy bills rising fast, our running costs are increasing too. So to make sure we can keep giving you the quality of service you expect from us, the price of your package will go up.
However, this 2023 price increase won't affect you until your current price offer ends. The full price of your package will then increase by £21.50 a month,(Robbings sods!!) subject to the new pricing terms referred to below. If you'd like to check when your offer ends, please refer to your bill.
If you’re not happy with this or any of the other changes announced in this email, you can change or cancel your package. For more information, please scroll to the bottom of this email. To find out more about your price rise, head to our Online page
They then go on, to say, on page above:
Why are the prices changing?
It’s essential we continue to invest in our technology, so you can keep doing the things you need to do – and love to do – on all your devices. Rising global energy prices and inflation affect our running costs too.
You can carry on enjoying your services with us. But if you decide not to, you can find information about changing or cancelling your package in the "What happens next" section below.
You can carry on enjoying your services with us. But if you decide not to, you can change or cancel your package at any time before the date stated on your email or letter, without paying any cancellation fees.
''I want to discuss or cancel my package'' wich you can click, and chat/call or check if any offers.
Volt customers do not have a right to cancel their O2 SIM unless specifically outlined in the letter or email we sent to you.
If you're not happy with any of the changes announced in this email, including those to our out of home WiFi hotspots and pricing terms and conditions, you can change or cancel your package, including your Volt O₂ sim, any time before 4th April 2023, without paying any cancellation fees.
BEFORE you speak to them, i suggest having a search around for current offers or even offers for new customers, as likely they'll either match or get near to what's on offer.
NEVER take the first offer, go through to retentions, as they have more 'power' to get the deal(s) you're after.
You can find the current broadband deals on-site here and/or use sites like USwitch
Good luck!