A friend of mine is with virgin media for their tv phone broadband. They have the full package with tv xl but would like to add movies. At present that would cost them over £90 a month.

I am with sky and get all this for over £70 a month.

If he sets up a new contract with virgin media big kahona movies he would get all he wants for a great introductory offer and after twelve months about the same as he is paying now.

Also there is an offer of sky movies free for a month over Easter from March 24 to April 20 to virgin media customers.

Is it possible to recontract with virgin media for a new package or are the introductory packages only open to potential new customers?

Has he been with Virgin for over a year? If so, ring and cancel. They'll offer, and usually beat, the new deals to retain you.

Yes he has been with virgin media for well over twelve months.

Just check the status of the Telephone. If its compming in to the home via Virgin Digital cable, they may have to get a New landline installed. If Open reach do it (No one else does it) you can be charged anywhere from £125 - £250

So its important you understand fully what you can loose as well as how much some services cost from new.

Moral of the story = Do your homework

He'll be fine then. Ring 150, select cancellations and just explain that you're not happy about the cost and that new customers or Sky customers get a better deal.

Just to conclude..

I have rang virgin media this afternoon and they altered his package to include sky movies and increase his broadband speeds all for a special offer price for six months and even then he will only be paying an extra few pounds a month. So we got his sky movies for £5 a month instead of £20.

The new home phone packages now only give you free calls only at weekends. They have removed the free calls in the evenings. If you want movies in HD then that will set you back £7. If you cancel movies then all your recorded movies will go from your TiVo as well.

So, it pays to ask...

Its worth asking for a loyalty bonus if you've been with them for some time. They can only say no, but in my case they said yes and gave me quite a substantial reduction. Being a bit cheeky I asked them if they could do a bit better, and they gave me a speed upgrade free too!

You can also pay your line rental once a year and save quite a bit over the monthly rate if your phone is with virgin too.