I pay too much for Sky, what are my options?
I pay too much for Sky, what are my options?
Author
Discussion

UTH

Original Poster:

12,253 posts

207 months

Yesterday (13:23)
quotequote all
I thought I'd made a thread along these lines before, but can't find it.....clearly it was a long time ago and I didn't kick my arse into gear to do something about it, but I really need to now.

My current sky bill is about £175 per month. I get pretty much everything you can sign up to, looking at my account on the website, I've got:

Sky Sports, Sky Cinema, Sky Broadband, Ultimate TV Add-on, Paramount+, HBO Max, Disney+, Discovery+, all HD/UHD
I also get TNT through BT, which I have a feeling is on top of that £175!

Some of those things listed above are included FOC, like HBO, Paramount etc (as I understand it at least?)

What is my best bet to get this £175+ down? One very easy thing I should do is switch broadband, as no doubt I can get cheaper for the same elsewhere.

But, with TV, the problem is that I do like the Sky interface etc, plus I have 3 miniboxes for bedroom, kitchen and outside......

Is it just a case of calling Sky, saying I want to leave and magically my bill will halve? Or do I really need to accept I'd need to move to something like Virgin for all the same channels etc, but get used to a different box/interface?

AB

20,461 posts

224 months

Yesterday (13:26)
quotequote all
If you tell them you're leaving you'll probably get an offer.

I left Sky when I moved house, I use AppleTV boxes, there's an app for live TV, and I subscribe to the streaming services for other stuff. It's probably touching on £80 a month all in for them though. Then you'd have to sort your internet.

I've not used Virgin for many years but you'd get a good deal with them to take you away from Sky I reckon, just depends what the interface is like now.

I've never needed to record anything because it's all available on catch up.

joestifff

890 posts

135 months

Yesterday (13:28)
quotequote all
Well you can get Sky Stream with everything, inccluding broadband and TNT for around £130/month.

So it is whether you want stream or not, they really don't offer good deals on Q anymore, they want people off it.

UTH

Original Poster:

12,253 posts

207 months

Yesterday (13:29)
quotequote all
AB said:
If you tell them you're leaving you'll probably get an offer.

I left Sky when I moved house, I use AppleTV boxes, there's an app for live TV, and I subscribe to the streaming services for other stuff. It's probably touching on £80 a month all in for them though. Then you'd have to sort your internet.

I've not used Virgin for many years but you'd get a good deal with them to take you away from Sky I reckon, just depends what the interface is like now.

I've never needed to record anything because it's all available on catch up.
I guess my ideal scenario is that I could be getting all this from Sky, but for say £100 instead of £175......but perhaps given all the things I've subscribed to, maybe that just IS the cost of it.....?

I think I'll treat the broadband as s separate thing, don't care who provides it, it's just internet after all rather than something with an interface like the Tv.....

UTH

Original Poster:

12,253 posts

207 months

Yesterday (13:30)
quotequote all
joestifff said:
Well you can get Sky Stream with everything, inccluding broadband and TNT for around £130/month.

So it is whether you want stream or not, they really don't offer good deals on Q anymore, they want people off it.
Hmmmmm, ok, so basically losing the ability to record stuff, but get with the modern times where everything can be streamed so why would I want to record anything anyway?

UTH

Original Poster:

12,253 posts

207 months

Yesterday (13:33)
quotequote all
Here's a full breakdown:


joestifff

890 posts

135 months

Yesterday (13:39)
quotequote all
Some chunky numbers there. Look at Sky Sports, then you pay extra for HD. That internet cost is eye watering.

Price up stream on their website, just make sure you are not logged into Sky at the time.

UTH

Original Poster:

12,253 posts

207 months

Yesterday (13:41)
quotequote all
joestifff said:
Some chunky numbers there. Look at Sky Sports, then you pay extra for HD. That internet cost is eye watering.

Price up stream on their website, just make sure you are not logged into Sky at the time.
Yeah, already on the case to get £26 a month internet with Vodafone......

AB

20,461 posts

224 months

Yesterday (13:41)
quotequote all
UTH said:
Here's a full breakdown:

It's been 4 years since I had Sky, but wow, is that what it's costing now!?

UTH

Original Poster:

12,253 posts

207 months

Yesterday (13:42)
quotequote all
AB said:
UTH said:
Here's a full breakdown:

It's been 4 years since I had Sky, but wow, is that what it's costing now!?
Well, hence this thread.....I have been 'that mug' who hasn't tried to negotiate any better prices for years.....I'm out of contract so probably paying more than anyone should be.....

Opapayer

3,352 posts

14 months

Yesterday (13:46)
quotequote all
You’re paying £15pm for three versions of HD. How is that possible?

That’s one thing you can get them to discount. Also, do you need the full suite of Sports & Cinema? I’m assuming the Trolls thing is a couple of additional purchases for the kids, rather than a monthly cost.

UTH

Original Poster:

12,253 posts

207 months

Yesterday (13:56)
quotequote all
Opapayer said:
You re paying £15pm for three versions of HD. How is that possible?

That s one thing you can get them to discount. Also, do you need the full suite of Sports & Cinema? I m assuming the Trolls thing is a couple of additional purchases for the kids, rather than a monthly cost.
Yeah mrs UTH clearly went nuts on buying our 4 year old Trolls films FFS!

And Sport I do need.....cinema I imagine I could bin off realistically

Opapayer

3,352 posts

14 months

Yesterday (14:05)
quotequote all
UTH said:
Yeah mrs UTH clearly went nuts on buying our 4 year old Trolls films FFS!

And Sport I do need.....cinema I imagine I could bin off realistically
Accept you might want some of the sport, but is there an option to remove some of it that you don’t want to reduce the cost? Also the Signature and Add On packages. What so they contain and can you remove what you don’t need and buy what you need separately. Bundles always look like good value until you realise you don’t use 90% of the package. Even if you sue that as part of your negotiation it’s got to help, because £175pm is an obscene amount of money in the current climate.

I think you need to assess what you’re hoping to achieve out of this, rather than relying on others telling you what to do though. Personally, I’d be looking at what I can live without, deleting that and then looking for a further discount on what’s remaining. Also be prepared to walk away if you have to.

UTH

Original Poster:

12,253 posts

207 months

Yesterday (14:20)
quotequote all
Opapayer said:
UTH said:
Yeah mrs UTH clearly went nuts on buying our 4 year old Trolls films FFS!

And Sport I do need.....cinema I imagine I could bin off realistically
Accept you might want some of the sport, but is there an option to remove some of it that you don t want to reduce the cost? Also the Signature and Add On packages. What so they contain and can you remove what you don t need and buy what you need separately. Bundles always look like good value until you realise you don t use 90% of the package. Even if you sue that as part of your negotiation it s got to help, because £175pm is an obscene amount of money in the current climate.

I think you need to assess what you re hoping to achieve out of this, rather than relying on others telling you what to do though. Personally, I d be looking at what I can live without, deleting that and then looking for a further discount on what s remaining. Also be prepared to walk away if you have to.
Yeah fair advice, and TBH I no longer have a clue what the signature and add on actually is!! laugh

Will get on the phone I think

joestifff

890 posts

135 months

Yesterday (14:24)
quotequote all
Price up stream too.

But also, with the package you have, you will have Netflix? Both of those Trolls films are available on Netflix!

So a little more caution on what is being bought may help.

UTH

Original Poster:

12,253 posts

207 months

Yesterday (14:30)
quotequote all
joestifff said:
Price up stream too.

But also, with the package you have, you will have Netflix? Both of those Trolls films are available on Netflix!

So a little more caution on what is being bought may help.
Yeah, don't get me started, Mrs UTH uses no common sense......

alangla

6,725 posts

210 months

Yesterday (14:40)
quotequote all
Also price up similar sport and cinema packages via Virgin Media (if available for your address), EE and NowTV, even if you don’t intend to use them, it’s useful ammo to use against the Sky retention adviser when you’re threatening to leave because they’re overcharging you.

SeanyD

3,451 posts

229 months

Yesterday (14:42)
quotequote all
If you want the convenience and ease of use, there aren't a huge amount of alternatives to sky. Sure there's the equivalent Virgin, EE etc, but most friends I know end up drifting back to sky in the end.

There are also the naughty free alternatives, but from my own experience, very unreliable, and more hassle than they're worth.

kiethton

14,642 posts

209 months

Yesterday (14:44)
quotequote all
We were the same 3m ago but "only" £120. Was a rip off so ended up cancelling sky and getting a fast Plusnet broadband package for £28pm.

I then signed up to a streaming service which gets all channels globally for £10/pm and loaded it onto a fire stick. Interface is very clunky but can't complain given cost.

bigandclever

14,354 posts

267 months

Yesterday (14:46)
quotequote all
You can see why some people sail the high seas can't you!