Thousands of Virgin Media customers are facing an increase in their monthly subscriptions soon.
Customers starting receiving letters this week telling them that they would be paying up to £54-a-year more for their package from the autumn.
Virgin is not releasing a full list of price changes, but most customers will see rises of between £2.50 to £4.50 per month.
However, Martin Lewis' MoneySavingExpert website has revealed how you can avoid it.
Its advice is that if you're unhappy with the price hike, you can leave your contract without paying any early termination charges, as long as you contact Virgin Media within 30 days of receiving your notification of the increase.
But if you do want to stay with Virgin, you can haggle in order to get a better price for your subscription.
A recent MoneySavingExpert poll showed that 75 per cent of Virgin customers who tried to haggle got a discount.
If you do want to haggle, here's their advice for getting the best deal possible :
- Check what other providers are charging for similar packages so that you ask for a realistic discount.
- Get through to the retentions (sometimes called disconnections) department. They have the most power to slash costs, as their job is to keep you.
- Use charm and be friendly. Aggression or anger will just put their back up.
- Don't panic if they call your bluff and say they'll disconnect you.
- If they won't slash the price, see if they can include any extras, such as a boosted TV package.
