Broadband ISP Virgin Media UK Boost Contract Buyout to £300 for Switching
New customers looking to switch to broadband, phone and TV provider Virgin Media (O2) may like to know that they’ll today increase the value of their Contract Buyout (i.e. Switching Credits), which is now worth up to £300 (previously £250) on their top packages – at least for a limited time.
The billing credit, which was first introduced earlier this year (here), is intended to help customers who switch to Virgin Media’s service to cover some or all of the Early Termination Charges (ETC) that may have been levelled against them by their losing / old ISP. But this usually only occurs if you attempt to leave your old ISP contract early, as doing so outside the minimum term often won’t attract ETCs.
New Virgin Media customers who want to take advantage of this must raise a claim within 60 days of activating their service. A final bill from their old provider must also be presented as proof, which needs to clearly show the disconnection fee that has been charged (the bill must not to be older than 30 days from the date the customer ordered their Virgin Media service). Any early termination fees must have also been paid in full to the losing provider.
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The related contract buyout terms are here, although the offer is only expected to last until 20th September 2026. Student broadband contracts, 30-day rolling contracts and Essential Broadband (social tariff) customers are excluded (NOT eligible) for this offer. The offer will not apply in your first 14 days of service and will be invalidated if you cancel your Virgin Media service within 14 days of your service starting or before your credit is applied to your account.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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They must be really worried.
I bet most people never get their ETC credit.
Customer Service at VM is abysmal, and I highly doubt any if it would be processed correctly. Most agents will not even know what to do.
A few providers are doing that, Zzoomm is doing up to £300, that is how my brother left Talk Talk.
I presume they must make money somehow doing that, but if someone took the full £300, that is £12.50 a month the provider have lost, plus the offer they give as well, even if the price do increase after a few months.
Retro posted they must be really worried, no doubt doing what others are doing.
sssh! Don’t tell BT Ivor Shareholder, but EE also offer £300 switching…. 🙂
So £300 switching with VM now, and the fact GIG1 is reduced to lowest price ever of £26.99 per month (their words) and selected bundles with free LG TV. Yet exiting customers contine to get milked on re-contracts as retentions being stingy and the couple of decent retentions people in Scotland are losing their jobs.
@FANNY ADAMS, But how long with that £26.99 a month last for and what do people get for it?
Well Zzoomm have just given me a good deal, they emailed me to say they would give me the same price as their new customers, 500 Mb/s £27.00 for the full 12 months, or I could contact them if i want to change speed. I contacted them and asked what they could do on a 24-month contract same speed and they came back with 500Mb/s £25 per month for the full 24-month contract. That is only a quid more than I was paying when I first went with them.
Okay, so money is a bit tighter now, but I am happy with that.
I don’t normally like 24 months contracts, but at a fixed price. The problem is if I move, but I will cross that bridge if it happens.
Don’t tell BTivor, I am not going back to the Openreach network.
Sad about people losing jobs, I am in that situation at the moment.
Cancel all VM services ,I guarantee you will get a phonecall back from them in 1 to 2 days offering U a better deal, I’ve done it that way for years, I pay £60 a month for EVERYTHING
Around 2-3 years ago, I would have agreed knowing full well how VM works.
However, it’s a complete lottery now. If you have other providers in your area you stand a better chance. If VM is the only fast speed operator, you may oly get an offer by SMS 48-72 hours before your actual termination and that is usually for the slowest M125 broadband if you were Broadband Only 1gbps for example. Then you find if you ring back nobody can apply the discount anyway.
It all changed for “repeat offenders” – by that I mean, people who threatened to leave but then stayed after a rentention deal. Before the customer forums were closed back in February, lots of customers complaining they could not get a decent deal. People who were on their first ever threat of cancelling seemed to fare much better as do those with BT Fibre or an Altnet in their area…..
That is a fair bit of money per month, what do you get for £60 a month?
I know people spending around that amount on Sky, and yet I wonder how much of the service they really use? Up to them at the end of the day, but then don’t complain as some of them do that money is tight.
If money is tight, cut down, I have, I am not saying you are complaining.
I presume that £60 is for TV as well?