29 October 2007
Price hikes are impending for customers on the 'M' home phone package from Virgin Media, uSwitch has warned.
As part of a Virgin landline price restructuring coming into effect on Saturday, customers could see their phone bills rise by 13%, with 'M' call charges to landlines upped to 3.25p per minute.
Calls to mobile phones will also see still sharper rises - with uSwitch pegging the increase at up to 158%.
It is thought that the price changes are a bid by Virgin to encourage customers to migrate to fixed-price tariffs: on the same day, Virgin's L package goes down from £3.95 to £3.45 per month for calls - and the XL package from £9.95 to £7.95 - as part of the restructuring.
Head of Communications Services at uSwitch Steve Weller commented: "Virgin Media is fighting hard to remain competitive in the TV and broadband arena, but once again it's the loyal home phone customers who have to bear the brunt by paying more for a service which hasn't changed.
"We advise all Virgin Media customers to take a closer look at their next phone bill…it [could] be worth shopping around to find a better deal elsewhere."
uSwitch estimates that around 10% of Virgin home phone customers - or around 400,000 Britons - are currently on the 'M' tariff.
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