Why is my Virgin Mobile bill higher than expected?
Was your bill a little higher than usual? This can happen for a few reasons. Perhaps a promotion or special offer has ended, or maybe you've recently made changes to your services. It might just be that you've gone over your inclusive data allowance or minutes or made a call to a premium number.
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Why has my Virgin Mobile bill gone up?
Let's have a look at the reasons why you might have a had a higher bill this month.
At Virgin Media, we charge customers one month in advance as standard. As such, your first bill will cover your first calendar month (from your installation date), plus a month in advance. After this, you’ll only be billed for a standard month, paying for the next month in advance.
When you first join us, we sometimes need to charge you for things like installation or activation. We’ll let you know about any setup costs when you signed up. One-off charges & credits are one offs and you’ll only be charged for these once.
Get more help understanding your bill.
Because we bill you a month in advance right up to your disconnection date, you may end up paying a little more than you’re supposed to at first. Don’t worry, once your service has been fully disconnected, we’ll refund all the advance charges on your final bill.
If your final bill is in credit due to charges you’ve previously paid in advance beyond your disconnection date, we’ll automatically send you a cheque for the full amount.
If you’re still within your minimum contract period at the time of disconnection, you may be required to pay an early disconnection fee for the remainder of your contract. This will show on the Other fees, charges & credits section of your final bill.
When you join us or agree to a new bundle, we’ll sometimes give you a promotional or special offer that reduces your monthly bill for a period. You’ll see this price reduction on your contract and on your monthly bills. When the offer ends, your bill will increase automatically to the normal monthly price.
You’ll see any promotional or special offers you’ve received under the Promotional offers section of your bill, along with the date your offer is due to end. If the discount is no longer showing there, this means the offer has come to an end.
If you’ve changed or upgraded your services recently, this can increase the price of your bill. This can include add-ons like extra data or more channels for your TV service, or you might have upgraded your package to include a service you didn’t have before.
You’ll be able to see any increases in the Package changes section of your online bill.
Remember, you pay for your service a month in advance. That means, if you’ve added a service during a billing cycle, you may need to pay an adjustment charge for your new service on the month you’ve already been billed for.
If you intend to keep the service going forward, then the additional charge will be added to your next month’s advance payment too.
Get more help understanding your bill.
Going over data allowance is one of the most common extra charges. When you get Virgin Mobile, you’ll select a data plan with a set inclusive data allowance. If you go over this, we’ll have to charge you for the extra data you use.
Download our tariff guide.
Keep going over your limit? The Virgin Media Connect app helps you to keep track of your mobile data use and see how many minutes and texts you’re using each month.
Watch out for numbers that begin with 084, 087, 118 and 09. These have a combined access and service charge, and so won’t be covered by your inclusive minutes.
If you do need to call a number beginning with one of these combinations, try asking the company if they have an alternative 0345 number (or another number beginning with 03). 0345 numbers are classed as local calls, and so these are included in your monthly allowance.
Want to stop these charges from appearing on your bill? You can turn on Premium Call Barring by signing in to Your Account and going to Manage Services. This will block any calls to premium numbers from being made on your mobile phone
Calls to numbers beginning with 070 aren’t included in your monthly allowance. These numbers are generally used to redirect calls to another destination. Check our tariff guide for more info.
Some smartphones may convert regular texts with emoticons into picture messages (MMS), which aren’t included in your plan.
You’ll usually text these numbers to give money to a service or company, like a charity donation or a telly vote. They’re usually 5 or 7 digits long, and will show up on your bill as the number you texted or dialled. Find out more about short codes.
If you’ve used your phone abroad, then you might have incurred additional roaming charges.
While you’re covered by Roam Like Home when travelling in the EU, you’ll still need to pay extra if you go over your inclusive allowance, or our fair usage policy. If you’re travelling outside the EU, roaming charges will vary depending on the location.
Visit our Roaming Hub to learn more about roaming charges.
How to reduce your Virgin Mobile bill?
There are a few things you can do to make sure you’re not going over your inclusive allowance each month and incurring extra charges.
With our spending caps, you can set exactly how much you want to spend each month, making sure there are no nasty surprises on your next bill.
Find out how to set a spending cap.
Connecting to a WiFi network will help you save on data. To find out how to connect to WiFi, check out our device guides.
To make sure you’re not being caught out with any hefty roaming charges, turn off data roaming when travelling abroad. Find out how to turn roaming off using our device guides.
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