English sub

EKRIUQ

Whats the deal with an english Sky subscription, Can you organise it with a credit card, I have a free to view card but its one of the old types, and instead of ringing for a replacement card could I apply for an English Sky card. Because when BBC goes FTA, its a possibility that they may crap the FTV cards, ITV, CH4, Five aren't linkled to the T.V. licence in England.

johnnyq

Originally posted by TIPPTOP
its a possibility that they may scrap the FTV cards

unlikely in the short term

Originally posted by TIPPTOP
ITV, CH4, Five aren't linkled to the T.V. licence in England.

True <mod edit >

Originally posted by TIPPTOP
I have a free to view card but its one of the old types, and instead of ringing for a replacement card could I apply for an English Sky card.

I am sure you could find a way somehow but it would be easier and cheaper to order a new card (dog ate it etc...)

Mossy Monk

it is true that ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 aren't linked to the license fee but they must be available free of charge to all on cable, DTT or satellite. it's a pity our government didn't think of that

jabarrett35

I've got Uk sub and use my TSB visa card to pay. I have had it for about 2 years and never a problem from Sky re the phone line, though reading some threads they may have tightened up on that. It takes about 3-4 weeks to get contracts back and the card sent to you. By the way I posted the contact from here using Swift post(obviously the contarct and card has to go to a UK address.

Mossy Monk

Sky can't say anything about phonelines if you own the STB. after 12 months it is yours. the phone line is only manditory if you took their offer of cheap digibox and installation, but only for 12 months

byte

This is an option I am currently considering. Since I own the STB, in theory, they shouldn't demand I connect it to phoneline, or will they with new card issues? If I do get the card, will they manually initialise the card for me or will they request I initialise it via phoneline which of course, would be impractical! :rolleyes:

A UK sub would mean no swapping of cards to get the BBC's etc, and have ITV2 and TalkSport as a bonus!

johnnyq

Originally posted by irishbyte
A UK sub would mean no swapping of cards to get the BBC's etc

Couldn't you get a second box cheap to put your FTV card in ?

byte

That wouldn't be practical for me atm. Two digiboxes side by side isn't an option. I would prefer to get a UK sub now. Then I'd get ITV2 and Talksport! Family Pack works out around €26.50 (£18.50).

One thing though, do they not check the address of the credit card? Obviously, mine would be addressed in ROI!

jabarrett35

No they don't check credit card address, and if they did it really is none of their business where the address is. As long as they get their money . I've been using an Irish registered credit card with Sky for 2 years.

byte

Ah thanks for the clarification, jabarrett35.

I assume I'll have to ring them and ask them to send me a contract (to the UK address) to fill and sign? Has anyone rang from ROI? I just wonder if they can tell that the call is originated outside UK. I intend to block my phone number.

jabarrett35

Yes I have several times but obviously you have to use the UK Sky number. Add 141 if you wish and remember the uk phone no. that you are meant to be ring from.They have never rang me their but my friends are well counciled on what to do if they ring.

byte

So, what all will I expect to be asked when I ring them? I assume the whole process could take about a month! With them sending contract to UK address, then it forwarded to me, which i send back to UK address to be forwarded back to Sky who will then issue a card to Uk addy, then to me!

As long as i'll be able to manually initialise the card by just ringing them! :rolleyes:

byte

Originally posted by johnnyq
Just in case we weren't on the same wavelength I meant get a second box to put with another tv !

OK, I see what you mean but again, that is not an option. I have enough cables in the house as is! I'm going to try my luck with getting a Scottish sub!

Out of interest, if I do get the sub, is it contractual for 12 months?

byte

Rang Sky this morning to order a card. Easy as pie! Once I said i already had box and dish, he said he would send what's known as "second-hand" contract, and after it's signed up, the card will be despatched

I'm just wondering now if it'll be worth the hassle with BBC seemingly going ahead with plans to go FTA! :rolleyes: The only channels I really want though are Channel Four, five, and ITV2 and talkSport.

Dunno now! :rolleyes:

Aquos76

A thought just came to me today as I listened to the Business news on Radio one this evening when they gave out the exchange rates for the €uro against Sterling, 1 €uro = 71.5p which by my calculations we here in the ROI are being ripped off again by $ky. The Sky world Family Pack costs £38.00 in the UK and €60.00 here where as the real conversion is €53.15 and the Entertainment Package cost the UK £18.50 and ROI €27.00 where as it should be costing €25.88 not a big difference there but what about the full package.

I think that this has got me thinking about the advantages to switching over to an English sub.

Capt'n Midnight

esp. when BBC will be FTA soon (yeah..)

Don't forget that the Irish sub also gets you the Irish channels (Ok you've already paid for them with your license, but why not get in NTL / Chorus and pay three times for the Irish channels...)

BTW I can remember when the Irish pound was worth more than sterling, and the Euro is at an all time high - now there was talk a good while back of the £ having to devalue by 20% in order to join in to the euro - but it is a lot nearer the point where it could enter as it is..

Or in other words - there is a good chance the exchange rate won't get much better and could get worser.

Euro 60*12 = 720 pa - that is a hell of a lot of videos unless you are mad into sport..

byte

Yea but the exchange rate fluctuates obviously. When I applied earlier this week for my Scottish sub, Family Pack UK worked out at over €26 according to XE.com, now at the moment it has dropped to €25.78!! Go €uro!

I'm surprised to see the huge difference in Sky World with UK sub it's €53! Will be worth considering when I get my UK sub up and running!

Maybe this thread could be merged with the thread already on the subject?

DMC

Aye, merged.

Now for some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

jabarrett35

The cost I pay for my UK sub is 61.00 euro which is about the same as the Irish one. So with the increase in the value of the Euro the charge should drop:)

Originally posted by Sky Digi Kid
A thought just came to me today as I listened to the Business news on Radio one this evening when they gave out the exchange rates for the €uro against Sterling, 1 €uro = 71.5p which by my calculations we here in the ROI are being ripped off again by $ky. The Sky world Family Pack costs £38.00 in the UK and €60.00 here where as the real conversion is €53.15 and the Entertainment Package cost the UK £18.50 and ROI €27.00 where as it should be costing €25.88 not a big difference there but what about the full package.

I think that this has got me thinking about the advantages to switching over to an English sub.

Hmm, thats debatable, I understand that $ky are getting up to ten percent more now from their Irish subscribers, than they were at the start of the year.
But when the Euro was first created and the domestic currencies within the Euro area fixed to it, the €uro was at 72p sterling.
so that effectively means that, Sky were subsidising ROI subscribers to an extent , as the Euro continued to fall.

However When they decided to charge their ROI customers in Euro, for the first time last january 12 months,the € was only 62p sterling, and at that point they factored that rate into their charge for their ROI customers.
So since then, they have pocketed all the rise in the value of the Euro and currently , if theres circa 300,000 subscribers that equates to a windfall of £30,000 per month or £360,000 per year.
Convert that back to Euro at the change over rate of 62p in january 2002 and , Sky are making a windfall in excess of €40,000 per month compared to 18 months ago, from their Irish customers.
Analyists expect, the Euro to reach 75p sometime soon and continue to rise towards the end of the year, meaning a further windfall.
The dollar is also falling so, they cannot say, OH...,but we have to pay more for our U.S programmes.
they will have to pay extra of course for European based programmes and technical services.
But on balance, I think they are still on a major winner.

That is not very customer friendly
mm

jabarrett35

My credit card is billed in sterling and the bank convert the charge to Euros and this amount depends on the day exchange rate. What Sky do to work out the charge for Irish sub you have explained but I have UK sub and an Irish sub.

byte

Sorry for resurrecting the thread but as this is related to previous posts...

I just need some clarification on some stuff! My Scottish sub card is winging it's way to Ireland finally! Today, I rang Sky to cancel my Irish sub, but hadn't realised that they need a months notice! So my Irish sub will continue to work until the 19 June!

Does this leave me with a problem if I try to activate my Scottish sub card in my digibox (which already has a Irish sub and FTV card paired to it)? What may help is the fact that I haven't initialised my new Irish P2 sub card and my old one doens't seem to be listed on their database at present (I had to give phone number as my card no wasn't listed).

Or is it still possible to give Serial No with 2 numbers swapped (can't remembe which numbers but I think it's 3rd and 4th?)?

Any help greatly appreciated! I would like to have my UK sub active by Friday assuming it'll take 4 postal days to arrive from Scotland! :rolleyes:

Well I would guess that the easiest way out of this one would be, to ring Sky again as an ROI customer and tell them , you are...errr..., moving house ( novena's now for the lie ) to New Zealand and that you have sold your digibox to some one in Scotland , to help pay for your airfare....
That should also , make it easy for you to turn down their offer to arrange an instalation at your new house:D
Tell them, you've posted off, the box, and to note this on your file as, the person in Scotland will...err, most likely want to subscribe:p ( giving them , your scots contacts details as more proof of this is optional in this plan of attack...)
mm

loftus

Can any one tell me will sky give you an ROI sub without getting the free dish and digibox. Because I have family in the Uk who want to get RTE. I get the sky family pack here send the card to them they use it in their Uk out of contract digibox. Can I do this?

Mossy Monk

that would be possible

byte

Yes it would be possible loftus. Just say you got your hands on a dish and box and need a viewing card for it. They'll send you a "secondhand contract"

Man, hmm, don't think that'll work. I had already told them that the reason for my cancelling was because I was moving to Scotland!

Is it still possible to swap 2 certain digits of Serial No, and if so, which 2 digits is it?

TIA

Aquos76

I have set up an end sub on an irish sub box for a friend of mine. Like you, he had to give 30 days notice and I just went ahead and and got the eng sub activated after it came through the door which was still in the 30 days notice period. I would say that for atleast 2 weeks there were two subs on the one box without any hassles.

byte

OK SDK, thanks for that! Makes me feel a little bit better!

BTW, did you bother to put 141 (whatever code blocks your number) before the phone number? Just wondering if they know where you're ringing from!

watty

I'm on a Chorus Wireless loop for phone (separate aerial etc to MMDS or PowerNet).

Apparently there is never CLI. Western Union etc will only accept calls from Eircom Lines.


Never had any complaint from Sky.

Aquos76

Watty is right. Eircom informed me that your number can not be viewed in the UK. I ring the BBC atleast 4-5 times a day and never had it mentioned to me that i was in ROI.

byte

OK thanks for the replies, guys.

Hope the card comes tomorrow in time for weekend viewing!

byte

Just to say that I have my subscription up and running today! No hitches except BBC1 isn't on yet. It'll probably be on tomorrow.

Thanks to jabarrett35, Sky Digi Kid, and everyone else for the help!

Aquos76

Glad to be of some help.

jabarrett35

Your welcome. csi miami is on Five tonight.

byte

And the final channel, BBC ONE Scot has activated in the last hour so just in time for the Celtic game tomorrow! Weyhey!

Thanx

Icehouse

Do I have to subscribe for a minimum of 1 year if I've never subscribed to Sky before but own my digibox + dish? Not that I'm really interested in subbing, I just want to know...

Genghis

No, the 12 month contract is only for first time subscriptions, where sky have contributed to the cost of box/dish/installation. If you have a digibox, connected to a satellite dish, and you can see the FTA channels already, then all you do is call sky. I think the minimum period is a month, and you must give 30 days notice before you cancel again. There are no other 'first-time' obligations either - such as phoneline, etc.

byte

Originally posted by Genghis
No, the 12 month contract is only for first time subscriptions, where sky have contributed to the cost of box/dish/installation.

Are you sure, Genghis? I have my Scots "secondhand" contract here beside me and it doens't mention anything about being able to cancel within the Minimum Term (12 months) because I own the hardware.

ASTRACLUB

HI ALL
I AM READING ALL THIS THREAD BUT WANT TO CLEAR MY SELF.
SO HERE IS MY CASE......
I HAVE BEEN ATTACHED TO SKY FOR THE LAST 2 YEARS. I LIVE IN NAVAN NOW AND JUST AFTER RINGING THEM TO TAKE OFF ALL THE SUBS. THEY TOLD ME THAT THEY NEED A MONTHS NOTICE AND FROM 7TH JUNE, I WONT BE ABLE TO SEE SUBS CHANNEL.

NOW AT PRESENT I CAN ONLY WATCH SKY1(CH. NO106), TRAVEL CHANNEL, FASHION TV,SKYNEWS(501), BLLOMBERG, CNN,ITV,EURONEWS(528),CCTV9, REALITY TV, TCM, AND B4U MUSIC.

I DONT HAVE ANY ADDRESS IN UK THOUGH I HAVE CREDIT CARD IN ROI.

NOW WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT ARE MY OPTION TO GET ANYTHING EXTRA OF THAT, I E. FTV CARD, UK CARD OR SCOTTISH SUB ETC.

OR SWITCHING TO AREAL TO WATCH RTE1/RTE2/BBC OR ANYTHING AVAILABLE IS ONLY THE OPTION FOR ME?

PLEASE HELP ME? AS I AM IN DEEP **** NOW??

REGARDS