Sky, Virgin & TalkTalk TV Top deals and haggle £100s off

If you have a subscription, multiply your package's monthly cost by 12 to establish the annual cost. Unpleasantly, it's likely to be between £300 and £600. This isn't churlish anti-TV sentiment, but an elbow in the ribs to consider whether this huge sum represents good value.

The costs don't stop there

Many people may also get a phone package with their TV. It's often a penalty, not a bonus.

These can be monumentally expensive, and substantially more costly than the cheapest providers (see Cheapest Home Phones guide).

For example, a 10-minute daytime Virgin Media call to a mobile averages about £2.55. Using BT it's about £1.27, and with cheap calls provider 18185, just 75p. So don't believe any "digital TV free with a phone service" hype. Effectively, you're paying.

You can still cut the cost of calls though. Use the International CallChecker or UK CallChecker to find the cheapest providers that work on a Virgin line.

The formal approach to examining your usage should be a sofa-side notebook, detailing when, where, and how long you watch each channel for. But that's a bit nerdy. Scanning through channels (with the family) should let you know which are important.

Remember, real past viewing habits are a better guide than guessing at future preferences. Most important is how often you really watch the premium sport and/or movie channels.

TV providers' brochures aim to corral you into a narrow range of categorised packages, designed to make you pick multiple (and therefore more expensive) options. Yet there's more flexibility on both price and package than they let on.

Before pushing for a better offer, arm yourself with the best deals and comparisons below, as these can often bite chunks out of the annual cost.

Treat the results only as a benchmark, as the comparison won't include the myriad of special offers pushed through letter boxes and stuffed in magazines (worth watching for).

The obvious haggle start-point (you've little choice) is with the customer service staff. Ask about the cost of your package (or a reduced package if the channel audit shows you're over-using) and see what deals are available.

Make sure they realise you've the opportunity to shift to a more competitive package elsewhere or can just use Freeview. Yet give them hope with "can you offer me a deal? I'd much prefer to stick with you".

If they're not willing to play ball, the powerhouse maneouvre is threatening to leave. Remember 'disconnections' is often internally named 'customer retentions', as that's their business aim. They've much wider discretion to give better deals, as ultimately their job is to keep your custom.

Don't be ruled by pride

Remember this is a haggling – not a leaving – exercise. One danger is you threaten to leave, it doesn't improve the offer, and you feel embarrassed into actually leaving. Don't do this. Buy time to reconsider by saying "right, I'll think about this and get back to you".

What are your chances of success?

When we polled over 3,000 MoneySavers, a huge 52% of people who tried got big savings when haggling with Sky, while 31% got a minor reduction. For Virgin Media, 39% got a big saving, 41% got a minor reduction.

For more handy hints and tips, see: Haggle With Sky, AA & More.

There's no point paying colossal prices to have access to channels you won't watch, so decide what you want and get the right package.

If you're a keen footie fan, only sign up to the sports channels for the football season. Cancel for the summer and you'll save a wad of cash. Some providers may insist on 30 days' notice, so set a reminder to do it in time.

18-month contracts are common now and can protect you from future market price shifts. If you're moving soon, most providers will charge a fee or ask you to pay the remainder of the contract - a lot of cash if you're at the beginning of a contract.

Internet speed is measured in Kb, the amount of information transferred per second. Basic broadband is 512Kb, nearly 10 times faster than dial-up, yet 8Mb (c.8,000 Kb), a further 20 times faster, is common, while many now enjoy up to 100Mb download speeds.

For those just doing basic surfing, 2Mb is enough. If you download music and films (including services like iPlayer) a faster connection of 8Mb is better. Yet just because a package says "up to 8Mb", don't assume that's what you'll get; it depends on your line, so your speed may be much less. Check yours using the speed detector on Think Broadband.

When it comes to downloads, for most people 5-10GB will probably be fine for checking emails and surfing the net. If you download music, TV and films you'll need more. For more details on speed and downloads read the Cheapest Broadband guide.

Get special equipment from your provider and you'll be able to record, pause and rewind digital TV programmes. This can add up to £199 onto the installation costs, but you may be able to negotiate on this.

It's worth noting that the more expensive the TV package, the more they're likely to discount this, and some bundles may even include the box for free. It's also possible to get Freeview Plus boxes with the ability to do this.