Sky and Virgin to hike call costs this summer

Sky customers will see price increases tomorrow, while Virgin Media customers will also see telephone hikes from 1 August.

Key Points

• Sky Talk line rental, connection fee and UK landline prices will go up tomorrow

• Virgin Media line rental and connection fee prices will also go up on 1 August

• Price hikes follow on from BT and TalkTalk increases made in April

Both the price changes include huge line rental increases with Sky increasing its line rental cost by £1 and Virgin upping its by 91p.

These price rises follow on from BT and Talk Talk's phone increases introduced in April (see the BT and TalkTalk hike phone prices – again news story).

Sky price increases from tomorrow

• Line rental: The monthly price of line rental will be increasing to £12.25 from £11.25.

• Connection fee: The connection fee for non-inclusive calls will go up to 12.5p from 10.11p.

• UK landline rates: Sky Talk Freetime customers will face increases on their daytime weekday calls, as prices go up to 7.6p per minute (plus a 12.5p connection fee) from 6.03p, when calling numbers starting with 01,02,03 and 0870.

However, Sky Talk says its monthly call subscription costs will not change tomorrow. These will remain free for Sky Talk Freetime customers and cost £5 per month for Sky Talk Unlimited customers.

A Sky spokesman says: "Like any company, from time to time we review our pricing. When we do so, we focus on delivering the best combination of quality, innovation and value."

Virgin price increases from 1 August

• Line rental: The monthly price of line rental will jump to £13.90 from £12.99.

• Connection fee: The connection fee for non-inclusive calls will also be rising to 13.24p, up from 12.24p.

Virgin last upped its line rental costs by 75p only three months ago on 1 April. However, as part of the 1 August price changes it is making calls to numbers beginning with 0870 free, when made during the inclusive period of your call package.

A Virgin Media spokesperson says: "For customers with our home phone service, we're making a small increase to our line rental and call connection charges for both our cable and national customers.

"From August 1st 2011 line rental will increase to £13.90 per month. The good news is unlike some of our competitors our off-peak call times will remain from 6pm-6am so our customers can talk to friends and family for longer during the evenings for less."

How to beat price hikes

You can halve the cost of line rental, unless you've a cable or Kingston communications line, by getting Primus's Line Rental Saver, which is currently £6.79 per month for a year without calls.

Alternatively, Primus's Home Phone Saver is £7.99 including landline, evening and weekend calls.

Also, check whether you can sign up to a no-frills 'override' calls provider, such as 18185, which, when dialled as a prefix, will allow you to cut the cost of daytime calls to landlines to 5p per call or 1p/min from a Sky or Virgin landline.

Override providers will also enable you to cut the cost of calling mobiles by charging a 5p connection fee and then 6p per minute, although the price is less competitive at weekends.