sky card

[peebee]

Paolo,

Sorry I don't know the answer to this.  I only know what we did.  We are coming over to France full time, once our house in the U.K is sold. I'm not sure what to do with my Sky card (the one with the subscription) when we move. Not sure whether to cancel it or keep it and still pay the direct debit via our English bank account.  I could use my son's address in the U.K. as the mailing address as we have had sky for many years and don't need to keep it connected to the phone socket.

There is so much rubbish on Sky these days to be honest I hardly think it's worth keeping. I like to think that during the winter months we can watch a British film now and then and of course Tony can't do without football   I think the Free to view will serve the purpose for this.  Although I will miss Discovery and History channels

I hope someone can give you an answer on activating in the U.K.  Good luck

Pat

[Nelson]

[quote]Pat, Thanks for sticking your neck out! Sounds like I need to not cancel my UK mobile contract till I have made this call. Would you know if I could just stick my Freesat card in someone's digibox h...[/quote]

Hi Paolo

As far as I am aware your freesat card can be activated from any digibox ( not sure about sky+ box). When my first digibox died I just purchased secondhand box put my freesat card in and it worked just fine.

regards colin

p.s If you do not use your card/box for some time you may have to wait a while for all the channels to become available.

[nimportequoi]

When we got our freeview cards for the gites in May this year, we could only get all the freeview channels by giving the system details of every digibox and the specific card number to Sky. The BBC channels came through immediately without activation, but for ITV, Ch4 + 5, they did not work until the activation had been carried out by Sky.

[Paolo]

Thanks for your replies, Pat and Colin, I think I am getting to the bottom of this now.

Quote: "When we got our freeview cards for the gites in May this year, we could only get all the freeview channels by giving the system details of every digibox and the specific card number to Sky. The BBC channels came through immediately without activation, but for ITV, Ch4 + 5, they did not work until the activation had been carried out by Sky."

SusanAH, presumably you told Sky the details over the phone, and it was from a French number rather than an English mobile?

Paolo

[nimportequoi]

Paolo,

We called from an English mobile number, not my French phone to make the call, just to be on the safe side!

[Paolo]

OK, now I know what I need to do, thanks to all for your help.

Paolo

[Rob G]

Having just read through this entire thread, I'm still a little confused about where I stand.

We're moving to Normandy in November. We are existing Sky customers in the UK, paying a monthly subscription. However, we moved out of our house last month into rented accomodation where we don't have Sky installed. We continue to pay the subscription just to keep the account. When we move to France, we plan to get the dish reinstalled and start watching again from there, on the same subscription package as previously.

If I've understood correctly, we should have no problem setting everything up in France and just sticking our existing viewing card in. If for some reason the service has been suspended due to lack of use, I should be able to call from a UK mobile to get it turned back on. Is my understanding correct?

Two more questions, if I may:

1. I haven't come across the "Free to view" cards that are discussed in this thread. What are they, how do they work and how would I get one (if we decided not to continue with the subscription)?

2. Given that using Sky outside the UK is outside the terms and conditions, what about these businesses who claim to install Sky in France for new customers, and offer all the available monthly subscription packages? How do they do it?

Thanks,

Rob

[Ron Avery]

1. I haven't come across the "Free to view" cards that are discussed in this thread. What are they, how do they work and how would I get one (if we decided not to continue with the subscription)?

FTV cards give you the free to air package BBC ITV 3 etc available without ANY card, plus ITV 1 &2 and CH's 4 & 5. An FTV card can be an out of contract SKY card or a FTV card from at omne time the BBC or now from SKY , you can get them from SKY for £20.

2. Given that using Sky outside the UK is outside the terms and conditions, what about these businesses who claim to install Sky in France for new customers, and offer all the available monthly subscription packages? How do they do it?

They subsribe "for you" via  a UK address, juist like many here use their Granny, mum, sister etc matters not as long as they are not already a SKY customer and live in the UK

[peebee]

Rob,

We bought our card from FreeSat from Sky for £20 from www.freesatfromsky.com Just look up details on Q and A on their site and it tells you you can buy just the card for £20 or the package for £150, if you decide to go down this route.

Hope this is of some help

Pat

 

[Baz]

"I haven't come across the "Free to view" cards that are discussed in this thread. What are they, how do they work and how would I get one (if we decided not to continue with the subscription)?"

Rob, If you stop your subscription to Sky, your existing card will allow you to see all "Free to view" channels, therefore there is no need to get a new card.

Baz

[Paolo]

Me again!

If I buy a used digibox with Sky card (blue with a yellow house) from ebay, whose owner has upgraded to Sky+, will this work OK in France and not need activation? All I want are the 5 UK terrestrial channels.

Cheers,

Paolo

[Ron Avery]

If the card is an ex contract card, the answer is Yes, (See my post above "An FTV card can be an out of contract SKY card" ) 

 You may find that the card has been regionalised to a specific BBC or ITV area, mine gets BBC Scotland and ITV Scotland, but all the other regional channels are there if you want them starting at 941

[Rob G]

Thanks for the tips. I think Free To View is the answer for me.

Just to double check, if I ring up and cancel my Sky subscription now:

- Will I get to keep the equipment or will Sky demand it back?

- Will I be able to receive the FTV channels as soon as I set it all up in France, or will I have to call them and somehow register the card? (By the time we move, the box and card will have been out of use for seom months.)

Thanks,

Rob

[dunny]

Hello

3 years ago (being quite naive) upon leaving the UK I made a general enquiry to Sky as to what the situation would be should I move to France  permanantly. I was told in no uncertain terms that I could not have Sky as they do not hold a francise here and as I had been with them for over 12 years I was not amused. When we did eventually leave we gave our daughters address to them and as we already paid by direct debit we just brought our box/dish and card with us. My husband just fixed the dish to the side of the house and kept moving it until we got a picture (No problem). We have since had to buy a new box as the old one broke and simply inserted our card into the box and there was no problem there so I do not think you need to activate your card on a particlar box unless it is a totally new system. Whatever you do , do not tell them you are in France. If you have a problem I will email you direct

Jan 

[Ron Avery]

 if I ring up and cancel my Sky subscription now:

- Will I get to keep the equipment or will Sky demand it back?

If it is outside of the original minimum contract period, its yours to keep, if not SKY will want it back

- Will I be able to receive the FTV channels as soon as I set it all up in France,  YES YES YES