Anti Virus software - daft pricing

[towny44]

I have just renewed my Norton 360 AV software, price for renewal was £54.99, price for a new customer was £35.99.
Needless to say I waited till the old one expired then went for the new customer price, and it was still added to my existing Norton account without any problems.
Why do so many firms advertise better deals for new customers than loyal account holders?

[david63]

Why do so many firms advertise better deals for new customers than loyal account holders?

Usually - Loss leader. Get them hooked and then make the money on the auto update that many will not check - just like insurance companies.

Incidentally why are you paying for something (anti-virus) that you can get free?

[Not so ancient mariner]

I have just renewed my Norton 360 AV software, price for renewal was £54.99, price for a new customer was £35.99.
Needless to say I waited till the old one expired then went for the new customer price, and it was still added to my existing Norton account without any problems.
Why do so many firms advertise better deals for new customers than loyal account holders?

The modern business mantra is to use any legal means to screw as much money out of the customer as you possibly can!

Some are rather liberal with their interpretation of 'legal' as well!!

[Kendhni]

I am going to say this again STOP BUYING SOFTWARE, EVERYTHING YOU NEED IS OUT THERE FOR FREE. I put a post up awhile back giving some very good software to look out for.

[Kendhni]

Example
Microsoft Security Essentials
avast
AVG
There are many other as well

And if anybody tries to tell you that the 'free' ones are not as good as the expensive paid for items give them derisory look while shaking your head.

[david63]

... although I would add that some of the free software does not have all of the features enabled that the paid for software does - but it is debatable as to whether most users would need those features.

[Silver_Shiney]

Virgin give their security software FOC but you pay a modest charge for privacy protection. This keeps telling me that it has intercepted an attempt to lift my credit card details, even after a full reformat and reinstall of everything, so I wonder if that's a "false positive"?

[ChesterfieldJohn]

I had Norton free for 12 months on my new laptop, but got rid of it after 3 and used AVG.

I found that it slowed my laptop down to much.

John

[Delboy]

I now use AVG on my desktop computer. when we were with AOL, (now with BT) I was using their Mcafee

However these days I mainly use my IPad on which there are no viruses as it uses Apps, apple only allow apps which are all virus free.

However if I was using and android tablet, then I would certainly be looking to install anti virus protection.

[haveabeer]

Sky and BT offer a free anti virus used BT now for three years never a problem

[haveabeer]

Recently had to renew my House contents insurance had a renewal from AA did price comparison found exactly the same for 50% less so canceled my AA a couple week later noticed they had taken £68 from my account i was told that it was for breakdown recovery i said but i never asked for it they said well it come free in the first yaer and you pay for it after that i was never told nor saw any paperwork i threatened to take it further they soon put the money back into my account

[Lincoln18]

Example
Microsoft Security Essentials
avast
AVG
There are many other as well

And if anybody tries to tell you that the 'free' ones are not as good as the expensive paid for items give them derisory look while shaking your head.

Microsoft Security Essentials should be sufficient.

[Kendhni]

Recently had to renew my House contents insurance had a renewal from AA did price comparison found exactly the same for 50% less so canceled my AA a couple week later noticed they had taken £68 from my account i was told that it was for breakdown recovery i said but i never asked for it they said well it come free in the first yaer and you pay for it after that i was never told nor saw any paperwork i threatened to take it further they soon put the money back into my account

My household is with the AA and they have given breakdown cover for 1p I think ... I only agreed to it when they guaranteed me that they would inform me in writing before they automatically renewed it this year (as they are legally obliged to do). However I have cancelled the DD just in case.

[Manoverboard]

Norton's Internet Suite Sotfware is presently £20 for a single user else £24 for 3 ... nought wrong with free AV software til your Bank decides that you failed to protect your Account etc with approved software, or similar.

I am very happy to ' waste ' £20 per year ... you cheapskates can please yourselves

[royalprincess]

And how does your bank know what AV software you use? I am very dubious about the software offered by banks - who know what's it doing on your machine.

MS Essentials was awarded Which "Best Buy" so if its good enough for them it should be good enough for the rest of us. I always try to find free software before I have to buy.

Also shop around when insurance is due as well. It doesn't pay to be loyal any more. Managed to get hundreds off car insurance by going in as a new customer. This year will shop around for breakdown cover as my sister saved £200 by changing to AA from RAC and going in as a new customer. Both breakdown companies are good but overcharge their existing customers to subsidise their new customers. Its not on and the sooner they learn this the better off we all will be.

[Dancing Queen]

I regularly used to switch between AA and RAC to get a better price ( as a new customer ) I'm now with RAC .. purchased via my car insurance at a considerable saving, once was the time I just used to renew any insurance, I now shop around prior to renewal and my loyalty is to whoever is prepared to offer the best price for my needs.

[towny44]

I am going to say this again STOP BUYING SOFTWARE, EVERYTHING YOU NEED IS OUT THERE FOR FREE. I put a post up awhile back giving some very good software to look out for.

Thanks Ken I'm sure your advice was well intentioned to help me save money, even though you were shouting, however I had already signed and paid up for another 12 months.

It did make me think though and I looked on line at various companies offering free AV software, most also offer a full fat pay for system as well with the free version providing only basic protection.

This made me wonder who is therefore paying the cost of maintaining an up todate virus protection system that those choosing the free download are using, and just how ethical it is to freeload in this way?

[Delboy]

Norton's Internet Suite Sotfware is presently £20 for a single user else £24 for 3 ... nought wrong with free AV software til your Bank decides that you failed to protect your Account etc with approved software, or similar.

I am very happy to ' waste ' £20 per year ... you cheapskates can please yourselves

MOB

Are you talking from experience, because I have never received any indication from my bank to what software to use to protect my account, and as has been said how would they know.

Although you can get AVG FOC, they do charge for certain levels of cover.

[Stephen]

I use AVG I.S, but you can get Kaspersky AV for free if you bank with Barclay's and sign up for online banking. You don't have to use the online banking just create an account.

[Onelife]

Hi Ken,

If you downloaded “Security Essentials” can you use it alongside your existing Antivirus software (Bull guard) for added protection...or would this be unwise?

Regards

Keith

[sumdumbloke]

You could just buy a Mac, and in addition to now doing everything you've ever done before quicker and more intuitively, you can also forget completely about viruses.

I'm in my 12th year of Mac ownership; never had a virus or a security incident, and in all that time never have I had to perform the equivalent of the Microsoft salute (ctrl-alt-del). Yes they are dearer to pay for initially, but you keep them much, much longer, since performance doesn't degrade.

[Kendhni]

This made me wonder who is therefore paying the cost of maintaining an up todate virus protection system that those choosing the free download are using, and just how ethical it is to freeload in this way?

The free version is generally for personal use while paid for versions are needed for commercial use (or people who feel they need additional facilities). Yes companies could use the free version but that may not provide all the protection they need.

'Freeloading' is an interesting term, in this context because it is the manufacturer that offers the product for free .. sometimes the products are what is known as Open Source which often means it is maintained by developers who contribute their time for free.

[Kendhni]

This is one of those questions that can be answered with both yes and no ... there used to be a general suggestion that you only ever install one virus detector at a time because if you had 2 on the same machine then they would pick up each others signatures and raise a load of false positives. However I think some (don't know which) can happily co-exist with other virus detectors and are intelligent enough to know if it is a virus or just a signature form another detector.

[Kendhni]

You could just buy a Mac, and in addition to now doing everything you've ever done before quicker and more intuitively, you can also forget completely about viruses.

No you can't .. there are viruses out there specifically designed to attack Macs (similarly for tablets and mobile phones) .. so you should never be complacent. In many cases people are under this illusion that Macs can not get viruses so they install nothing .. therefore they have no idea if they have a virus on their machine.

[towny44]

This made me wonder who is therefore paying the cost of maintaining an up todate virus protection system that those choosing the free download are using, and just how ethical it is to freeload in this way?

The free version is generally for personal use while paid for versions are needed for commercial use (or people who feel they need additional facilities). Yes companies could use the free version but that may not provide all the protection they need.

Ken, I doubt that the Nortons of this world would grow fat on sales only to commercial users. Norton do have a range of products specially for small businesses, but I imagine the bulk of their sales are to the general public for personal computing.