Product information supplement, Sky subscription viewing card for expats.

As described on our other site pages we offer to deliver sky digital subscription viewing cards across Europe and aimed at expatriates. In the course of doing this many questions have arisen, and it can be time consuming and costly to answer them all, naturally we are proud of our high standard of customer support and we aim to keep it this way, so to help you our customer or potential customer we have put together the following overview and will update it as questions arise. Annual fees apply, the annual fees for address maintenance are 100GBP, and prices include admin -and activation - these are detailed at the following page -- http://www.smart2check.com/submanaged.htm

£100 / €150  UK Viewing card without digibox  (with digibox click here)

12 months minimum Choose from ROI Irish Sky or UK Sky

£100 / €150  Irish Sky Viewing card without digibox note: do not order for SKYHD - contact us first

Firstly what is Sky Digital and what can it offer you, well it's the UK's number 1 broadcaster of satellite television and whilst it contains a vast number of English channels it also supports a wide variety of Asian broadcasts, including ethnic channels aimed at the increasingly culturally diverse UK  population. Therefore it offers an ideal solution for people of Asian descent as well as native English speakers.

The sky viewing card and sky digital services are encrypted in what is known as NDS videoguard, it is not readily cracked and we do not condone and cannot support piracy. So what can we do? We offer to lend you a viewing card for a small administrative fee, you need to purchase a suitable receiver, from ourselves or elsewhere and have it installed professionally - we recommend that you make sure you have an adequate or oversized dish for Astra 2D where you intend to view the channels, and also recommend to ensure some form of redundancy for future installation growth that you install at very least a dual or quad LNB. This ensures that if you upgrade or add to your installation it is future proofed (for example the PVR Sky+ digibox box - requires a minimum of a dual or quad feed, LNB).

By the time your reading this page we hope you have found enough suitable material and know pretty much that you want sky, and what you need to view it, so now we'll try to describe it's service, and welcome all comments for feedback and improvement within our site (we are 100% customer focussed, we want you to tell your friends about us, help us improve our own service for you and future customers - so we don't just sell - we listen too), the benefit for us is more sales - more customers, more revenue, the benefits for you - you can join our affiliate program and earn commission, and naturally the more sales we have the better deals we can get - so the lower our prices become. 

Sky digital satellite television Services come in package bundles - there are comprehensive bundles which cover many targeted focus interest groups, for Sports fans, Movie Buffs, the educational type, the children, and although this site is English, sky digital boxes also accommodate channels for people around the world including such as the Star channels for Indian's, Arabic channels, Asian Channels, Chinese channels, it doesn't stop their there's even the German broadcaster DW-TV carrying it's news channel.

For current pricing we do advise you check Sky's home page, at the time of writing this, there are several mix pack options and standalone channels as follows. The pricing structure displayed  is subject to change but if there is a major discrepancy - tell us and we will rectify our pages immediately.

The package bundles are referred to as mix packs.

There are two types of mix packs the entertainment packs and premium mix packs which are the Sports mix and Movies mix, then there are the stand alone specialist or non-sky encrypted channels.

You must pick at least 1 entertainment mix pack.

Sky charge as follows.

Sky HD costs 10GBP more per month than regular subscription prices for normal  options and includes the PVR facility like sky plus. 

 The channels available are described on our channels pages, the primary subscription channels are also depicted in the graphics below. For these packages you do need a sky subscription viewing card.

A more comprehensive channel list can be found on our channels page.

Variety Mix		Style and Culture Mix
Kids Mix		Knowledge Mix
News and Events Mix		Music Mix
Movies Mix		Sports Mix

Optional Addons include Setanta Sports as example.

Due to the licensing arrangements between Sky and the various film companies, Sky viewing cards can only be issued to residents of the UK and Ireland.

Residents of other European countries need to subscribe through us, We will then arrange the viewing card including the contract and UK address. We offer a one stop shop to customers that require a Sky subscription, sky viewing cards, or a Free To View (freesat) card, aka CH4,CH5 Sky3 card. 

  To order the freesat card click here.

We arrange the UK address and Sky contract for you . You do not have to sign any complicated forms from Sky. We then activate your card in your decoder and ship to you (If you already have a box then we arrange that Sky send the activation signals to your box and card).

Sky billing: Sky will charge 1 month in advance + 1 month subscription on your first payment. If you decide to cancel your Sky contract after 12 months your last month will not be charged. You must never contact sky for any changes to your Sky account or your card may be killed each month Sky will take the payment directly from your credit card or uk bank account. Providing you keep your credit card account in good order and Sky can get their payment each month the service will continue.

• subscription price is that of Sky's advertised pricing and packages
• no need for a UK address
• Sky will debit from your credit card directly (or UK account if you have one)
• order a dialler if you wish PPV Box Office movies (avoid sky's service charge)
• if we 'lend' you the card, you must agree to subscribe for 12 months
• you contact us when you need service (online or by telephone)

More information, packages start for first month only on full package with all 6 mixes, sports mixes and then drop to your chosen package, any offers on the sky website will apply such as half price subscription etc, multi-room discount is not available with this offer. Other terms apply for traders wishing to offer this for their own clients.

RTE One, RTE Two and TG4 are are only available with Irish Sky.

NASN, the North American Sports Network is Europe's leading network for North American Sports, it is available for Sky Digital Subscribers as an add on stand alone package. Get unrivalled live coverage of Major League Baseball, the NHL, NFL, CFL, NASCAR Nextel Cup, NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball up to 24 hours a day. Yes now you can get NASN in Spain.

Information about other channels and stand alone channels will be provided on an individual basis depending on the requirements, this is because each channel has it's own connection and administration fees - these are channels which can be added to the Sky Viewing card, but are not part of the sky subscription services. We cannot currently  provide cards which only provide standalone channel groups.

Card Specific FAQ

Do you provide a copy of the contract?  NO - we keep the contract to manage your service,  but standard terms can be viewed here :- http://www.smart2check.com/ssl_cont.htm

Can I use a French, Libyan, American Credit Card?
Yes, any credit card can be used - Sky will directly take the payments from this Credit Card, the credit card holder and name is not important and providing the details you provide are legitimate there will be no problems with using a foreign credit card for subscription payments. Although you can send us credit card details via email we prefer that this is done over the telephone - we do not store any credit card information this is passed directly to Sky.  

Do you charge annual fees or admin charges?
For some cards we have to charge annual fees or admin charges, wherever possible we keep this to a minimum and the charges are are detailed here - http://www.smart2check.com/submanaged.htm

What if I have a problem with billing?
If you believe the Sky billing to be incorrect, then you must contact us - providing you are one of our customers and the viewing card was provided by us we can help, if the billing information is correct we will inform you why - we reserve a right to charge an admin fee for contacting Sky as noted above, naturally if the billing has been incorrectly applied we will inform you - you will not be charged an admin fee for this and we will tell you how Sky intend to rectify the matter.

How do I cancel a subscription?
Providing you are one of our customers and you we have provided you with the viewing card you should contact us and return the card, your subscription term should have run for at least 12 months else we reserve the right to charge administration fees which will be invoiced by paypal. We understand that you may need to move away from Europe and to avoid complication you must contact us to arrange a proper cancellation. You may also wish to transfer the card to a friend or colleague and we can arrange this for a small fee.

What if I am having financial problems?
You are responsible for ensuring there is enough funds to cover your transactions, you risk the card being disabled and incurring administrative charges from both Sky and ourselves if you fail to pay subscription fees due. 

What if my credit card is showing payments for a Sky Subscription and I didn't order this?
This would not have happened from us, but any fraudulent credit card billing should be taken up with the credit card provider, you are responsible for safe use of your credit card, we will never ever store your credit card details - when provided to us they are noted on paper, phoned through to Sky and immediately destroyed. If you keep seeing fraudulent transactions you should get your card provider to change your credit card details and contact your nearest consumer protection bureau (there are National and European consumer protection bureaus).    You should also consider contacting law enforcement agencies.
The following consumer protection bureau for Europe will put you in contact with the appropriate national bodies.   http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/index_en.htm

We don't wish to give you credit card details, nor do we have a bank account suitable for direct debit, we would prefer a sky card by paypal subscription can you do this?  Yes, however it should be noted that  but to ensure that we understand your full requirements you must contact us first. 

Sky currently offer half price viewing for new subscribers, do we get this?
No, we cannot get these offers due to the method used in provisioning the cards.

How do I activate my subscription and get help?
You need to contact us by email or phone and we will activate your card or investigate your problem within normal business hours. Our business hours are Mon-Sat 11am - 7.30pm, and card support is available from 11am to 5pm, Mon-Fri and Sat from 11am to 1pm. 

How do you manage the cards you provide - are there any hidden charges?
We try to make everything as simple and transparent as possible,  card management is detailed here, and another table showing Sky's pricing structures is shown here.

Do you still have more questions - then contact us.