Help! Stepsons mobile bill > £4500

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Comments

  • mattyprice4004
    mattyprice4004 Posts: 7,492 Forumite
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post
    shockedandstunned wrote: »
    I realise all the reasons why this is incredibly stupid and many parties involved could have done things differently.

    I was hoping that someone with experience, or better knowledge may have been able to offer some practical advice. With the greatest respect pointing out how stupid we have been is not a great deal of use now. In my personal defence I am not the boy's parent, I wasn't on holiday with him, and I don't pay for his contract. I am just trying to help sort out the mess that has been created.

    We've posted what knowledge we have, that if Orange won't retrospectively add a data bundle you're stuffed.

    Sounds like you just want someone to post what you want to hear, but its not going to happen, there's not going to be an easy way out of this.

    Instead of criticising the help people gave, why not use the advice instead of moaning about how 'unhelpful' the correct posts are.
  • loracan1
    loracan1 Posts: 2,287 Forumite
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    edited 23 August 2012 at 3:24PM
    I have no knowledge of roaming charges/use abroad. What I do know is that after our son had run up a bill of £40+ one month (how does ANYONE send in excess of 3000 texts?), my ex had some sort of block put on his contract - I took my son to Greece for a week last month and he'd put some sort of £10 credit for texting - after the credit ran out he was limited to the free wifi at the poolbar. Bit late to help now but get some sort of limit placed!
  • Guys_Dad
    Guys_Dad Posts: 11,025 Forumite
    First Post Combo Breaker
    edited 23 August 2012 at 2:04PM
    shockedandstunned wrote: »
    ................. In my personal defence I am not the boy's parent, I wasn't on holiday with him, and I don't pay for his contract. I am just trying to help sort out the mess that has been created.

    I agree that telling you and yours what they have done wrong is not of much help to you. And I do accept that you genuinely wanted to find out if anyone had any advice for you, and I don't agree that you sounded like someone who wanted to post what you wanted to hear.

    However, I see that you are a new member. Well other new members often read the forum months before making their first post and by reading all of the comments on a thread, it may help someone other than the thread starter.

    You asked for advice. Well, contacting Orange and seeing if you can retrospectively apply a roaming bundle or getting some sort of goodwill reduction is the first and best advice.

    Paying off whatever is agreed in one payment is the next best advice as any staggered plan agreed is likely to show on your wife's credit record (and will be associated to you as well) and the contract is likely to be suspended, although still charged, until the arrears are paid off.

    You, therefore, need to assess whether paying off in one hit - even if you have to borrow the cash - is preferable to having a tarnished credit record. There are numerous threads on here where people have been refused bank loans or mortgages because of mobile phone debts, so, if you are thinking of taking out a new mortgage or bank loan or even HP on a car over the next 6 years, that could be affected.

    That's about as much as anyone here can do to advise you, I fear.
  • Earthworm
    Earthworm Posts: 529 Forumite
    The only level of advice I can offer on top of this is to ensure he doesn't take a smartphone abroad again. When abroad a phone is best for emergencies which is why having a basic brick always works great.

    The £175 bundle sounds best and I wish you luck... Bear in mind if they agree to do this it still may cost more than the bundle if he exceeded the 500MB allowance... E.g. 50MB over is £400
  • wantmemoney
    wantmemoney Posts: 836 Forumite
    Just got my stepsons phone bill and it's just over £4500
    may be it's time the Networks were told to allow customers (not just parents) to be able to put spend limits on accounts.
  • NFH
    NFH Posts: 4,373 Forumite
    Photogenic Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary
    Although I have little sympathy with those who neglect to check the cost of a service before choosing to use it, Orange's standard non-EEA data roaming charge of £8000/GB is unreasonable, particularly when compared to its typical intra-UK data charge of around £10/GB.

    Next time get a local SIM card:

    http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/turkey.html

    http://prepaidwithdata.wikia.com/wiki/Turkey
  • gjchester
    gjchester Posts: 5,741 Forumite
    wantmemoney wrote: »
    may be it's time the Networks were told to allow customers (not just parents) to be able to put spend limits on accounts.

    And ther first time Little Jonny can't phone mum to get a lift home after school, or the 18 year old girl is stranded outside with a car breakdown on a country lane and can't phone dad or the AA because they've hit a limit then who will get the blame?

    The goverment who will bring it in or the network enforcing such a dumb rule? The networks will regardless, they can't win.

    Sorry but people need to be responsible for their actions, there are many options, PAYG and Capped contracts on Tesco, as well as restraint, people need to think for themselves not rely on others to do it for them.
  • wantmemoney
    wantmemoney Posts: 836 Forumite
    gjchester wrote:
    And ther first time Little Jonny can't phone mum to get a lift home after school, or the 18 year old girl is stranded outside with a car breakdown on a country lane and can't phone dad or the AA because they've hit a limit then who will get the blame?

    The goverment who will bring it in or the network enforcing such a dumb rule? The networks will regardless, they can't win.
    well the customer would no doubt get the 'blame' if they posted on this forum.

    what an irrational desperate argument.

    If a customer decides they want a spend limit on their account why should that bother you.
    gjchester wrote:
    Sorry but people need to be responsible for their actions, there are many options, PAYG and Capped contracts on Tesco, as well as restraint, people need to think for themselves not rely on others to do it for them.
    what is your real problem with customers being allowed to request a spending cap.
  • NFH
    NFH Posts: 4,373 Forumite
    Photogenic Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary
    wantmemoney wrote: »
    what is your real problem with customers being allowed to request a spending cap.
    The main problem is that the networks don't want spending caps because that equates to revenue caps, and the networks obviously want to maximise revenue.
  • spannerzone
    spannerzone Posts: 1,549 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    So if you can prepay for roaming data tariff before you leave the UK, what actual difference does it make to Orange, if any from a technical point of view?

    what I mean is once you've bought the roaming bolt on do Orange arrange with the local cellular provider in Turkey (or wherever) and prebook data at that reduced rate ?

    Or do they (as I suspect) make no change at all and just charge an incredibly high price for those that don't prepare before they travel?

    Never trust information given by strangers on internet forums
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