problems with carphone warehouse!!! HELP!!

sparklesilver

Last december my partner had been having problems with his phone, his phone stopped working and would only let you ring out, he then had a phone call from car phone warehouse saying that he had gone over his credit limit of £300.00, which was very odd because he doent really use the phone not one for talking!! anyway, they said that they had stopped his account till the £300 was paid, when we got the bill it said, £600, even though they stoped the bill at £300 and my partner was no longer able to use his phone for the rest of the month HOW CAN THEY DO THAT????:eek:
My partner was really upset, and decided to get a new contract with another company as his contract was up anyway, he phone and wrote to them to cancle the contract but to date they keep sending a bill every month now we have had a letter from a debt collecters carphone warehouse has be very unhelpfull what can we do!! Any advise would be very helpfull!!!!

Pagan98

What you can do depends on whether or not your partner incurred the £600 of charges and his financial position. You don't say whether he disputes the charges or just can't afford to pay them?

Has Carphone Warehouse provided an itemised bill detailing how the charges were incurred? If not, his first action should be to write to Carphone Warehouse and the debt collector asking for a detailed breakdown of the alleged debt. Until you can see how the debt was incurred and whether it is valid you can't proceed.

If the charges aren't valid, he can write stating that he disputes the debt and explaining why.

If the charges are valid then he will need to consider whether he can afford to pay them or not. If he can't afford it in one hit, he might want to propose a repayment plan over a period of time. Ignoring the debt will likely result in a County Court Judgement and 6 years of credit difficulties (from the date of the CCJ).

Always put correspondence in writing, even if he is confirming an agreement made over the phone, and keep a copy for future reference (in court if need be).

The difference between the credit limit of £300 and the £600 bill is likely to be charges incurred that took a while to hit the account, but watch out for charges and fees that aren't described in his contract as these can be disputed.

You might want to seek further advice at the dealing with debt board here or on motleyfool.co.uk.

I hope this helps.