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£1196 bill for mobile Arrggggh Heeeelp

Hi, can anyone give me some advice, my sons girlfriend has returned from holiday in south africa two weeks ago, she has now been sent an bill for £1196 for using her mobile in SA mainly on phonecalls to my son, she is besides herself as she was expecting it to be around £200.

She has been a customer of Orange for 4 years now, and the most her bill has ever been in that time is £75.

Surely Orange should have had some sort of credit limit on her account or should have realised that there was excessive use on the phone, I know she should not have used the phone abroad but surely orange should bear some of the responsibily for the size of this bill and letting it get so high, they at the very least should have sent her a text or something saying the the bill was at £x amount and was she aware of it.

She is at sixth form college, how on earth is she expected to pay it.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks
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Comments

  • gilly41
    gilly41 Posts: 909 Forumite
    My son works at Orange. I will ask him tomorrow and get back to you xx
    Sealed pot challenge 7...my number is 2144.....started Nov 29th ....
  • copier_guy
    copier_guy Posts: 507 Forumite
    If she has been with Orange for four years and paid her bill on time then its entirely possible she has built up a good credit limit with them.

    daft question but did she check the call rates while she was in SA?

    the best action might be to ask Orange if she can pay the bill over a period of time?
  • Thank you that would be so great, any advice is very welcome
  • blue_haddock
    blue_haddock Posts: 12,110 Forumite
    The problem with overseas usage is it can take several days if not longer for the overseas call details to make it to the UK service provider and by which time large bills may have been rung up.

    I doubt they will let her off although they may let her pay in instalments.
  • no I doubt she checked the rates, she is only 18 and they just dont do the sensible thing, she new it would be high but as i have said she expected it to be around £200
  • ssgtsnelly
    ssgtsnelly Posts: 151 Forumite
    I hate to say it but I believe that credit limits are only effective when you are on your home network as in when your sons GF is on Orange in the UK.

    From experience I dont think it is possible for a credit bar to be put in place when you are roaming on international networks.

    Even if the bar is effective overseas it more than likely the case that she dosent have a limit if she has been with them for 4 years and has consistantly paid bills on time as they would see her as a trusty worthy customer who is responsible and able to pay bills.
  • Anon
    Anon Posts: 14,562 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I am not having a go, but why do people come on here saying that networks etc should bare some responsibility when people have run up large mobile bills? If your daughter is old enough to have a mobile then she is old enough to check out call rates before travelling and be responsible while overseas. I never travel without checking what the rates will be and generally work on the basis that I will not be using my phone while away.

    An expensive lesson to learn - how was she expecting to pay the expected £200 bill (and somehow she thought that was reasonable?). I appreciate your view that they should perhaps have limits on the account, but unfortunately that does not seem to be the case. The best you can hope for, I suspect, is agreeing a payment plan to pay the bill in installments, as the last thing she needs in additon to this bill is ignoring it/refusing to pay, which would damage her credit file before she has had chance. She may also need to be getting herself a job to pay for it.

    Anon
  • macman
    macman Posts: 53,129 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I believe it is possible to set some sort of monthly credit limit on contract phones, but it's surely up to the customer to instigate this. I don't think people would be very happy if their networks arbitrarily cut them off because they went over a certain limit each month.
    Roaming charges outside Europe are very high, and it won't be Orange taking most of the cash, but the local SA networks. For this reason I don't think that they will reduce the bill, but if she is a long-term customer then I'm sure they will offer her the option to pay this off over a longer period.
    She should also verify the roaming charges against her actual usage to make sure she is not being overcharged.
    No free lunch, and no free laptop ;)
  • iwanttosave_2
    iwanttosave_2 Posts: 34,292 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    ssgtsnelly wrote: »
    I hate to say it but I believe that credit limits are only effective when you are on your home network as in when your sons GF is on Orange in the UK.

    From experience I dont think it is possible for a credit bar to be put in place when you are roaming on international networks.

    Even if the bar is effective overseas it more than likely the case that she dosent have a limit if she has been with them for 4 years and has consistantly paid bills on time as they would see her as a trusty worthy customer who is responsible and able to pay bills.

    Very true. Any changes can only be done while it is live on the home network.
    Work like you don't need money,
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  • horse76
    horse76 Posts: 649 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    It's a shame she didn't check the tariffs before she went, I think Orange do a travel saver offer for under £2 a month, where you can save up to 50% off the cost of calls while abroad - worth subscribing to even just for a month if using you phone abroad. Hope she gets something worked out to repay it.
    2017 - no clutter to be seen challenge: 72/2017
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