o2 has ruined my credit rating!!

nomad79

I'm really hoping someone can help. About a year n a half ago i called o2 to cancell my contract (which was past the previous 12 month point). I was passed to a team that try to retain you, i turned down their offer to reduce tarrif etc. I left the country for work - get back to find that o2 has been billing me for the past 8 months. I call & explain & as 'a gesture of good will' they wipe all charges as there has been absolutley no use on the phone beyond that cancillation call. The problem is now i have 8 months of unpaid bills showing on my credit report & o2 say they wont ammend it with the agencies. Firstly, i am 100% convinced i did not agree to the contract, so can i dispute it? the only thing they have to back it up is apparently i answered a security question?? secondly, as there was no upgrade involved should this even be on my credit report as a credit agreement?? i have already been turned down for a mortgage because of this, please HELP!!!

hotkee

If you do not cancel they will continued your contract - so it was your responsibility to cancel and sort your affairs before leaving country - at least thats my thought.

mark_dumpleton

It seems that he did cancel - he phoned up to cancel his contract and was passed to the retentions team. Upon refusing all of their offers and saying he still wanted to cancel that should have been it, the contract should have been cancelled?

sporedude

Did you make sure it was cancelled? If not it would continue.

hotkee

Turning down the upgrade offers is separate to canceling - it seems for mobile companies.

I sympathize with the situation but its the way these companies have worked - I am facing this situation of wanting to move in the next 7 days from o2 except they wont even offer me a deal until 29th April cos its special deals they can offer 30 days prior to end of contract.

Oftel and wotnot should tighten the rules really on mobile companies - if you sign up to 12 months, 18 months etc that should be it - no automatic continuation.

nomad79

Yae, at the time, after turning down the offer, the lady at o2 said ok, your contract will be cancelled, there's nothing else you need to do??

I went on ofcom website, they advised i ask o2 for their ADR info - o2 denied they had any so ofcom gave me the details - round 2... ding ding#

macman

How much of your contract was left to run when you asked to cancel? Assuming it was 8 months, then they would have charged you 8 x your monthly charge as an early termination fee. If they didn't do this, they would have continued to bill you for those 8 months.
You can't leave a contract early unless you pay up the contract.
I don't understand why you say 'you didn't agree to the contract' as you can't get a phone without agreeing it-that's why it's called a contract phone.
But clearly the 02 person you spoke to did not make this clear to you so you might want to pursue that issue.
O2 have no power to remove the default from your credit rating, all they can do is add a note saying that the account has now been settled, so I suggest you ask them to do this. But the actual notice will remain on your file for 6 years I'm afraid.

mark_dumpleton

IIRC, once you get past the 12 month period of a contract it goes onto a one month 'rolling' contract until either you take out another 12 or 18 month one or cancel completely?

nomad79

the origional 12 month contract was complete - by at least 3 months prior to me calling & wanting to cancel i.e it was already on a monthly rolling contract. They then re-signed me & put me on a massivley reduced tariff after i'd spoken to them wanting to cancel

nomad79

the account is showing 'settled' but that does nothing for the 8 months of non payment of bill showing on the record

macman

nomad79 wrote: »

the account is showing 'settled' but that does nothing for the 8 months of non payment of bill showing on the record

You can add your own note to the Exerian/Equifax file contesting or explaining the circumstances of the default, but you can't get it removed.
Unfortunately for things like mortgages, the credit scoring is done on a points basis, and a default equals negative points, they don't look at the details.
However you have nothing to lose by trying this.