Advice please - Daughter ran up hugh bill

macman

I'm puzzled as to how she can go in one month from £20 to £470. If it's just calls, that's nearly 24 times more than usual. So, if she normally used the phone for say half an hour a day, that implies she was using it for 12 hours a day, which seems unlikely, even for a teenage girl. Or as I suggested, maybe she has been using it for downloading videos etc. You should get a breakdown of how that £470 has been incurred. It's the sort of bill that people usually get when their teenagers go abroad for a couple of weeks and clock up huge roaming bills.

madlyradley

Well she has offered to sell her xbox 360 and we have had a few tears but I had to take a lot of deep breaths and go up stairs otherwise I might have lost it!

macman

madlyradley wrote: »

Its due to be paid on 21st by direct debit. I have an excellent credit rating and have never been late with a payment. I feel so disappointed that I tried to do the right thing and they are unhelpful.

Then in that case you are not late with a payment and they have absolutely no grounds to want to terminate the contract. Ask to speak to a manager and get them to justify their actions.
All you have done so far is to query an unexpectedly high bill and ask if you can spread the payments.

madlyradley

Bill break down is Calls 20h 34mins - 75 min are inclusive - £383.98
texts 170

madlyradley

breakdown is

calls 20h 34mins - 75 mins are inc - £383.975
picture messaging £ 4.386
purchases (games etc) £ 14.170
vat

madlyradley

Breakdown is

calls 20hrs 34min - 75 mins are inclusive - £383.975
picture message £4.39
games etc £14.17
vat £59.52

madlyradley

sorry it kept throwing me out

macman

So where does the final bill of £470 come from then? 15% VAT on £383 only takes it to about £440. Not sure if the texts are inclusive or not. So ignoring them I reckon the exclusive calls are being billed at about 31p a minute. I should check your tarriff and see what it says you will be charged for excess minutes. No doubt most of those will also be at peak rate.
PS: just seen your further breakdown. If you are going to allow her to keep the phone I would get picture messaging and internet/games downloading disabled for a start. She's spent the entire monthly allowance on those before making a single call!

bringmeshoes

call vodafone and ask if they have a debt assistace or credit control team as they may well be more able to helpful to you about paying in installments

Money_Grabber13579

But that's working out at around 30p a minute! Do you know what type of calls they are? i.e. are there some 08/09 numbers? From the sounds of it, they can't be all basic rate numbers.