Advice on overdue phone bill?

Katy1988

Hi everyone,

I am posting in the hope that someone can give me some advice on an overdue phone bill.

My boyfriend took out an 18 month contract with Orange 8 months ago. It was £50 a month which included internet and emails so that when we move out we could use the phone for internet instead of having to pay for broadband to the house.

He got made redendant from his job a few months ago and we tried hard to keep on top of it so that when he got back into another job we could just pay off the money we owed and carry on with the contract. But it's taken him a lot longer than we hoped to find work and the bill is now £250.

In the mean time we sold my pay-as-you-go handset for some extra cash and I was using my sim card in his phone, because his number had been made out of use.

Great news this weekend that he has got some temporary work for the next few weeks, so the plan was to use that money to pay off the £250 we owe and then see if we could get the tariff bought down a bit (taking off the internet or having less minutes or something) so that in the future I could afford it from my wages if the same thing happened and my boyfriend was out of work for a long time again. Really happy that we were finally getting it sorted and now I have been a complete idiot and lost the phone last night. I have searched everywhere I went but nothing and now I am really panicking that I have messed it all up!!

Has anyone been in this situation? I don't know what to do. Can you buy out of a contract if you have lost the phone? Or should we pay off the £250 and then try and lower the package so that it isn't so expensive and buy a pay-as-you-go handset for my boyfriend's sim card til the 18 month contract is finished?

Sorry this is such an essay! Thank you for reading and if anyone can give me any advice before I call Orange tonight I would really appreciate it.

Thank you.

OneADay

Assuming you have 10 months to go on contract, you should inform Orange that phone is lost - they may give you a new sim so you can continue using your contract mins/texts etc with a pay and go phone.

Additionally - you have already done but try to batter down your net payments for contract to minimum Orange allow you so in long run at least you can save some money.

Try to find the phone if it was lost somewhere around the house (not I guess) - but important to tell Orange immediately its lost.

The contract is going to continue for the duration so you have to pay of £250 plus for the remaining months - so you may as well try to use those extra months allowance on a lower tariff with a replacement sim card for the same number with a cheap pay and go replacement phone.

Katy1988

Thank you so much for replying. I have noticed people have a thanks button on the end of their posts but I'm new to this so I'm not sure where it is, but I really appreciate your advice!

My friend has driven back to the pub we went to and asked, but they have not seen it, it was a practically brand new blackberry pearl so not sure how high the chances of it getting handed in are, and not even sure if I lost it there! It had a different pay-as-you-go sim card in it (my number) so we still have the contract number sim card (which is currently blocked by Orange as we owe money) in the house.

From your advice I think I will call them next week when we have the £250 in our account, pay off the money we owe and at the same time ask them to lower the tariff as much as possible (which I think will incur a cost?) so that we just have the sim for minutes and texts and then buy a cheap handset to put the contract sim card into?

Thank you so much for your advice.

Buzby

Could I suggest that in future you avoid taking out commitments like these in future? As you've found - they're OK when things are fine, but his credit file will already show the payment delays and thisw will affect far more important things down the line.

Stick with PAYG. If you lose it, you just buy another.

OneADay

If you have the IMEI number for the Blackberry you might be able to block the use of that phone on networks. The IMEI is the International Mobile Equipment Identity number which is stored on the phone but they also send you stickers with leaflets - so if you know what the IMEI is - tell Orange.

Doesn't help much but phone will be useless to others if I am right.

Katy1988

Thank you Buzby for your reply and no, I will definately not be getting a contract mobile after we have paid this one off- it is not worth the stress!!

And OneADay, I didn't even think to get the phone blocked, I will definately do that!

Thank you everyone for all your kind, constructive advice, I really appreciate it, wish I had come to this site sooner instead of worrying about it on my own!

Guys_Dad

And check that your house insurance policy doesn't cover the phone's loss too.

Snakeeyes21

Pay the £250 you owe them, then phone orange to cancel the contract they have recently put up out of bundle call costs so your entitled to cancel without penalty :@)

Katy1988

Thank you for your comment Guy's Dad, we currently live with my boyfriend's Mum so I will ask her if she knows if the handset could have been covered on the insurance.

Snakeeyes21 - Thank you for your comment! Do you know how this works? And would they not ask for the handset back?

ivinsp

Just an idea Katy but as You've lost your payg sim you should be able to order a new one free from the Orange shop and call Orange to transfer your number and credit

Guys_Dad

Katy1988 wrote: »

Thank you for your comment Guy's Dad, we currently live with my boyfriend's Mum so I will ask her if she knows if the handset could have been covered on the insurance.

Snakeeyes21 - Thank you for your comment! Do you know how this works? And would they not ask for the handset back?

Check out the post on Orange Price Changes running alongside yours. You should be able to pick up some idea from there but you will have to get up to date with your arrears first, I fear.