Need help with a phone bill debt

briggzy01

Hi, first of all, thanks for looking.

The story goes...

I lost my sim card and failed to report it lost/stolen in time. During the time that it had been lost and the time which i reported it, several calls were made to saudi arabia and pakistan, racking up a bill of £600.

I called orange and said that i did not make the calls and that i could not afford to pay the full amount, so i offered to pay them 20 pounds per week. Orange said no, thats not good enough and you must pay 26 pounds per week. I reluctantly agreed to this and all was going well until i missed a payment by accident. Orange immediatley closed my account and gave me a default on my credit report without notifying me. This meant that i couldnt log onto my account online, which was how i paid.

So i paid nothing for a while, then i called orange and told them that i could now only afford 10 pounds per week and i would send it by cheque, orange obviously told me that this wasnt good enough, so i put the phone down. I continued to send cheques and orange continued to cash them.

I wash short on cash for a while so i couldnt send orange any more money, now i can afford to send orange 40 pounds per month, by cheque.

My current outstanding airtime balance with orange is £375.00 and i will continue to pay this off £40 per month, by cheque.

However. The debt collection agency has now been instructed by orange to collect the debt owed by me. But the debt collection agency is trying to charge me £525.00 for the remaining contract which i did not use. I have offered to pay them £40 per month by cheque and i have told them that i will not pay the £525 charge. The debt collection company are not happy with this and have called me every day for the past week, but i dont want to answer the phone as i cannot reason with these people, they have no moral values and are only interested in cash.

My questions

Should i even be paying the airtime balance in the first place?
Where do i stand with paying the remaining contract charge? I don't see why i should pay for products and services which i havent received.
What will happen if the case goes to court, will i stand a fighting chance or should i just give up now and agree to pay up?

Thanks for any advice and comments, it will be much appreciated.

Regards, Briggzy

Tixy

Hi Briggzy

As far as i am know your contract will have been for a set amount of time and phone companies always expect payment for the minimum payment for each month left remaining on the contract - even if the phone has been disconnected due to non-payment.

I also think it says in your contact that you are liable for any calls made before you report your phone (or sim in your case) as stolen. So it sounds like you will have to pay it.

But they can't have money you don't have so I would work out what you can afford to pay each month and send them a letter offering this amount. You may need to send them an income & expenditure account so that they can see that this is all you can afford. There are some template letters on here or on national debtlines website you can use to base your letter on.