Help! 3 Mobile Broadband Hidden Charges!!!!!

Ronni

Can anyone help me?
I signed up with 3 mobile last novermber for 2 years on their 1gb internet deal with a free notebook. Have had no complants until yesterday.
I signed on as normal and was happily surfing about for a couple of hours, downloaded a couple of bits as you do.
I went to change to another page and got a 3 mobile page up to advise me i had run out of allowance, so I went into my3 account to buy a bit of extra mb to get me to the 14th when my next monthly allowance started,
I was horrified to see that I had run up a bill of £64.79!!!!! I couldnt believe it and after several LONG phone conversations with 3 customer services i was advised that their internal accounting division had 'allocated' me a £50 credit limit that I could use should I run out of mb allowance. I was never advised of this allowance and am on benefits so an extra £50 bill is a big problem for me. I have since told them to make my credit limit 0 so when I run out of mb it tells me straight away and not 2 hours later. I stronly suggest if anyone else out there is on a tight budget like me to check if they also have a secret credit allowance that can drop them into hot water like 3 did to me.
Can any one tell me if they are allowed to allocate me this allowance without telling me its there? They did offer me a £20 refund as a good will gesture but I havnt accepted it yet as I am not sure what to do.
Any help would be really gratefully recieced

mrJ_5

Is it in the terms?

robt_2

It is perfectly normal.

Does a contract phone just stop working when you have used your inclusive minutes? Of course not.

Your bill is not 'hidden charges'!

LeeSouthEast

"6.17 We may set a credit limit on your account until you have established a good payment history with us or if you fail to pay your account on time. We will let you know the applicable credit limit which we may increase or remove without notice. If you exceed the credit limit we set, we may Suspend any or all of the 3 Services you use until you have made a payment to your account. You should not use the credit limit for budgeting as the amount you owe is not capped or limited by any credit limit we set."

By the letter of their terms, they should have told you what your credit limit was. However, the last bit is the most important point in this.

http://www.three.co.uk/Help_Support/Terms_and_Conditions?content_aid=1214305745245

web_ferret

Yes then can do this. The other providers do a similar thing.
I use top up vouchers on PAYG so I cannot overspend. I have got a few vouchers cheap off ebay recently.
Haggle them to £25 and split the difference and watch your usage.