OMG!!! Please Help Virgin payg Direct Debit

freejunkie

I have happily had a virgin sim card payg 500mins for £15pm for a few months now, it was given to me by my brother, at a certain time each month I just buy the top ups and away I go, if I used my mins before the date came up I would just be cut off so no problems.

However this christmas I decided to go DD so it would be less hassle for me, as it was in my brothers name we changed over the details and was upgraded to 700mins with unlimited virgin 2 virgin calls for £18 pm.

First month was fine when I used my mins the phone was cut off no problems, so this month I have just been cut off again, didnt think nothing of it,
I hadnt taken advantage of the 'unlimited Virgin 2 Virgin' I thought I would give it a try only to be told by a recorded message ' My account had been suspended' again didnt think much of it but I thought Id phone customer services to ask how it works.

To cut a long story short I have just been told that I have exceeded my credit limit of £105!!!! (I didnt ask for a credit limit) and will have to pay this before my service is resume. And it's my fault as I should of kept an eye on my how many mins I was using!!!!!:wall: Grrrrr how rude!!!

Anyway I am absolutely furious about this I was not told about this before I set up this DD and I even enquired about this before I switched can they just decide to give me a 'credit Limit'? now they have my bank details? I'm sure they wouldnt even consider giving me a credit limit on PAYG so why when they have access to my account
Can anyone please give me any advice as to what to do next.

mrsr

I take it your CL will be £100 you dont have to pay it all ,that is until bill is due ,you will need to pay somthing by card to bring down below CL so it will unsuspend .You would have had a letter after setting up DD telling you about your CL and what is was. Once you have brought your balance down, the limit can be lowered the lowest is £50

freejunkie

Thankyou so much for your reply Mrsr, what I dont get is WHY did they give me a credit limit I didnt want? are they allowed just to change things at a whim?
The deal I agreed to was £18 pm for 700mins payg no contract, I asked repeatedly asked this before I went DD.
As for bringing my CL down they can whistle for it they are getting NOTHING but the £18.

Littlemiss27

freejunkie - you seem to have been put on a sim only deal where you are in a 30 day rolling contract (which you can leave at any time by giving 30days notice) at £18 per month. The credit limit is put in place to stop people running up massive bills.

Unfortunately I think that you are going to pay up for the calls and texts thats you've made. Although there has obviously been some confusion somewhere regarding the deal that you are on, ultimately you did use the extra minutes and texts.

The one thing that I would do is call Virgin and see if you can come to an agreement (paying the bill up/the bill being reduced), as if you simply ignore the bill/cancel the direct debit it may damage your credit rating.

mrsr

freejunkie wrote: »

Thankyou so much for your reply Mrsr, what I dont get is WHY did they give me a credit limit I didnt want? are they allowed just to change things at a whim?
The deal I agreed to was £18 pm for 700mins payg no contract, I asked repeatedly asked this before I went DD.
As for bringing my CL down they can whistle for it they are getting NOTHING but the £18.

Being on DD is not the same as paygo ,it's not a contract either your not tied in like you are on contract .Everybody has a cl usual about £100 this would have been on your letter it can be lowered but you would have needed to ask for that .If you use your mins or text up your charged normal rate which u pay for by DD instead of toping up first as you would on paygo,you can check yr mins by ringing 789 you can also have a threashold text sent when you reach a certain amount

freejunkie

Thank you both I will be phoning them 2morrow I was so angry today I needed to calm down before I spoke to them.

@ littlemiss27 Thanks I will be asking them to come to some sort of agreement with me other wise I will terminate my bb, phone and tv with them immediately.

@mrsr Thanks again, if they had made me aware it wasnt the same as 'topping up' I would never had agreed to going dd.

I'm kind of old school like that although I am penalized an extra £5 per month for not using dd I pay my T.V, BB and phone with my card every month just because of this same fear, of their sneaky little ways
As for the mobile I will not be using dd any more, I'm safer topping up!!

daggy

You could maybe argue that they didn't make this clear to you and that the verbal reassurance you received form the Virgin employee negated the need for you to read the letter...

Also they have the right to change T&C's,so if the employee told you this, you would be well within your 'rights' to assume that this was how things were.

They are not obliged to reduce it for you, but they may do it as a good will gesture.

mrsr

daggy wrote: »

You could maybe argue that they didn't make this clear to you and that the verbal reassurance you received form the Virgin employee negated the need for you to read the letter...

Also they have the right to change T&C's,so if the employee told you this, you would be well within your 'rights' to assume that this was how things were.

They are not obliged to reduce it for you, but they may do it as a good will gesture.

When setting up DD, the script thats read out informs customers a letter will be sent to them about there cl it also asks if they would like it read out there and then , same thing with the direct debit guarante.

A payment plan can be set up over three months .

mrsr

freejunkie wrote: »

Thank you both I will be phoning them 2morrow I was so angry today I needed to calm down before I spoke to them.

@ littlemiss27 Thanks I will be asking them to come to some sort of agreement with me other wise I will terminate my bb, phone and tv with them immediately.

@mrsr Thanks again, if they had made me aware it wasnt the same as 'topping up' I would never had agreed to going dd.

I'm kind of old school like that although I am penalized an extra £5 per month for not using dd I pay my T.V, BB and phone with my card every month just because of this same fear, of their sneaky little ways
As for the mobile I will not be using dd any more, I'm safer topping up!!

You can still top up when on DD the credit is taken off your balance then nothing comes out of bank.Which is what i do ,as soon as i'm paid i top up £10 for bundle with my card then it dosnt come off my DD ,i also ring 789 on a reg basis to make sure i'm not going over my allowance

gabyjane

Hmm not really the same but i am having issues with them too..with all thier services and will shortly be cancelling some of them as had about enough! My mobile contract is £15 per month and always has been..never gone over more than say £1.50 for pic messages and this month it is £95:mad: i have no idea why as havent used it as much as that and although i knew this month ide go over a bit (due to calling Virgin) i am so cross with them. Something dh pointed out on mine whcih we never knew was the fact that i have a £150 credit limit?? since when do they have these..is this normal for Virgin? never had it with T-Mobile the £15 a month was it and that stayed like it no going over if you felt like it..plus another thing is when i rung the lady said i would get a call if i was near the limit..isn't £80 kind of a bit over the normal £15 and near to the £150?? makes me sick their little clauses they have..shame i have another year of it still.

Anyway sorry ranting i have no advice really as completely confused with mine at the mo. I hope you get it sorted one way or another..is there a way to get the limit removed so you cant go over? i have yet to have hours awaiting a call to find out!

Littlemiss27

Gabyjane - Firstly I really think that you need to speak to virgin to find out why your bill has been so high. They should be able to break down the call charges for you over the phone and if need you can ask for the bill to be recalculated.

Regarding the credit limit, all networks apply credit limits to accounts to stop customers from running up massive bills. It sounds like the deal you had previously with T-mobile was either a solo fixed plan or a u-fix plan, both of these are plans where it was impossible to run up a bill as once the allowances ran out the plans effectively turned into payg for the remainder of the month. T-mobile are really the only network who offer this. Tbh I really dont think you can blame them for not contacting you as I wouldn't class £80 to be near your credit limit(I know I would be annoyed if I got a call/txt every time I went within £70 of my credit limit).

It is possible that virgin may be able to reduce your credit limit but you must be aware that it would still be possible to run up a bill as calls don't show on your account imediately. I would ask about this when you call them about the breakdown of your bill.

Btw if you got your contract through a third party (P4U, CPW) it may be worth your while going into store with as much info as possible and asking for thier help, they will still need to call through to virgin but sometimes it can help having someone who works in the industry fighting your corner.

HTH