Advise, Please Help

jacquelinenicholas

we hope you can help, my step daughter has just moved into her own flat only a few weeks ago and is trying to sort out stuff. well shes a typical teenager and only has a mobile so it costs us a fortune to call her so we suggested that she get the house phone in to make life a little easyer. we said we would sort it out for her, well we phoned the telephone company who said that she cold have the phone installed free of charge which we thought was great until they had to do a credit check, it seems that the person who lived there before has run up huge debts, therefore phone cannot be connected (well not unless we pay £500, which we wont do nor can afford) which way do we go from here to rectify this problem? any answers would be great.

piglet6

I'm sure that somebody will be along shortly with more specific advice on how to deal with this, but is there no way that you can prove that your stepdaughter is not this other person?

Thats to say, the phone company must have a name for the person who ran up the debt (it can't just be in the house number/name), so your stepdaughter's proof of identity, together with a rent book/letter from landlord proving that she's only just moved in, should go some way to sorting this problem...

Hope you manage to get it sorted.

Piglet

Bambywamby

Is there any chance you can get her a cheaper sim for her phone - one that throws in lots of free texts or talk time?

Do you have access to different phone companies in your area so you can try getting a new company to install a phone & line?

Other than that I am not sure what to suggest.

However GOOD LUCK in resovling your problem.

xx

rog2

Debts run up by third parties should not affect your daughter's credit rating.
You should tell the phone company that neither you, nor your daughter, have any association with any previous occupant (tenant or owner) of that property. You can ask any credit reference agency to remove any incorrect information held on your daughter's file.

BestFootForward_2

jacquelinenicholas wrote:

well shes a typical teenager and only has a mobile so it costs us a fortune to call her

Can't really help with the phone company bit except to try phoning them a couple of times to make sure the answer is consistent. Maybe ask nicely to speak to a supervisor/ manager etc. I would have thought this would be discretionary.

But you can cut down on your phone bill though. Martin has an excellent article of cutting the cost of your phone bill. E.g. 18185 is 3p per minute for evenings, and 2p per minute for weekends, but there's even cheaper ways for the evening calls
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1095003038,99872,

rog2

Could you not offer to act as guarantor to the phone company?

Also, there is more than one telephone supplier - have you shopped around?