Orange Charging After Contract Terminated

scattycat69

I'm not sure if this is normal, or legal, but it does make my blood boil !

I gave notice to terminate my contract with orange back in September as required so that my contract will be terminated 28th October 2010. Ok I did this correctly. (Although I now find out that because I did not request my PAC code at the same time, if I want to now to keep my number I have to give a further 30 days notice!, hence I am going to change my number).

I looked on my bill online this evening and find that the bill is a full further month's line cost and insurance and some additional extra's that I am aware of. This means my bill is £41.28, to be taken by direct debit on 11th Nov.
I telephoned and queried this and have been advised that because my billing date runs 22nd to 21st and my contract termination is 28th they bill for the following period, then in November my bill will be credited and then it will show a credit balance owing. I THEN HAVE TO CONTACT THEM and request a refund !

So I calculate I should owe them approx £13 including the extras up to 28th October.

Can I cancel my direct debit and pay them say £15 to cover what would be owing? I appreciate this would be in their eyes an overdue account. would this effect my credit rating, i.e could they put a mark on my credit report for an unpaid account?

Or should I just pay them and then claim it back.... that's to say they pay it back easily !????

Any suggestions would be helpful, thanks

Techhead_2

Ideally, you would have just asked for and used the PAC. It would have made the billing issues more straightforward.
You could ask them to make up the final bill pro-rata, but I expect its too late for that, so you will probably end up claiming the refund.

Sorry that's not more positive.

scattycat69

Thanks anyway - I suppose I thought this would be the case, but hoped I could avoid paying out unnecessarily. It just seems a con to pay in advance for an ended contract and then you have to claim it back ! How much interest are they making on money taken in this way from customers !

Another quick question , are Orange ok at refunding or am I going to have a challenge to get the refund paid ?

Apricot

scattycat69 wrote: »

Thanks anyway - I suppose I thought this would be the case, but hoped I could avoid paying out unnecessarily. It just seems a con to pay in advance for an ended contract and then you have to claim it back ! How much interest are they making on money taken in this way from customers !

Another quick question , are Orange ok at refunding or am I going to have a challenge to get the refund paid ?

Orange are quite quick at refunding. I had a refund from them within a month of my overpayment (about £30) without even asking.

Techhead_2

scattycat69 wrote: »

Thanks anyway - I suppose I thought this would be the case, but hoped I could avoid paying out unnecessarily. It just seems a con to pay in advance for an ended contract and then you have to claim it back ! How much interest are they making on money taken in this way from customers !

. . . .

I hope you won't find this harsh, but most people won't experience this because they will just phone up for their PAC. Using this avoids all the billing issues you've experienced.