3 Mobile Broadband - Worry

ashawyer

Hi All,

In November 2008 i walked in to a well known independent high street mobile phone retailer and walked out with a 18 Month contract on a USB modem and a netbook laptop on the 3 network.

£35 per month, for 18 Months

To be honest i never used the USB dongle as i had no signal....
Also, the netbook was stolen after 12 months

I had completely forgotten about the contract and continued to pay the £35 per month.

I called 3 in February 2010 to ask about cancelling but they told me that i needed to pay a cancellation fee, it was approx £80 (not sure of the exact figures) - I didnt, i hung up and planned to call them back 30 days before my actual contract was due to end (April / May 2010)

I completely forgot to call them as i no longer had the netbook, nor did i ever use the USB dongle.

I changed banks in August 2010 and i cancelled by Direct Debits accordingly, 3 was one of them.

Anyway, i must point out that in all the time of me being in contract with 3 i had never received any bills or correspondance from them relating to bill.

I decised today to log onto my Credit Expert account to see if my Credit Card debit had been removed (i paid off my debts last month :beer: )

Oh hello, what is this 'LATE PAYMENTS'..... it was for Hutchison Telecom (Three) for £145

I called them up and said, what is this?

They told me that sinse August they have not received any payments by direct debit.

They advised me that the current overdue balance is £211 and is due.

I told them that this is crazy, i have never used this and i assumed they would have at least sent me a letter or an email to let me know.

If they had done so, i would have dealth with it right way and have it settled and cancelled.

After speaking to 4 different departments in india i managed to cancel the contract, however i still have the £211 bill to pay.

Can anyone suggest what i should do?

I have done all i can to ensure that my credit report is good, i had a little debt that was always paid off etc and i have never been late on a bill. I fear this will cause problems for me in the future.

Please let me know how i should deal with Three, also does anyone have any UK contact details for them?

Thank you in advance.

Silk

Hi ashawyer,
To be honest I don't see what you can do other than pay it.

Not certain about 3 but usualy a contract once it's expired runs onto a monthly rolling contract so you don't get cut off etc.
When you wish to cancel you usualy have to give a months notice (sometimes in writing)which it seems you haven't done.

As I say I don't deal with 3 but assume that all the bills are done online etc so probably wouldn't be anything for them to send to you.

the only thing I would suggest is make sure it's cancelled and try to make an arrangement with 3 regarding a final settlement

ashawyer

if i do come to an arrangement with 3, will i be able to have this record removed from my credit report?

Silk

ashawyer wrote: »

if i do come to an arrangement with 3, will i be able to have this record removed from my credit report?

As far as I'm aware (I'm not an expert on this) you can ask for a goodwill gesture of them removing the late payment mark against you ???
Maybe someone on one of the money boards will know