Credit limit upped on Virgin PAYG/DD without consent

Tennishead

Virgin Mobile have upped my credit limit without my consent to a whopping £300. If I wanted to make that many calls I would be on a contract! I don't have credit problems, but wanted to report it here is I feel it is unethical - there has been criticism of card companies for upping limits on credit cards, and I thought this kind of practice had stopped, but not at Virgin Mobile it seems.


I don't want or need more credit than their £50 minimum which I previously agreed to. I feel this exposes me to a risk of greater losses if my phone is lost or stolen. When I complained about it they said that I could reset it to £50, but it may be increased by their computer again in the future. I don't want this and don't agree with their practices.

I have a PAYG phone with a monthly direct debit payment which has otherwise been very convenient and was the cheapest when I first got it. I spend only a few pounds per month on calls and texts so a contract is not to my advantage. It was the only one offering DD at the time as well, I find this very handy for knowing where my money is going and for identifying business expenses (as they send a statement itemising calls before the Direct Debit is collected).

bengalknights

Ifs its PAYG then there really isnt much to worry about as the amount you put in would be fixed via top up.

Im presuming the £300 increase is more down to if you ever need to use it you can request it be decreased to what it was.

grumbler

bengalknights wrote: »

Ifs its PAYG then there really isnt much to worry about as the amount you put in would be fixed via top up.

Do you really know this? I don't know how PAYG with DD works.

http://www.virginmobile.com/vm/genericContent.do?contentId=pay.as.you.go.howdoi.sm378

Set up a direct debit

Setting up Direct Debit is subject to the UK credit check

:eek:

Tennishead

grumbler wrote: »

Do you really know this? I don't know how PAYG with DD works.

http://www.virginmobile.com/vm/genericContent.do?contentId=pay.as.you.go.howdoi.sm378

Set up a direct debit

:eek:

Basically, top ups are irrelevant - the whole point of having the direct debit is to pay monthly and avoid having to top up or run out. You have a credit limit, you can run up a bill up to this value, then they bill you via direct debit each month. So if you have a credit limit of £300 you can run up a bill for £300.

bengalknights

Tennishead wrote: »

Basically, top ups are irrelevant - the whole point of having the direct debit is to pay monthly and avoid having to top up or run out. You have a credit limit, you can run up a bill up to this value, then they bill you via direct debit each month. So if you have a credit limit of £300 you can run up a bill for £300.

Oh right ok so its more like a sim only plan then payg

Tennishead

bengalknights wrote: »

Oh right ok so its more like a sim only plan then payg

Not sure, never had SIM only, are they available without a contract? I can currently spend £0 per month if I don't have any usage. I usually spend £0-5 per month mainly on texts with occasional calls

Would be interested to hear about any other options with an automatic credit card top up or DD payment. I also preferably need a statement so I can claim for business usage.

grumbler

Tennishead wrote: »

Not sure, never had SIM only, are they available without a contract?

Any PAYG is without a contract and can be sim-only. However, normally this cannot be a DD and AFAIK itemised billing is usually is not available

Stuart_W

Tennishead wrote: »

Would be interested to hear about any other options with an automatic credit card top up or DD payment. I also preferably need a statement so I can claim for business usage.

If you're on Virgin's original Pay-As-You-Go-by-direct-debit, I'm pretty sure that means you're paying 21p/min for landline and virgin calls 36p/min for any calls to other networks. They will not change this as the tariff was archived several years ago.

The Phone Co-op offer a monthly billed account for 7p/min for all mobile and landline calls (or 4p/min landlines and 11.5p/min mobiles if you prefer) with a low £2 monthly fee. Monthly billing by direct debit. Whilst that means no usage over a month will be £2 more expensive, it would only take less than 10 minutes of usage in any month for the Phone Co-op option to be cheaper.

Tennishead

Thanks for the info, never heard of the Phone Co-op before.