Daughter lost job and phone contract to pay

silkyuk9

Ok, daughter has a vodafone contract which is £35 per month and 18 month contract, maybe had this for 2 or 3 months. Now lost job and cannot pay the contract, she is 19.

do you think vodafone will come to an arrangement to stop contract and give phone back rather than going down the legal route of getting money from her.

lazer

The contract was taken out in good faith - although you can try and come to an agreement with vodafone i doubt it would be successful.

Why can your daughter not pay the contract out of her JSA - I know you only get £50 a week if under 25, but vodafone are only looking for £8 a week of this - she should be able to afford that, what other committments does she have?

Alternatively sell the phone, i assume for a £35 a month contract this is a high spec phone, therefore she could sell it privately and use the money received to pay the contract unitl she gets a new job.

Annie._2

I am sorry to read that your daughter has lost her job.

The contract is a legally binding commitment and will have to be fully paid. Personal circumstances are of no concern to the company.

If she is going to have a problem with the repayments for her mobile phone contract, the best thing to do would be to contact Vodafone. They have a dedicated department and will be able to recommend a repayment plan which your daughter will be able to manage until she is in a better financial position.

This will mean having a restriction on her number and she will be unable to make any outgoing calls or texts, but will be able to receive all incoming.

Al least this will prevent a default being placed on your daughters credit file which will be the last thing anyone would want in this present economic climate.

If she knows of anyone who would be willing to take over the contract, Vodafone would be able to do a change of ownership where all responsibility for the contract would be passed to a new owner. This would be subject to Vodafone's credit check.

Bongedone

Some Vodafone contracts allow a downgrade depending on how long the contract has run

Annie._2

Bongedone wrote: »

Some Vodafone contracts allow a downgrade depending on how long the contract has run

The non downgradable YPL (Your Plan) tariffs started at the beginning of last year.

c-m

Ann_S wrote: »

I am sorry to read that your daughter has lost her job.

The contract is a legally binding commitment and will have to be fully paid. Personal circumstances are of no concern to the company.

If she is going to have a problem with the repayments for her mobile phone contract, the best thing to do would be to contact Vodafone. They have a dedicated department and will be able to recommend a repayment plan which your daughter will be able to manage until she is in a better financial position.

This will mean having a restriction on her number and she will be unable to make any outgoing calls or texts, but will be able to receive all incoming.

Al least this will prevent a default being placed on your daughters credit file which will be the last thing anyone would want in this present economic climate.

If she knows of anyone who would be willing to take over the contract, Vodafone would be able to do a change of ownership where all responsibility for the contract would be passed to a new owner. This would be subject to Vodafone's credit check.

Why on earth would she want to restrict outgoing calls and sms? These are being paid for in the £35. Even if she made no calls or sms, she'd still have to pay the £35. So the restriction doesn't help.

The best thing to do, is to sell the phone. At £35 per month, the phone must be worth at least £300-£450 depending on what it is.

That covers most of a year's contract.

DUTR

c-m wrote: »

Why on earth would she want to restrict outgoing calls and sms? These are being paid for in the £35. Even if she made no calls or sms, she'd still have to pay the £35. So the restriction doesn't help.

The best thing to do, is to sell the phone. At £35 per month, the phone must be worth at least £300-£450 depending on what it is.

That covers most of a year's contract.

Who will pay that sort of money for a previously owned handset?
Best bet is to get daddy to helpout the OP.

Annie._2

c-m wrote: »

Why on earth would she want to restrict outgoing calls and sms? These are being paid for in the £35. Even if she made no calls or sms, she'd still have to pay the £35. So the restriction doesn't help.

The best thing to do, is to sell the phone. At £35 per month, the phone must be worth at least £300-£450 depending on what it is.

That covers most of a year's contract.

I mentioned a repayment plan with Vodafone where outgoing facilities would be restricted and would help the OP until she has found a new job and is in a better financial position.

I cant see anyone paying that price for a second hand used phone, it may pay off part of the contract but would still leave a large amount which would need to be paid off and which the OP does not have at this point in time.

flyingscotno1

Even if you sell the phone I'd say you'd still have £200 to find. I think it will be one of those hard lessons in life on budgeting for all eventualities unless you can get Vodafone to show some goodwill.

Annie._2

flyingscotno1 wrote: »

Even if you sell the phone I'd say you'd still have £200 to find. I think it will be one of those hard lessons in life on budgeting for all eventualities unless you can get Vodafone to show some goodwill.

The last time I looked Vodafone were not a registered charity and there is no reason for them to offer any goodwill.

Personal circumstances are of no concern to the company you are contracted to.

macman

She could sell the contract on to friend/family member possibly. Otherwise she'll have to carry on paying.
Selling the handset on eBay and paying up the ETC now will otherwise be the cheapest option, as she will save the VAT component at 20%.
But why enter into a contract for a top end handset costing £35 a month if she hasn't even got sufficient savings to pay for a few months with less income? Just £100 savings would cover the bill for the next 3 months, by then she may well be back in work.