Wow I'm screwed. Mum's o2 phone bill comes up to £220.

seriously

My bill, which is due to be paid next week comes up to £220 thanks to a 3 and an half hour international call to Hong Kong.

1) She didn't knowingly make the call.

2) We recognise the number (a family friend).

3) I spoke to a o2 representative last week and I a) did not acknowledge the call/the number (to which he pulled up some records and said it was called previously*) b) the call was logged from the sim card i.e no way denying it.

4) *I just check my mums previous bills and there have more than several times where the phone has made 10-40secs calls to international numbers--most likely her leaving the phone unlocked in her bag blah blah.

5) The basic bill is 10.50 and it's never exceeded £12 in almost 18 months of use.

6) I have cancelled my direct debit with them.



She wants to me to talk to them and basically deny it/plead...but what can I do?! I guess she will pay the bill if need be but this is just too much for us at this time of the year.

Long shot but can anybody advise me here?

keith1950

The worst thing you could have done is to cancel the direct debit, if you don't rectify this asap or set up some other method of payment, her credit file will be screwed and she will find it difficult to get any credit at all !!

It doesn't really matter whether or not the call was made deliberately or accidently , the money is owed.

If it had been another scenario and the call made after the phone had been stolen then even then you would have been responsible up to the time you notify them its stolen.

Pay up asap and reinstate the direct debit or her credit file will end up showing missed payments and the debt could be be passed to a debt recovery firm if you delay.

Sorry that this will not be what you want to hear but she needs to look after her credit history.

devizes18193

take the number out of the phones memory, that way in future it cant be dialed by accident.

macman

If you take the simple precaution of using the PIN lock on the SIM (which you should be doing anyway in case of theft) then this cannot ever happen again. Whether accidental or not, if the call was made then the bill will have to be paid. Cancelling the DD is the worst thing you can do.

cgk1

How can you have a phone call that lasts over 3 hours if nobody answers the phone? If they answer the phone and nobody replies, wouldn't they hang up?

grumbler

Answering machine? However, even in this case I wouldn't expect the call to last 3+ hours.

System

It may be that, being an international call, it will not actually clear down the line until the CALLING phone hangs up.

redux

And lock the keypad so the phone can't make any accidental calls.

Rusty!

seriously wrote: »

Long shot but can anybody advise me here?

Pay up, learn from the mistakes and move on.

RustyShackleford

There's no way out of paying this. Cancelling the DD will affect the person's credit record and if you don't pay it it will eventually be sent to collections.

I suggest simply chalking it up to experience and paying it. Then sign your mother up with a service such as localphone.com which provides UK landline numbers that redirect to international destinations at far cheaper rates. A 3 1/2 hour call to a Hong Kong landline using Localphone would cost £2.52 and to a HK mobile would cost £1.68.

[Deleted User]

Your gonna just have to pay the bill - The itemised billing is there for your records but also for the networks to check to see if you have dialled numbers in the past thus preventing you from ripping them off.

You made the call so pay the bill.

Cancelling the DD will only affect your Mums credit rating & I'd be more pi**ed at that than at you fessing up to making the call.

Dxxx