Limiting a vodafone bill

Dinah93

Can anyone give any advice please. My husband went 400 mins over his contract this month (almost exclusively calling my mobile and landline checking up on me as I'm having a decidedly unhealthy pregnancy, keep going to hospital etc) and as a result his vodafone bill came to £189 rather than the usual £20. He called them and their customer service team have said there is nothing they can do, can't spread the payments out, can't give him a bolt on or anything to give him more minutes for the future or to make my number a reduced rate, can't give him any kind of alert if he goes over his minutes, nothing.

Does anyone have any advice for how we can keep track of this better - be this through vodafone or an app (he has a blackberry) or similar?

OneADay

Usually there is a call duration counter in most phones under the call log settings.
Just reset that on each billing date and you can keep track....

starrybee

On vodafone you can also call 44555, choose option 1 and they will send you a text saying how minutes you have remaining

grumbler

Dinah93 wrote: »

...can can't give him a bolt on or anything to give him more minutes for the future

I think he can just temporarily switch to a more expensive tariff.

columbiana

Sorry to hear about your troubles, can I ask what network you are on for your mobile?
Vodafone offer 3000 minutes to other mobiles for £5 per month if your number is with them, or 1000 mins to landlines for the same price, didn't they offer your husband either of these? It should help him to stay within his allowance in the future.
I am not sure why he was told he couldn't increase his allowance, this is completely untrue. He can increase it as much as he likes, the next plan up would be an extra £5 and give on average an extra 300 minutes to any network.
Vodafone will allow a spread payment if the bill isn't paid on time, but you would have to default on the account first. This will result in his line being resticted so he can only recieve incoming calls, which probably isnt ideal for you at the moment. Usually they will not restict your number for 30 days though, which gives you a chance to get the money together before he is cut off.
If your number is PAYG vodafone do a family group which gives unlimited calls to any vodafonbe number, so it may be worth getting a sim and loading a fiver onto it so you can contact him as much as you like with out the risk of running up a big bill.

Hope this helps, and hope things get better for you and your pregnancy x

grumbler

columbiana wrote: »

can I ask what network you are on for your mobile?...

Also, if the OP has some allowance to use she can call her husband back when he calls her. Or if it is other network, they can be more flexible than Vodafone with increasing allowance or adding a bundle.

I am not sure why he was told he couldn't increase his allowance, this is completely untrue.

Simply because Vodafone are notorious for their useless and incompetent telephone CS.

Vodafone will allow a spread payment if the bill isn't paid on time, but you would have to default on the account first. This will result in his line being resticted so he can only recieve incoming calls, which probably isnt ideal for you at the moment. Usually they will not restict your number for 30 days though, which gives you a chance to get the money together before he is cut off.

This will also result in a default record in his credit file(s).

columbiana

grumbler wrote: »

This will also result in a default record in his credit file(s).

Very good point, sorry I meant to add that. Cheers

spiro

Typically they cant do much about an existing bill but they can help going forward. If you are on VF they offer a £5pm month add on that allows you to 'link' 4 VF phones and they can call each other as much as you want without using any of your minutes. Sometimes it is better to go into a VF shop.

Vodafone

Dinah93 wrote: »

Can anyone give any advice please. My husband went 400 mins over his contract this month (almost exclusively calling my mobile and landline checking up on me as I'm having a decidedly unhealthy pregnancy, keep going to hospital etc) and as a result his vodafone bill came to £189 rather than the usual £20. He called them and their customer service team have said there is nothing they can do, can't spread the payments out, can't give him a bolt on or anything to give him more minutes for the future or to make my number a reduced rate, can't give him any kind of alert if he goes over his minutes, nothing.

Does anyone have any advice for how we can keep track of this better - be this through vodafone or an app (he has a blackberry) or similar?

Hi Dinah93,

Further to my reply here a moment ago.

Arranging a payment plan is something we may be able to put in place for your husband.

To enable us to get this looked into could you email us as per the contact details posted in the thread I've linked to?

Thanks,

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK