£100 phone bill: Opinions

gingerscot

Hi,

I changed my contract from a 24month monthly to a 12month sim only package 2 months back with Three last month. This resulted in my non-3 minutes reducing from 500 to 200min and I was fully aware of this. I’d never go over the original limit before and I was pretty confident the new limit would rarely be an issue however this month due to a variation of reasons I had a few long calls and went over the 200min limit. I was completely unaware of this till I voicemail I was leaving was terminated stating I had no credit remaining. I phoned up to extend/bolt on some minutes and discovered I had a £99.90 bill from going over my limit! I was told I should have using My3 online/app to check this but I never use this service (or never needed to in the past). My bank texts me when I’ve hit the limit so why can’t a mobile company! Anyway, I realise it’s my mistake and it’s a great way for Three to make money but the lack of any warnings has really annoyed me.

Is it worth complaining or is it a waste of time? To be honest I’m quite interested in a new phone and switching to vodaphone as I get better reception with them anyway. If I leave the worst case scenario is that I pay the £100 bill and the remaining 10months of the sim only day (£6.90x10) but the best case scenario maybe them cancelling the bill entirely and me staying with them for a bit longer. What are the chances and what approach would you take or am I taking the biscuit so to speak!

Thanks!

HappyMJ

You must check every day...at least a few times a week to make sure you are not near your limit. They don't warn you. If you want 3 to block you earlier then ring 3 and change the credit limit to £1 they will stop you from exceeding your limit by blocking you from making any calls once your minutes have run out as they have done once you hit your £100 credit limit.

It's always worth calling so try it and see what happens.

WelshPaul

You used their service, you made the calls, you pay for them.

I had a text message from three the other day informing me that I had reached 85% of my monthly allowance, you can also request a cap on your account to prevent you from running up a huge bill.

You can use the my 3 app to check your balance and allowance, you can also dial 333 and press 1 to find out the same info. Or log on to three.co.uk via any other device.

Quentin

gingerscot wrote: »

.... am I taking the biscuit so to speak!

Yes .

redux

Why don't you either move back up to a higher tariff, or if the higher use is likely only in a month or two look at other ways to make cheap calls, such as using third party callback or a single monthly payg bundle on another or even the same network