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Contract for lots of calls & credit issue
Good morning,
I hope this is not too obscure for the forum, as I would love any advice anybody can offer. Apologies if this is not the right place to post.
I work in a nursing home, and a recent resident has a mobile phone which is costing him a fortune. His handset is locked to Tesco Mobile and he is on one of their PAYG tarrifs. He does not use any texts or internet, but makes a lot of calls, which cost 25p per minute, minimum 25p per call. He is on their boost scheme so gets some bonus credit, but he is topping up between £25 and £50 per week, so he is spending a lot on the calls he is making.
We have tried calling customer services but they cannot tell him how many minutes he actually uses. They have a pay monthly SIM only deal which would give him 5000 minutes for £12.50, and he would like to switch to that. However, their computer rejects the application, which I think is because he is failing the credit check. He has only lived in our home for a couple of months and is not yet on the electrol roll. We have been in touch with the council and they have sent him the forms to register here, but he won't appear on the roll until the next one is issued in December.
He is quite willing to pay 12 months of the monthly cost upfront on his debit card, but apparently Tesco cannot accept this.
If there was another provider who would be more flexible, it would probably be worth paying to unlock the handset (or even buying another one), but I don't want to go through all of that and then find we're in the same position whereever we try.
He is 95 and not able to leave the Home so we can't very well go into a shop. He is able to talk on the phone and is pretty coherent but rather deaf, so I sit with him when he needs to talk to a call centre.
Any ideas would be most welcome,
Robin
I hope this is not too obscure for the forum, as I would love any advice anybody can offer. Apologies if this is not the right place to post.
I work in a nursing home, and a recent resident has a mobile phone which is costing him a fortune. His handset is locked to Tesco Mobile and he is on one of their PAYG tarrifs. He does not use any texts or internet, but makes a lot of calls, which cost 25p per minute, minimum 25p per call. He is on their boost scheme so gets some bonus credit, but he is topping up between £25 and £50 per week, so he is spending a lot on the calls he is making.
We have tried calling customer services but they cannot tell him how many minutes he actually uses. They have a pay monthly SIM only deal which would give him 5000 minutes for £12.50, and he would like to switch to that. However, their computer rejects the application, which I think is because he is failing the credit check. He has only lived in our home for a couple of months and is not yet on the electrol roll. We have been in touch with the council and they have sent him the forms to register here, but he won't appear on the roll until the next one is issued in December.
He is quite willing to pay 12 months of the monthly cost upfront on his debit card, but apparently Tesco cannot accept this.
If there was another provider who would be more flexible, it would probably be worth paying to unlock the handset (or even buying another one), but I don't want to go through all of that and then find we're in the same position whereever we try.
He is 95 and not able to leave the Home so we can't very well go into a shop. He is able to talk on the phone and is pretty coherent but rather deaf, so I sit with him when he needs to talk to a call centre.
Any ideas would be most welcome,
Robin
You spent twenty thousand francs on this !!!!!!??
Marc - Art, Yasmina Riza
0
Comments
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Tesco run on O2 so any MVNO (or O2 themselves) should work on the phone although due to the credit check I'd try GiffGaff as I believe they don't do them. You can get a free sim to check the phone out @
https://www.giffgaff.com/free-sim-cards
They have a £10 a month UL minutes goodybag.0 -
Has he tried using his old address on his application?0
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Yes, have a look at giffgaff. They're pay as you go so no credit check (unless you buy a phone from them on credit) but their goodybags are monthly bundles.Colin_Maybe wrote: »Tesco run on O2 so any MVNO (or O2 themselves) should work on the phone although due to the credit check I'd try GiffGaff as I believe they don't do them. You can get a free sim to check the phone out @
https://www.giffgaff.com/free-sim-cards
They have a £10 a month UL minutes goodybag.
More on payg bundles and other options here:
https://kenstechtips.com/index.php/cheapest-pay-as-you-go-bundles0 -
Thank you all so much. I didn't realise the connection between the two, and have ordered a GiffGaff SIM so we can test it out.
You spent twenty thousand francs on this !!!!!!??
Marc - Art, Yasmina Riza0 -
If he was prepared to get the handset unlocked, consider Smarty - runs on the Three network. It doesn't need a credit check and you get unlimited calls and texts plus 2GB of data for £7.50 per month but they refund you for unused data, so would work out at £5 per month for unlimited calls and texts if he doesn't use data.0
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Thank you so much - I haven't heard of them!
You spent twenty thousand francs on this !!!!!!??
Marc - Art, Yasmina Riza0 -
You will need a 3G handset to run on Three, or on any MVNO using Three's network.No free lunch, and no free laptop
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