£2000 Vodafone bill

Acania

Hello. I dunno what to do. I got a letter from Vodafone saying my contract has been cancelled and that my final bill of £2000 has been passed onto a DCA. The thing is during this pandemic I've got so many bills and I've negotiated payment plans with everyone but the Vodafone one everytime I talked to them they said max they would do is split my bill into 3 monthly payment and that is it. And that was something I couldn't afford. They've never messaged me to tell me that my bill is past due, I don't get any monthly statements. Nothing. I really don't know what to do. Anyone have any advice..please 

peteuk

I've they have cancelled your contract then the will be a charge (usually for the rest of the contract if you were in one)  Either that or you've either ran up a bill or haven't paid for months.   
I struggle to work out how its got to this, as normally they would contact you to advise a bill is overdue.  DCA may accept a lower amount or longer period than three months. 

Pete

runforlife

Contact VF first and ask for copies of all the statements that you were due. 

If the debt has been passed to a DCA then they’ll be in touch. Provide them with your offer of payment which is essentially a DMP. All you can do is offer an amount that you can afford . Make sure it’s documented, so in writing is best. If they choose not to accept it then down the line at least you can say you tried. 

datlex

Weren't you set up as a dd payment for Vodafone?  Normally they charge more if you are not on DD.  If you were on DD you need to find out a) if they were taking the monthly payment  (check your bank) b) if not why not.    A lot of firms are going paper free so it is likely you would be getting statements to you account online.  £2000 is a lot of money to owe for a phone contract, have you been charged for extras?  They can be sneaky like that if you don't have it set so that nothing other than you monthly agreed contract is due. (It means that you can't send mms or ring premium numbers but that isn't a huge issue).  

sourcrates

Not much will happen to be fair, debt collectors deal with 1000`s of defaulted airtime accounts every week, your just a number on a very long list.

For debt collectors, time is money, the DCA will run through its standard series of template letters with you, your number will be auto called on an ad hoc basis, this will continue for a short while.

If you don`t engage with them, they will give up, as its not earning them any money, then the account will be returned to Vodaphone as uncollectable, whereupon it will either be put to one side, with the other 1000`s of defaulted accounts that won`t be chased, or the cycle may rinse and repeat with another collection agency.

This may happen more than once, after a while the debt will be sold off to a debt purchaser such as Lowell or Cabot, and the story then repeats itself.
Once it gets to this stage, possibly a year, two years or more down the line, these type of companies are much more open to arrangements, you can pretty much pay what you can afford, debt purchasers now have to work on affordability (most do anyway).

So don`t let this stress you out, nothing dramatic will have the potential to happen for a very long time, until the debt is sold on, then if you don`t engage with the new owner, there is about a 12% chance they will take you to court, and an 88% chance it will be forgotten about.

Your call.

Acania

peteuk said:

I've they have cancelled your contract then the will be a charge (usually for the rest of the contract if you were in one)  Either that or you've either ran up a bill or haven't paid for months.   
I struggle to work out how its got to this, as normally they would contact you to advise a bill is overdue.  DCA may accept a lower amount or longer period than three months. 

Pete

Hi thanks for reply. I couldn't pay due to covid and my work hours being cut. And then when I contacted them on live chat they wanted like payment split into 3 and I said I can't do that and then said that's all they will offer. That was like 6 months ago and now they've cancelled and that's the bill. It says in the letter they've tried numerous times to get in touch but I've never had any letter from them stating that I even missed 1 month payment let alone 6. Nor have I received anything asking me to get in touch to arrange payment or anything. 

Acania

runforlife said:

Contact VF first and ask for copies of all the statements that you were due. 

If the debt has been passed to a DCA then they’ll be in touch. Provide them with your offer of payment which is essentially a DMP. All you can do is offer an amount that you can afford . Make sure it’s documented, so in writing is best. If they choose not to accept it then down the line at least you can say you tried. 

Hi thanks for reply. I have some other DCAs who chased me for similar amounts and I set up very small monthly payments with them. Do you think these guys will do the same as I can prove that if another DCA accepted very small amount from me then they should do the same? 

Acania

datlex said:

Weren't you set up as a dd payment for Vodafone?  Normally they charge more if you are not on DD.  If you were on DD you need to find out a) if they were taking the monthly payment  (check your bank) b) if not why not.    A lot of firms are going paper free so it is likely you would be getting statements to you account online.  £2000 is a lot of money to owe for a phone contract, have you been charged for extras?  They can be sneaky like that if you don't have it set so that nothing other than you monthly agreed contract is due. (It means that you can't send mms or ring premium numbers but that isn't a huge issue).  

Hi thanks for reply. I wasn't on DD. And I had just renewed my contract when covid affected my financial situation. So it's a big headache. Shouldn't they email to say payment is due? Or even if you miss to send a letter stating you missed a payment? Like they seem really not to care. 

Acania

sourcrates said:

Not much will happen to be fair, debt collectors deal with 1000`s of defaulted airtime accounts every week, your just a number on a very long list.

For debt collectors, time is money, the DCA will run through its standard series of template letters with you, your number will be auto called on an ad hoc basis, this will continue for a short while.

If you don`t engage with them, they will give up, as its not earning them any money, then the account will be returned to Vodaphone as uncollectable, whereupon it will either be put to one side, with the other 1000`s of defaulted accounts that won`t be chased, or the cycle may rinse and repeat with another collection agency.

This may happen more than once, after a while the debt will be sold off to a debt purchaser such as Lowell or Cabot, and the story then repeats itself.
Once it gets to this stage, possibly a year, two years or more down the line, these type of companies are much more open to arrangements, you can pretty much pay what you can afford, debt purchasers now have to work on affordability (most do anyway).

So don`t let this stress you out, nothing dramatic will have the potential to happen for a very long time, until the debt is sold on, then if you don`t engage with the new owner, there is about a 12% chance they will take you to court, and an 88% chance it will be forgotten about.

Your call.

Hi thanks for reply. Don't DCAs have to work on affordability aswell? Should I contact them by email and state I can only pay X and fill in a E&I form so that at least I have in my record that I made an offer of what I can afford that other DCAs have accepted and yet they didn't accept?

sourcrates

Acania said:

sourcrates said:

Not much will happen to be fair, debt collectors deal with 1000`s of defaulted airtime accounts every week, your just a number on a very long list.

For debt collectors, time is money, the DCA will run through its standard series of template letters with you, your number will be auto called on an ad hoc basis, this will continue for a short while.

If you don`t engage with them, they will give up, as its not earning them any money, then the account will be returned to Vodaphone as uncollectable, whereupon it will either be put to one side, with the other 1000`s of defaulted accounts that won`t be chased, or the cycle may rinse and repeat with another collection agency.

This may happen more than once, after a while the debt will be sold off to a debt purchaser such as Lowell or Cabot, and the story then repeats itself.
Once it gets to this stage, possibly a year, two years or more down the line, these type of companies are much more open to arrangements, you can pretty much pay what you can afford, debt purchasers now have to work on affordability (most do anyway).

So don`t let this stress you out, nothing dramatic will have the potential to happen for a very long time, until the debt is sold on, then if you don`t engage with the new owner, there is about a 12% chance they will take you to court, and an 88% chance it will be forgotten about.

Your call.

Hi thanks for reply. Don't DCAs have to work on affordability aswell? Should I contact them by email and state I can only pay X and fill in a E&I form so that at least I have in my record that I made an offer of what I can afford that other DCAs have accepted and yet they didn't accept?

Yes of course you can make an offer of payment.

My post was intended to put your mind at ease by explaining the debt collection process to you, should you not have been aware of it.

HampshireH

Acania said:

datlex said:

Weren't you set up as a dd payment for Vodafone?  Normally they charge more if you are not on DD.  If you were on DD you need to find out a) if they were taking the monthly payment  (check your bank) b) if not why not.    A lot of firms are going paper free so it is likely you would be getting statements to you account online.  £2000 is a lot of money to owe for a phone contract, have you been charged for extras?  They can be sneaky like that if you don't have it set so that nothing other than you monthly agreed contract is due. (It means that you can't send mms or ring premium numbers but that isn't a huge issue).  

Hi thanks for reply. I wasn't on DD. And I had just renewed my contract when covid affected my financial situation. So it's a big headache. Shouldn't they email to say payment is due? Or even if you miss to send a letter stating you missed a payment? Like they seem really not to care. 

I thought Vodafone sent a text or email when the produce their bills and you are responsible for logging in and looking. What notification preference did you select?

However you knew you had a contract and you signed terms to lay a monthly bill. You are responsible for logging into your account, reading and paying it. (I appreciate you couldn't afford it at this time)

I don't think you can wholly blame Vodafone for not accessing your bills, unless you have no access and when you contacted them for help they failed to do so.

Have you checked your online account?