Single Mum - Struggling to get realistic SOA

savergrant

No it won't automatically cancel your service. Requesting a pac just gives you the information you need. Your service will not terminate until another network presents the pac (in effect a letter from you saying you wish them to take over your mobile services). You have 30 days from the date you ask for a pac to use it, otherwise it lapses and your service continues unaffected. 

savergrant

To use the pac you tell the new network the number you want to bring in and the pac, which proves(?) you are entitled to that number. You also confirm the phone number you wish to replace (sometimes called the temporary number) and you may be asked for the sim numbers (the credit card style number on the sim or the sim housing but this is rare and not especially convenient!) You can port in a number any time without affecting your contract or allowance, but it is a good idea to do it quickly so people have the right number for you.

And keep your pac secret, it can be used to reroute bank/credit card authorisation calls to a fraudster. It will be 3 letters and then I think it is 6 numbers, and I think ee ones still start TMO from their TMobile days.

savergrant

I think it is a good idea to consider adding ee to the debts on your soa, rather than your monthly expenses. I say this for two reasons, firstly as many have pointed out £42 for mobiles each month for the two of you is unjustifiable expense, and secondly because it will help you to see an endgame, a time when you will have paid ee all the money you need to and have more freedom in your budgeting. By requesting a pac for each number you will be able to evaluate how much it will cost you to terminate the contract, you will need to do a little bit of maths to work out how much it would cost you to carry on in contract until you can leave without penalty (you can end your contract next month without penalty but keep paying your daughter's for instance). Against that you might be better off to advise ee that you cannot pay your monthly bill, and let your dmp arrange a payment plan to cover your termination costs. In that case it is likely that ee will disconnect the service.

savergrant

Then I would suggest putting £10 per month into your soa for mobiles as a reasonable expenditure.

Pre_Approved_Junkie

@savergrant Thats fantastic information. thank you so much.

savergrant

You're welcome. For too long mobile networks have conditioned us to believe that their prices are fair and that their phones are free. That way you keep paying each month and don't realise how much the handset is actually costing you. £30 per month for 24 months is £720, you could get a sim only deal for £5 a month costing you £120 for 2 years, so even if the phone sells for £400 that is still an extra £200 they have fleeced you for, even IF the monthly price drops after 24 months as some networks are starting to do (most will carry on taking their £30 until you realise you shouldn't be paying that much any more). Did anyone tell you your daughter needed 100gb per month? By my reckoning it will cost you about £540 to run down your daughter's contract with ee, or about £110 + whatever your early termination charges are to switch. It is harder to say what the early termination charge might be for your phone, but the £10 credit from rwg probably means switching before the end of this month is better than waiting until march. Then again you never know what offers might be around in march, but prices are tending to rise still. Running down your contract may not be an option as £42 pm for mobiles on your soa could be a sticking point on your dmp anyway.

Pre_Approved_Junkie

savergrant said:

You're welcome. For too long mobile networks have conditioned us to believe that their prices are fair and that their phones are free. That way you keep paying each month and don't realise how much the handset is actually costing you. £30 per month for 24 months is £720, you could get a sim only deal for £5 a month costing you £120 for 2 years, so even if the phone sells for £400 that is still an extra £200 they have fleeced you for, even IF the monthly price drops after 24 months as some networks are starting to do (most will carry on taking their £30 until you realise you shouldn't be paying that much any more). Did anyone tell you your daughter needed 100gb per month? By my reckoning it will cost you about £540 to run down your daughter's contract with ee, or about £110 + whatever your early termination charges are to switch. It is harder to say what the early termination charge might be for your phone, but the £10 credit from rwg probably means switching before the end of this month is better than waiting until march. Then again you never know what offers might be around in march, but prices are tending to rise still. Running down your contract may not be an option as £42 pm for mobiles on your soa could be a sticking point on your dmp anyway.

You were spot on. For hers it is £523.10 and for mine it is £21.10.

To answer your questions about the 100gb, no, I just did it online myself, as it was an upgrade and one of the only options available where I didn't have to pay anything upfront. Very foolish I know.

savergrant

Those are the figures that came in response to the pac text?

OK, so you are not going to save anything by cancelling the contracts and getting another deal (I thought you might get about 25% off if you weren't actually using their services.)

I would still factor it as a debt (as it was to get the phone and you have to pay it) if you have to reduce the monthly payments across all creditors and ee disconnect you it will not be a major expense to get a new sim deal and will show that your long term financial health looks a little better (broken phone emergencies aside).

savergrant

I can understand why you did it. especially if you didn't realise what other deals were around and your credit card couldn't take the hit of paying for a new phone upfront. But sadly unless your household income has gone down a fair bit recently you were overcommitted on your monthly repayments even before you got the phone for your daughter. To be fair given the fact that your household expenses seem pretty reasonable it is hard to see how anyone lending to you could expect you to manage the repayments for the next 24 months.

As ee expect you to pay the full amount of your contract whether you are using it or not you may as well use it while it's there, so i suggest you delete the pac texts.

To my mind if they remove the service for non payment they can't expect you to pay the full amount.

You could order the sims from rwg, and take out the cheapest (£2) deal and get the £10 bonus credit. You would need to contact them to stop it autorenewing after 30 days or if your ee service is cut off move up to a bigger plan.

https://www.rwgmobile.wales/webshop/offers/100-mins-100-sms-750mb-data-£2-month-plus-£10-free-credit/

Pre_Approved_Junkie

I'll definitely go for the rwg. Looks like a good deal. EE must be on to me wanting to leave as I've never had so many texts and emails from them, 2 stating how prices are going up again in March by 14.4% for phones, as well as the broadband.