Weird credit check - BT 8 February at 8:13PM in Mobiles 13 replies 352 views

Stillsmiling

Hi all, I need some help please.  I've been with BT for years, had 4 mobiles with them for over 5 years. It's renewal time and I'm so busy at work I took the easy way out and planned to just renew with BT.  Broadband and 4 sim only deals (normally at least 2 handsets but being good).  Had the "oh it's EE now so need to do a credit check. Fine, no problem but the questions were seriously odd.
Is your bank x y or z? 
How long at current address. 27 years!  Was previous address 4 Blah St, 6 Blah St?
Is your credit card with y or z
Is your overdraft between x and y, a and b or p and q?
Which bank were you with on Jan 2014?

What on earth?  I didn't get asked that for a mortgage! 
The bank options didn't include the one I changed to 2 months ago so how was I meant to answer?
I refused the overdraft question  as I don't see why they'd need that (and I don't know, I don't use it!).

It was rejected because I refused to answer the overdraft question so I told him I'd take my business elsewhere. But is this normal these days?

I moaned at BT on Facebook and he agreed it seemed odd.

Then next steps, who to go with next?  Vodafone used to be great here but tower went down and was never fixed, EE was next best signal here.

Help please!

ProDave

I can recommend 1pmobile, they use the EE network.  I don't know what your usage is, 1p are essentially pay as you go but do monthly packages as well.

Just apply on line, get as SIM, if it works, port your numbers.

I recently swapped to them after we lost all signal at home from O2 and they say there is not a problem, similar to your vodfone problem.

P.S I chose 1pmobile over the other EE re sellers as they are the only one that offers wifi calling.

P.P.S I previously tried Plusnet who also use the EE network but that did not work for me, digging deeper, it turns out they only use a subset of the EE network (probably not access to all bands) so coverage is not as good.

flaneurs_lobster

That's not a credit check, it's an Id check using data from your credit report. Still odd if you're an existing customer (albeit of BT rather than EE, do they not share data?).

MikeJXE

Probably trying to make sure it's you calling 

savergrant

I believe all BT mobile business is gradually being migrated to ee so contract terms are likely to differ.

There are always two factors to consider, price and service. Service includes reception, available data, and backup in case of problems.

Big question is how much usage do you need in terms of calls and data?

There are quite a few options to stay on the ee signal, including 1pmobile and nowmobile/rwg.

Stillsmiling

Not much usage really, we have 2 on 12Gb and 2 on 20Gb, never use it all. Unlimited mins but not really heavy users if I'm honest.

Re the check, we'd already done security, this was definitely a credit check as he claimed it was required by the FCA.

Stillsmiling

And thanks for the help, will check those suggestions out.

savergrant

1pmobile and nowmobile both do 10gb for £10 monthly plans but nowmobile are half price for 3 months at mo.

Rwg are rebadged nowmobile at £12, so not as good.

1pmobile offer 5g and WiFi calling so are basically full fat ee signal, nowmobile are semi-skimmed 4g.

20gb is a bit thinner for choice, both do 50gb for £15, again nowmobile half price for 3 months.

All 30 day contracts so easy to up/downgrade.

savergrant

Plusnet look pretty reasonable too BUT prices going up 15% in march and suggestion they don't use all ee frequencies.

southsidergs

This doesn't sound odd at all. By any chance were you trying to get a newer iphone/android model? Those are the sort of questions used as an id check for high priced newer devices

savergrant

"Broadband and 4 sim only deals (normally at least 2 handsets but being good)."

So doesn't sound like expensive handsets. Could be checking whether op can commit to pay for next 24 months (would question why anyone would commit to sim only for 24 months though and frankly what have they lost if you stop paying? They can just disconnect you)