1p mobile debiting my credit card without authorisation

fun4everyone

Hi,

Many years ago I signed up to 1pmobile pay as you go via money saving expert.  I needed a cheap pay as you go for a second phone and it fitted the bill nicely.  I registered my credit card with them but did not turn on auto top up.  I used it for about 3 and a half years just fine, occasionally topping up a tenner as needed.  They did have a minimum usage of £2.50 every so often and they would just debit that from my balance when it came around.  After 3 years they made some very aggressive t&c changes which included upping the min usage to a tenner.  I did not accept the t&c changes nor did I top up after this point as that would indicate acceptance.  I just donated all the balance to comic relief via text message and switched off the phone.  They would pester me to turn on auto top up and sent even more aggressive t&c changes which I declined to accept and just ignored.  It is a pay as you go and the balance was now 0.00.

Fast forward from Comic Relief time till now and they have just emailed me they debited my card £18.60 outstanding balance.  I looked on my pending transactions and they HAVE debited it.  They had no authorisation to do this and it was sold to me as a pay as you go.   It is an American Express credit card they have debited.

Surely they should not be doing this.   I have started with an email to customer services but if that fails I will escalate it to a formal complaint.  After that I am not sure what to do.  I entered into NO contract with them.  I could just cancel my credit card and get a new one?  They cannot do anything to my credit report surely?  Very annoying.  If anyone has any advice or option I would appreciate.

Thanks for reading.

Neil_Jones

Using up all the credit and not topping up is not the way to signal you do not agree with the new T&Cs.

What you should have done was migrated away to another provider. Or phoned them up and said you want out.

Anyway according to website they don't support American Express:

https://www.1pmobile.com/ask-penny?question=What-payment-methods-do-you-accept?

fun4everyone

Neil_Jones said:

Using up all the credit and not topping up is not the way to signal you do not agree with the new T&Cs.

What you should have done was migrated away to another provider. Or phoned them up and said you want out.

Anyway according to website they don't support American Express:

https://www.1pmobile.com/ask-penny?question=What-payment-methods-do-you-accept?

They definitely accept Amex, at least for legacy customers. Its what I always used with them and what they have charged me with here. I dont buy I have to migrate away for a pay as you go. I can just stop using it. They dont have a divine right to help myself to my cash forever more and I didnt accept any t&cs.

fun4everyone

Also here is the last email I received from them before today

"The credit balance (£0.00) on your 1pMobile account was insufficient for us to take your 90-day spend commitment of £10.00, and your mobile service will therefore be suspended shortly.

We have taken the part-requirement of £0.00, and there is still £10.00 outstanding which will be taken automatically from any new credit you apply.

You need to make a top-up as soon as possible by logging into your 1pMobile account at www.1pmobile.com/login.

We strongly recommend you also select the 'auto top-up' option to ensure that you will always have credit available on your phone when you need it in future.

In line with industry guidelines designed to ensure the efficient use of mobile numbers, please note that if we have not received your top-up by 16 October 2024, then your 1pMobile service will be disconnected and your mobile number will go into the re-allocation pool and cannot then be recovered"

The last part is key, they told me I would be disconnected and that was fine, but they have now charged me instead

muffinhead

It looks like you're not the only one to have a recent unauthorised charge:

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.1pmobile.com?sort=recency&stars=1

Boohoo

Maybe more to this as I tried to log in and website is down.

Tried downforeveryoneorjustme and that comes up as website down so could be an issue.

My Dad is switching to Spuso on Monday soon who knows if it will happen.

fun4everyone

muffinhead said:

It looks like you're not the only one to have a recent unauthorised charge:

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.1pmobile.com?sort=recency&stars=1

Thanks yeah, lots of people having the same experience I had. For absolute clarity their T&C say if your account is 0.00 and you dont use it for x amount of time they will close your account and return your number to the pool. They emailed me explicitly to say this was happening twice. My phone had 0.00 credit and lay switched off in a drawer for the last 8 months. I had auto top up switched off. They randomly emailed me to say they had debited £18.60 yesterday which was not what their t&c say, not what they had emailed me to say they would do nor did I authorise any credit to be added to my account. I would say it is borderline criminal. The website is down for me also and I do wonder if it is a cash grab before going busto, who knows. It WAS my American Express card that was charged, but the way it was authorised was through my paypal account which my Amex is linked to. I consider strongly the possibility of phoning Amex to speak about my options with regards to getting this refunded. I would only do this if I am sure I am absolutely in the right and I have exhausted all other options. They havent replied to my customer service email yet, if they do and they dont respond I can make a formal complaint and if that fails try the ombudsman. I cant see how I wouldnt win tbh, I have evidence of everything. I suspect they might be going bust though and it would just be a waste of time. It IS also an unauthorised charge, perhaps calling Amex tomorrow and speaking to them about itis the best idea. I have of course turned off the paypal authorisation. If anyone here has a 1p account they dont use anymore please do be wary.

fun4everyone

Also reading those comments from people who had the same thing done to them, they all seem to have had it done at around the same time as me over this weekend, definitely seems like something is up.

flaneurs_lobster

The website is available today. People may wish to remove their payment details from the site if they have concerns. 

km1500

also remove them from you PayPal lists so they can't take any more

fun4everyone

Yes the website is back up and they did post a comment on social media to somebody about something completely different, but they are ignoring my attempts at contacting them which says it all.  Its not just the trustpilot reviews either, there are multiple comments on another forum that I read and on social media suggesting the same thing happened to others.  Bizarrely the figure of £18-20 seems a common amount to have been taken without authorisation.

I spoke to AMEX about it and made sure to correctly and truthfully explain everything.  They said to contact PayPal first but if that fails I can always go back to them at Amex HQ and they will deal with it.  I am trying to contact PayPal now.  There dispute service is a nightmare, you have to pick from multiple choice none of which fit what happened nor is there a close best fit.   They just took the money from the card without authorisation, incredible you cant just file that as a dispute.