Sky high bill!!

[RobG]

Can anyone offer some advice for me as I’m at my wits end.

Last year I took out a cheap and cheerful O2 pay monthly (£20) contract for my 17 year old son who had come to live with me and my partner .

he suffers with Asperger syndrome which some of you will know is part of the autism spectrum.

he has trouble with many situations in life and did terribly at school mainly due to his disability.

We had managed to get him on a college course and with much persuasion and training we managed to get him to travel alone on the bus to and from home.

the phone was purely a means of contact and emergencies should they arise.

I thought the contract had been capped when I took it out but hey it seems not.

my son has run up a bill of almost £1000 in just a few days!!!!!!

he doesn’t understand the value of money  or how it’s earnt for that matter and now I’m faced with a huge bill.

work is slack at the moment what with covid etc so I’m wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to deal with this.

I’ve managed to get through to the cal centre but all they offered was a few quid off in the form of a credit, this won’t help, how can I get the cost of this forthcoming bill down, I’ve tried appealing to their better nature but it didn’t wash!

many thanks Rob 

[madasaf1sh · Accepted solution]

@RobG 

The best team to speak to are O2's Payment Management team and see if they can setup a payment plan., as they are not obliged to write off anything.. 

If these purchases are in app purchases you will need to reach out to the app store directly, as o2 wont write off charges they are sent by these providers. 

The other problem is that o2 may terminate the number, and you could end up with a much bigger bill, so it might be worth asking if they can convert it to PAYG.

Good luck.

O2's payment Management Team is on 0800 902 0217

[Cleoriff]

@RobG 

You can also ask O2 to put a few bars on his account

Bar to Charge to Mobile (will stop him buying anything on his account)

Bar All Direct to Bill Debits

Bar All Premium numbers.

Finally ask for a Spend Cap to be applied.

Guide: Tips to avoid unexpected charges on your bill 

[gmarkj]

It would be worth checking what the additional charges are for (if you haven't already) as if some are related to premium messages you could try and claw some back @RobG .

Details of how to get to the detailed bill view in this link:

Guide: How do I get to the 'Download Bill' page? 

If there ARE premium messages on there, these might help

Guide: Have you fallen for or been conned into a premium rate scam? What to do next 

www.payforitsucks.co.uk