iv just joined o2 and i completely agree with you. its pointless them saying "we refund it" techniaclly they dont, if you read the article carefully it states its either transferred back to your card OR - put on your account as credit, so its basically a free £1 they falsly tricked you into paying for nothing. and id bet 9 times out of 10 they say its went onto your o2 account balace rather than being put back where they stole it from.
the simple fact is especially for may monthly customers, you need to be 18 to get a contract, if you have a contract (which they do all the checks on before they accept you) then they know your age. so its utter bull. they do not "need" a credit card to perform an age check. as it should have been done during the sign up of the contract. after all you are asked your D.O.B during the process.
pay as you go, yes i can see the point to the block. as many young people are on payg plans. as for the £1 "fee" i agree again. they do not need to charge anything at all to clarify a card (credit or debit) is active. if indeed they do want to charge (we all know they do and will anyway) they can simply charge 1p or do a call back on the card, basically perform a dummy transaction so the bank pings back the card is "alive"
however you look at it this is another free money making scheme for o2. iv just came online to access my google account and im being asked to verify my age just for that! and im a pay monthly customer too.
bottom line if the checks where done properly during sign up then the age verification would be lifted before you even put the sim in the phone. which says to me this scheme is deliberate.
