Was I lied to?

[Anonymous]

Hi guys, just here wondering if anyone could help me with this. 

I finished my montly contract over a year ago, and have since been on rolling monthly contracts. 

At the beginning of the month, I decided to finally cancel this and spoke to an online O2 staff guy about this. After a lot of effort I managed to get it cancelled. 

I know you have to allow 30 days notice or so which I was fine with, but from what the guy told me I was under the impression that instead of my last monthly payment (which got taken out today) I would make one last smaller payment on the very final day (which according to my bill summary is still scheduled to come out on the 8th Feb). 

I specifically asked the guy if monthly bills are for the coming month, and if the 8th Feb payement would be instead of the end of Jan payment. He answered both with a straight out "Yes."

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

You pay your line rental in advance (so this coming month is paid for) but any usage you pay in arrears. So, any charges outside of your allowance will be billed next month. If you want to ensure a finalisation request a PAC and port your number to another network (either PAYG or contract) This will close your account and generate the final bill immediately. Any money owed to you (from the advanced payment) can be reclaimed next month back into your bank account.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. I was told though that the final bill will be paid on the end date in 2 weeks from now, instead of the regularly scheduled one which was paid today. So are you saying they will actually give me half of what got taken out back rather than take more out? Because I'm not too convinced... 

I'm actually very tempted to cut my losses, cancel the standing order and let them keep what extra £15 or whatever. Too much hassle and I could see more being taken out without any way of getting it back. 

[perksie]

Don't cancel the standing order, O2 don't normally make billing errors, and you could end up with a default being passed to the credit agencies which is hard to remove and could affect you getting further credit.

Dozens have posted here about being unable to get credit because of this, sometimes a year or more down the line.

Wait until you get a zero bill, then cancel it.

[MI5]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for the reply. I was told though that the final bill will be paid on the end date in 2 weeks from now, instead of the regularly scheduled one which was paid today. So are you saying they will actually give me half of what got taken out back rather than take more out? 

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Yes, that is correct. Except that anything used outside of your allowance will come out of "the half". As I said, to 100% guarantee no more bills just port your number away from O2. Use another network PAYG sim to "hold" your number and them when you decide what you are doing contract wise just port your number back to your new contract.

[Anonymous]

Is there any way to check how much the next payment will be ahead of it actually being paid? 

[MI5]

Not accurately as it depends on your usage.

[Anonymous]

I mean the due amount before any extras. I never overstep my allowance anyway, but surely there should be somewhere I could see how much is due to be paid. 

As for the requesting a PAC, I already have a new phone and contract up and running on a different network so it's too late for that. 

[MI5]

You can still port your number.....

[Anonymous]

I don't want to. 

All I want to know is if there's any way of seeing how much is due to come out. If not then I'm not going to risk it, they can keep the extra money. A bit dubious to take it out in the first place imo. I can't call it theft if you say there is a way to get it back, but I know from the lengths I had to go just to leave O2 how hard it is to get anything done with them. Like trying to get blood out of a stone.