3 requesting deposit to Sign up

rebellad

Right, went into carphone warehouse last night to change from 02 billpay to 3 billpay. Have been with 02 bill pay for the 5 years or so but need anytime minutes instead of off peak minutes and 3 looks like the best for this. Went in and did the usual, gave my drivers licence, utility bill and bank details. Low and behold the person at the counter told me that 3 were requesting a €200 deposit to sign up. Asked why and the person behind the counter put me onto someone in 3 who said that is what they were advised by the credit company they used to check me credit status. Decided to cancel the order cos it's ridiculous having to pay that much money, was talking to the guy behind the counter who said they have only processed 2 out of 10 three orders in the last week because of credit issues like that. For a company that wants to get new subscribers they are definitely going the wrong way about it.....

rebel.ranter

There is a lot of things that contribute to your credit history. Obviously 3 have very strict standards when signing people up to their network. They want the least amount of hassle they can get. They have a minimal staff presence here in Ireland, on that principle lone I would not sign up to them, the other big 3 operators have a sizeable work force in this country so I would be tending towrds one of them.
Have you looked into changing your O2 tarriff, they have all sorts of different incentives & offers at the moment. I assume you checked out http://www.callcosts.ie & entered your usage (or intended usage). This is a pretty good way of comparing all the different offerings that the various networks have. But bear in mind that with you being a customer of O2 for the past 5 years you should be in position to eek some sort of better deal from them, e.g. extra minutes, extra text bundle etc. Also bear in mind that the online shops, carphone warehouse & O2/Vodafone/Meteor retail store will all have different offerings too.

Sam Vimes

yeah 3 often asks for massive deposits and meteor can ask for up to €300. don't understand it myself

ardmacha

advised by the credit company they used to check me credit status

If you think you should have a better credit record, then request the information they have on you under the Data Protection act.

damo86

Well when i switched to bill 3 years ago i had just started college so being a student i wouldn't be the best candidate for contracts,with vodafone i only had to pay 100,i switched to o2 3 months ago..didn't have pay any deposit,i'm still a student!seems strange to me to pay up 200 let alone 300,madness.why dont you try going a 3g store or 3 store cos the first time i signed up it was the carphone warehouse..so it might be something to do with them perhaps?

Sam Vimes

damo86 wrote:

Well when i switched to bill 3 years ago i had just started college so being a student i wouldn't be the best candidate for contracts,with vodafone i only had to pay 100,i switched to o2 3 months ago..didn't have pay any deposit,i'm still a student!seems strange to me to pay up 200 let alone 300,madness.why dont you try going a 3g store or 3 store cos the first time i signed up it was the carphone warehouse..so it might be something to do with them perhaps?

its not. its the credit department at the network

cee_jay

I'm in the UK, just moved over, so do not have a credit history here.
Went to get a contract with 3, was going through the whole process when he asked for a £150 deposit. I didn't have the money with me so I left it.
Went across the road to T-Mobile, who after doing a credit check on me told me that this was the second one done on me that day, and the first time I had passed as well (had explained that 3 required a deposit).
So even though I had passed the credit check they still wanted a deposit!
Seems to be standard for 3 across the board maybe?

6ix

Yeah it's a pain. I didnt need one, but my girlfriend had to pay €100. It's refundable after 6 months. It's annoying for the staff in the shops, because they get halfway through a service order, and then have to cancel because the new customer wont (understandably) shell out €300.

Solair

I really think it's a silly attitude for 3 to be taking at this stage in the game. They have very low market penitration and asking people for €300 up front is a bit much.

They'll loose a LOT of sales that way.

If the credit history's fine, you really have to be prepared to take a risk.
Asking a customer for a large deposit is just going to get insulting.

sozbox

I've never come across this before. I moved to O2 billpay a few weeks ago from Meteor Pay As You go and I didn't have to pay any deposit. Don't think there was a credit check either

rebel.ranter

For any bill pay customer there is always a credit check done. An external credit check company does all the checking, not just for mobile connections either. You have to be very careful you give the correct details when you sign up to any service. It can come back to haunt you at a later date. There will be an audit of all connections eventually. Then that will land you in hot water because the network is not obliged to continue offering you any service once a false information has been found out. Other providers will also know of this too.

Owen

The details you enter on the application form give you points. From my time when O2 were ESAT Digifone, and prior to that, when 088 was king ...

A landline number would earn you 15 points
Being Married would earn you 10 points
Living at your address for more than 5 years was 20 points
Paying by Direct Debit was a massive 50 points

So, the computer tots up these points, and gives you a yes, yes with a deposit, or no, we wouldn't give you a piggy bank let alone a phone decision.

Back in 1996 BTW, Eircell were asking for deposits, just so as you know. It's not a new thing!

Random

Sometimes if you show your bill from another operator proving payments etc they can waive the prepayments. Are 3 not similiar?

rebellad

ciaranfo wrote:

Sometimes if you show your bill from another operator proving payments etc they can waive the prepayments. Are 3 not similiar?

unfortunately it seems not, I had my latest bill from 02 and they still wanted the deposit....

rebellad

Just to let people know I went about getting my credit history from the crowd 3 uses as their name was in the email 3 sent to me, got it back and have a perfect credit history - what are 3 at?? Anyone else get asked for this deposit??

Sam Vimes

rebellad wrote:

Just to let people know I went about getting my credit history from the crowd 3 uses as their name was in the email 3 sent to me, got it back and have a perfect credit history - what are 3 at?? Anyone else get asked for this deposit??

lots of people get asked for deposits. people such as husbands with cars and jobs and kids get €300 deposits and people who have four credit cards all with different names pass by fine, sometimes for more than one contract.

i think they have a magic eight ball in the credit checking dept

rebellad

Commander Vimes wrote:

i think they have a magic eight ball in the credit checking dept

Definitely sounds about right to me!!

Solair

It's quite possibly illegal to discriminate against people on the basis of marital status!!

check www.equality.ie

Equal status act's pretty clear on that!!

mikemac

ned78 wrote:

A landline number would earn you 15 points
Being Married would earn you 10 points
Living at your address for more than 5 years was 20 points
Paying by Direct Debit was a massive 50 points

So, the computer tots up these points, and gives you a yes, yes with a deposit, or no, we wouldn't give you a piggy bank let alone a phone decision.

Went with Meteor Billpay today. Was Meteor Prepay for past 2 years.
I pass every check above with the exception of being married. Got asked for €100 deposit and was kinda shocked and insulted at it.

Never been billpay before so wasn't expecting it. Possibly I was naive.
Feck it, I've a relationship with Meteor for 2 years and I'm in full-time employment. Irish too so I'm not going to skip the country and government departments have all my details if I did.

Manager was nice about it and explained it was the credit department who decides the deposits and shop staff could not waive it. She also said it could have been €300 so could have been worse.

Which was fair enough so signed up anyway.
Meteor are getting interest from my €100 for next 6 months.:mad:

Edit: Just remembered the manager mispelled my name and address on her computer (it's in Irish) so possibly the credit company never recognized me.

chrislad

Meh, look at it this way. When you get your 100euro back, it'll be nearly Christmas so your November and December bills will be covered!

Credit scoring happens, and the smaller companies like Meteor and Three have a lot more to lose than Voda or O2.

smartblaa

micmclo wrote:

Went with Meteor Billpay today. Was Meteor Prepay for past 2 years.
I pass every check above with the exception of being married. Got asked for €100 deposit and was kinda shocked and insulted at it.
.

Hahaha my brother is 19, and he signed up for a billpay with Meteor for NO DEPOSIT. He's living at home, and he's a student.

8 ball sounds like it alright

chrislad

FYI your relationship status isn't in the Meteor credit scoring system so that's a moot point.