Credit limit on my 3 BILL PAY account?

wailim_2002

Hi,

Was in Spain last weekend. Got a message saying my credit limit was looming. It advised me to call 1913 to 'top-up'. The trouble is I am not pay as you go. I am bill pay. I pay 40 euro per month classic flex max with an iPhone. Typical spend is 44 euro per month.

Anyhow, I ignored the message and within another call or two my phone was blocked. I was LIVID. I immediately called 1913, to be informed that all bill pay accounts have a credit limit of 80 euro... (I was unaware of this and it would have affected my decision to go with 3). I asked how much had I spent and was told 37.20 so why was I blocked? Well '3' also deduct your outstanding Direct Debit payment... in my case 44.27 is to be paid by direct debit Today.

Anyhow, the agent could only request me to top-up by credit card ... I was now outraged. I refuse to start paying top-ups and direct debits, and calling '3' everytime I run up 37 euro of out of bundle calls..... yes ... out of bundle..... this is not a roaming issue... this is just an out of bundle credit limit!

Now I am back, I issued them instructions to cancel and they want me to pay the exit penalty. Under the circumstances, I am only prepared to either:
- send the phone back for a refund and move on as if the contract was never there
- pay the difference between the subsidy price and the full price of the phone provided three unlock the phone

So I have asked ComReg for help because I want nothing further to do with '3'. If I wanted 'Ready to Go' I would have gone Meteor!

So for those of you who were unaware of this GEM:

On page 17, paragraph 9 of the SmallPrint.pdf, there is a clause allowing '3' to place an unspecified credit limit to protect against 'excessive' potentially fraudulent usage.

My argument is two fold:

1) 37 euro is not excessive. Its not even 1 month of my bill pay tariff. If it was 100 euro or something more reasonable relative to my tariff then maybe I would accept it because I wouldn't have to ring 1913 ever few calls to top-up
2) If it truely was an anti-fraud measure then I should not be asked to top-up I should simply be asked to ring 1913, authenticate myself and accept the charges are being run up by me and not a thief! (This is the way credit cards work for example)

Any thoughts?

drunkmonkey

The credit limit is in place for your protection, there's plenty of Threads on boards of people getting huge bills from the likes of o2, this doesn't happen on 3.
Each customer is given a credit limit when they first join, This limit can be increased or decreased depending on yourself.

You've signed up to a 40pm plan, you've hit a 80 euro spend and they have stopped you making outgoing calls(not cut you off) until you bring down your balance. This can be done by making a laser or credit card payment and getting you back going fully straight away.

If there was no credit limit, you could have come back to a 500 euro bill and you'd be saying I signed up to a 40 euro plan and they gave me a credit limit I didn't ask for.

It's a bit of a pain in your first few months but it's there in your interest. Ask for an increase in your credit limit if you need it.

angel01

Thats strange because I had my second bill with 3 and my bill was nearly 120 Euro I am on a 40 Euro plan as well. I did port from O2 if it makes any difference.

drunkmonkey

angel01 wrote: »

Thats strange because I had my second bill with 3 and my bill was nearly 120 Euro I am on a 40 Euro plan as well. I did port from O2 if it makes any difference.

120 what were you doing? The limit depends on each individual. Angel you can decrease your creidit limit if you don't want that happening again, you could get it reduced to maybe 20 euro so the max you can spend is your monthly recurring charge + 20 euro.
Are you on the right plan?

angel01

drunkmonkey wrote: »

120 what were you doing? The limit depends on each individual. Angel you can decrease your creidit limit if you don't want that happening again, you could get it reduced to maybe 20 euro so the max you can spend is your monthly recurring charge + 20 euro.
Are you on the right plan?

It was a once off, I had a personal situation that I needed to fix so I had to make calls to premium numbers sorting issues out for a friend. I had a lot of calls that I need to make so shouldn't happen again. This month so far, I have 2.97 Euro unbilled calls

Three had no problem with my bill and I heard nothing from them. No it was fine. I prefer having no limit there, just in case I need to make the calls as I don't have a landline, I need to make sure I can make calls etc on my phone.

wailim_2002

I'm with Angel on this one.... I don't want a limit; Thats why I went for billpay --- if as you say its for my protection then why isn't that my choice and tough luck on me if it backfires? It has to be my choice!

Or at the very least as I mentioned already, why can't I authenticate to customer support and say its me using the phone - I am aware of the charges now get on with it?

I understand all the points but disagree in most cases.

I think people get bill shock mostly with smart phone DATA because its too easy to unknowingly use a MB of data (eg in the blink of an eye) when the roaming charges are extortionate @10.50 per MB! Thats one reason why EU has put a cap of 50 euro for bill shock.

However with voice, while I agree it is possible to run up a large bill, you are informed by text of the rates and you make the calls... you don't have an issue with Applications spuriously downloading data or updating themselves etc so the case for unknowingly running up the bills is a lot less with voice than with data.

And back to my case, I didn't say they cut me off. I said they blocked me. I could not make or receive calls or send or receivetxt messages.... do you not agree that was blocked? So the measures they take are very extreme when you happen to be roaming with such a low limit in place.... calls are 57c per min roaming with three in spain!

Even now that I am back in Ireland, the phone is still blocked in the sense that I cannot dial voice mail or make an international call or send an international text. I can do anything that is part of my bundle. So curiously '3' voicemail is not part of the bundle and is charged so I am still impeded.

angel01

wailim_2002 wrote: »

I'm with Angel on this one.... I don't want a limit; Thats why I went for billpay --- if as you say its for my protection then why isn't that my choice and tough luck on me if it backfires? It has to be my choice!

Or at the very least as I mentioned already, why can't I authenticate to customer support and say its me using the phone - I am aware of the charges now get on with it?

I understand all the points but disagree in most cases.

I think people get bill shock mostly with smart phone DATA because its too easy to unknowingly use a MB of data (eg in the blink of an eye) when the roaming charges are extortionate @10.50 per MB! Thats one reason why EU has put a cap of 50 euro for bill shock.

However with voice, while I agree it is possible to run up a large bill, you are informed by text of the rates and you make the calls... you don't have an issue with Applications spuriously downloading data or updating themselves etc so the case for unknowingly running up the bills is a lot less with voice than with data.

And back to my case, I didn't say they cut me off. I said they blocked me. I could not make or receive calls or send or receivetxt messages.... do you not agree that was blocked? So the measures they take are very extreme when you happen to be roaming with such a low limit in place.... calls are 57c per min roaming with three in spain!

Even now that I am back in Ireland, the phone is still blocked in the sense that I cannot dial voice mail or make an international call or send an international text. I can do anything that is part of my bundle. So curiously '3' voicemail is not part of the bundle and is charged so I am still impeded.

I join billpay so I can make my own mind and make and receive calls, maybe the difference was I made these calls within Ireland rather than when roaming? I don't know and I knew my bill would be big and I know it won't get like that again.. At first when I joined 3, I thought my add on would be added straightaway, learnt the hard way.

That is crazy that you are still being victimised like this. I don't understand how they can put a limit on your account and not tell you. :mad:

I totally agree with this part of what you say:

Or at the very least as I mentioned already, why can't I authenticate to customer support and say its me using the phone - I am aware of the charges now get on with it?

drunkmonkey

There is no company in the country that will give you a limitless account with no credit limit. If you phone was stolen and 24hrs later somebody had clocked up a 10,000 euro bill would you not like to be informed?

3 did inform you that you were reaching your limit but you ignored the message.

If you want to increase your credit limit ask them to do it for you and see what they will allow you. Your still in your first month, I think after the 3rd month this increases automatically.

TBH, you don't want to be getting high bills. Your going to have a credit limit either way, If you want 1,000 euro a month on a consumer account they'll hardly give it to you because you don't need it and it's 2 risky.

angel01

drunkmonkey wrote: »

There is no company in the country that will give you a limitless account with no credit limit. If you phone was stolen and 24hrs later somebody had clocked up a 10,000 euro bill would you not like to be informed?

3 did inform you that you were reaching your limit but you ignored the message.

If you want to increase your credit limit ask them to do it for you and see what they will allow you. Your still in your first month, I think after the 3rd month this increases automatically.

TBH, you don't want to be getting high bills. Your going to have a credit limit either way, If you want 1,000 euro a month on a consumer account they'll hardly give it to you because you don't need it and it's 2 risky.

No you are picking ridiculous amounts in fairness, he was only spending such a small amount. I would be highly pissed off if they did it to me. Its a joke that they hide this fact away from you.

They only gave the option of a credit card (which is a joke), why can't you ring up to verify its you and then carry on as you were. If that was me (I cant afford to pay things off by CC and shouldnt have to either. Issue me with my normal bill please.)

Even the way you reacted when I said my bill was 120 Euro, you don't know what I am using my phone or where I am ringing. Phones are meant to be used and not just for local calls either. Not all of us have a landline and a mobile phone is all we have, I don't want to be pay as you go, I got bill pay because I want to use the phone in the way I want not to be dictated with limits.

wailim_2002

I am not in my first month. 3rd bill is in process on this phone but I am a three customer for 2 years.

Again ... the risk is my risk.

Your hypothetical example is possible and amusing but not really probable in my opinion. The thief will rarely use your SIM to make calls... this is 2010 post CSI etc. They'll most likely sell it on to an unwitting buyer online, meet up and exchange for cash and then that buyer gets a knock on the door months later!

You've asked me twice to request the limit be raised. I've spent 10 mins in madrid to be eventually told the department that could do that was closed, and 31 mins yesterday but finally all they will do is take a card number for a top-up payment. They have a policy and they are sticking to it. But like I said the policy is worded in a general way in paragraph 9, page 17 of the SmallPrint.pdf. Its says customer service will tell you your limit. I assume they mean if you are a customer.... what if you are in a shop choosing between three and meteor.... ? There is nothing written on any piece of paper that specifies what your limit will be so you cannot make a fully informed choice.

drunkmonkey

There is no way of knowing what your limit is until your contract is in place.

Meteor charge a new customer 60 euro deposit to go roaming within the first 6mts.

I get your point and i'm with you as the same thing happend me a few years ago. If you need to get it working now just pay to bring down the balance and you'll be back up and running.

What kind of limit do you need, 160 euro odd should be enough for any plan.