Three contract termination, 700 bill.

mic2727

had been abroad since early october. Because the dataroaming charges are so high in the US, I removed my sim just to be safe. I must have missed my october 30 euro payment, but I didn realise .

I get back a few days ago, they say my account is closed, and I owe 700 euro. Apparently sin e the October payment didnt go through, they didnt take the payments since. And, making no effort to email me, ...terminated the account and passed it on to some debt collector.

They said if I had called them before the 16th jan I could have paid the outstanding.

Is there no recourse here?

surely before turning a 30 missed payment I to a 700 euro lead weight, a simple email might be in order.

Is this going to destroy my credit score?

seamus

Presumably they would have tried to contact you on the number, but given that you had turned it off, they couldn't.

Honestly, think of the other side the fence. Imagine someone had their phone cut off and the company said, "We sent you an email 3 months ago". They'd be spitting feathers - "Surely a simple phone call might have been in order"?

Did you ask them why they didn't get in touch with you? It wouldn't surprise me if it was standard practice to *not* email someone about account arrears given how flakey people can be with email and the privacy issues that come with it. Did they send you anything in the post?

Short answer here is that you failed to keep up to date with what was happening at home. Checking your account balance or switching your phone on every couple of weeks could have saved you all this hassle.

Dav010

What does the contract you agreed to say about missed payments? They can only charge you what was agreed in the contract.

How long was outstanding on your contract? They are probably charging you the full amount after you stopped paying.

Nigzcurran

mic2727 wrote: »

had been abroad since early october. Because the dataroaming charges are so high in the US, I removed my sim just to be safe. I must have missed my october 30 euro payment, but I didn realise .

I get back a few days ago, they say my account is closed, and I owe 700 euro. Apparently sin e the October payment didnt go through, they didnt take the payments since. And, making no effort to email me, ...terminated the account and passed it on to some debt collector.

They said if I had called them before the 16th jan I could have paid the outstanding.

Is there no recourse here?

surely before turning a 30 missed payment I to a 700 euro lead weight, a simple email might be in order.

Is this going to destroy my credit score?

Did you not notice the bill not getting paid each month since then? Surely it’s up to you to ensure the bill is paid every month

Squiggle

mic2727 wrote: »

had been abroad since early october. Because the dataroaming charges are so high in the US, I removed my sim just to be safe. I must have missed my october 30 euro payment, but I didn realise .

I get back a few days ago, they say my account is closed, and I owe 700 euro. Apparently sin e the October payment didnt go through, they didnt take the payments since. And, making no effort to email me, ...terminated the account and passed it on to some debt collector.

They said if I had called them before the 16th jan I could have paid the outstanding.

Is there no recourse here?

surely before turning a 30 missed payment I to a 700 euro lead weight, a simple email might be in order.

Is this going to destroy my credit score?

No. How does 4 missed payments ie October to January of 30 euro a month mean you owe 700 euro? What am I missing?

Vic_08

Squiggle wrote: »

No. How does 4 missed payments ie October to January of 30 euro a month mean you owe 700 euro? What am I missing?

It'll be a contract for Phone and service for 12, 18 or 24 months, break contract and outstanding is owed to end of contract or set early termination fee. Otherwise anyone could get phone for peanuts by ditching contacts after a few months.

jimmycrackcorm

It won't affect your credit record.
You should email them that you wish to pay the missing months and continent with the contract.

It's doubtful that the debt collectors can or will do anything, but just in case, you can have the argument that you were willing to catch up with the missing payments and continue in your defence.

mic2727

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

It won't affect your credit record.
You should email them that you wish to pay the missing months and continent with the contract.

It's doubtful that the debt collectors can or will do anything, but just in case, you can have the argument that you were willing to catch up with the missing payments and continue in your defence.

Yea three said they wont deal with anything to do with it, if I contacted them before jan 16th I could have paid the missed Bill's and continued.

I was there on the phone to three trying to pay the months I missed but they were like its 700 or nothing.

she talked to her supervisor and then said, that I could pay the 700 to three, instead of the debt collecting crowd, as if that was the issue.

They say one it's gone to the debt collector, they cant/wont change it.

And the debt crowd say they only know about the amount, 700 and how it came to that amount is up to three.

Cabaal

From experience if your bill payment is declared they will phone you a number of times to discuss and take payment.

They won't email you, But you can see the funds outstanding on the three website if you login.

The failing here is on the op.

Former Former

I presume you also cancelled your direct debit?

They don't care if you switch your phone off, what's not clear is why they couldn't take your money every month.

So look at it from their perspective - you're not paying your bills, the phone is dead... seems reasonable enough.

mic2727

I dont know why I started this thread. I'm just an idiot who should have ready the small print. Looks like I'll just have i find 700 euro somewhere

Vic_08

mic2727 wrote: »

I dont know why I started this thread. I'm just an idiot who should have ready the small print. Looks like I'll just have i find 700 euro somewhere

Did you want to understand what was going on or did you want some random people on the internet to be on your side?

You are going to have to pay the contract you signed up for one way or the other.

I would suggest you try to get them to re-instate the service for the remainder of the term on the basis you will pre-pay the remaining €700 directly right now to 3. Otherwise they can get 10c/€ from the debt collector on the steps of the courthouse in 5 years time.

If they won't budge then just pay it by cheque and take the lesson about personal responsibility.

TBH you had the phone switched off for 3 months while you thought you were paying it so it will just be some more months of paying for something you are not using.

silver2020

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

It won't affect your credit record.
You should email them that you wish to pay the missing months and continent with the contract.

It's doubtful that the debt collectors can or will do anything, but just in case, you can have the argument that you were willing to catch up with the missing payments and continue in your defence.

it will affect your ability to get credit with any company that the debt collector does credit scoring for.

It wouldn't affect any ability to get loan from a bank, but other utilities, most definitely