Could this be the next big money claim thing?

Could this be the next big money claim thing?

Author
Discussion

MitchT

Original Poster:

15,867 posts

209 months

Thursday 1st December 2016
quotequote all
Suppose someone takes out a 24 month contract on a new smartphone. It costs them £40/month. After 24 months they leave the service running, even though they could upgrade or take a sim-only deal, and it's another 12 months before they get round to deciding their phone service is a bit of a rip off and change to sim-only.

Their new sim-only deal offers the same service but costs £10/month. This means they've been paying monthly credit charges, for the last 12 months, for a 'phone loan' which they'd actually paid off at the end of their initial 24 month contract.

Can they claim back the £360 overpayment?

I remember once having to claim back money from a personal loan company after the loan ended but the payments kept going out because I'd not cancelled the direct debit thinking they'd automatically stop taking the money. In the same way, if, after 24 months, you've covered the cost of the credit used to buy a new phone on a contract, but you keep paying the same amount every month, even though the charge for the 'service' ( calls, texts and data) is only a small portion of the monthly amount, can you claim back the portion that represents 'loan' repayments which you've continued to make beyond the point at which you had paid the loan element off?

I wonder how many people are in this situation!

spookly

4,019 posts

95 months

Thursday 1st December 2016
quotequote all
No.
Because the overall plan cost is not broken down. You agreed to pay the £40/month for the 'service'. The service included the phone, and very likely with clauses relating to early termination charges/upgrades/etc.

The only upside with networks when you have carried on with an expensive plan past the lock in period is that most will build that 'credit' into discounted upgrades to get you to stay with them. You can either phone them and discuss deals/upgrades, or leave. But if you leave then you won't be seeing any of that money back.

klingelton

70 posts

129 months

Thursday 1st December 2016
quotequote all
There's no such thing as an "upgrade" just a new contract.

rxe

6,700 posts

103 months

Thursday 1st December 2016
quotequote all
IMO this is far more valid a claim than pretty much any of the others that have happened.

Mobile companies are making fecking millions out of it.

Unlikely to happen though. If the regulator was any good, they'd demand separation of service and phone HP.


Mandat

3,886 posts

238 months

Thursday 1st December 2016
quotequote all
rxe said:
IMO this is far more valid a claim than pretty much any of the others that have happened.

Mobile companies are making fecking millions out of it.

Unlikely to happen though. If the regulator was any good, they'd demand separation of service and phone HP.
I don't think that there is anything underhand going on with this. Why do you think that there would be a valid claim in this?

The contract costs and duration are clear upfront and there is nothing stopping consumers from shopping around for new deals once the minimum term of the contract expires.

98elise

26,596 posts

161 months

Thursday 1st December 2016
quotequote all
Mandat said:
rxe said:
IMO this is far more valid a claim than pretty much any of the others that have happened.

Mobile companies are making fecking millions out of it.

Unlikely to happen though. If the regulator was any good, they'd demand separation of service and phone HP.
I don't think that there is anything underhand going on with this. Why do you think that there would be a valid claim in this?

The contract costs and duration are clear upfront and there is nothing stopping consumers from shopping around for new deals once the minimum term of the contract expires.
Agreed.

Its an open ended deal with a minimum term. At the end of the term you can stay on the same deal or move to another one with a new phone, or opt to go sim only.

I ended up going 4 years on my galaxy S2, just because the phone was fine and I could not be bothered to change it. I was not ripped off, I was just lazy.

Riley Blue

20,955 posts

226 months

Thursday 1st December 2016
quotequote all
98elise said:
Agreed.

Its an open ended deal with a minimum term. At the end of the term you can stay on the same deal or move to another one with a new phone, or opt to go sim only.

I ended up going 4 years on my galaxy S2, just because the phone was fine and I could not be bothered to change it. I was not ripped off, I was just lazy.
I've just done exactly that with O2: come to the end of a two-year term during which I've paid off the phone cost and will continue with sim only as I don't want to upgrade. The cost of the phone has always been shown separately and at the end of the purchase period I received, through the post, a statement showing the phone had been fully paid for.

DaveH23

3,236 posts

170 months

Thursday 1st December 2016
quotequote all
2 recent adverts that have boiled my piss are, if you have signed up to have solar panels installed at your property and you havn't seen the return you were expecting, you can sue.

The other is if you have put in a personal injury claim and didn't get as much as you liked, you can sue the person you used to sue the person/comoany who inflicted said injury.


akirk

5,390 posts

114 months

Thursday 1st December 2016
quotequote all
spookly said:
No.
Because the overall plan cost is not broken down. You agreed to pay the £40/month for the 'service'. The service included the phone, and very likely with clauses relating to early termination charges/upgrades/etc.

The only upside with networks when you have carried on with an expensive plan past the lock in period is that most will build that 'credit' into discounted upgrades to get you to stay with them. You can either phone them and discuss deals/upgrades, or leave. But if you leave then you won't be seeing any of that money back.
wrong wink
O2 certainly split the costs very very clearly

Flooble

5,565 posts

100 months

Thursday 1st December 2016
quotequote all
DaveH23 said:
2 recent adverts that have boiled my piss are, if you have signed up to have solar panels installed at your property and you havn't seen the return you were expecting, you can sue.

The other is if you have put in a personal injury claim and didn't get as much as you liked, you can sue the person you used to sue the person/comoany who inflicted said injury.
I don't know, I quite like the second one. It reminds me of dog eat dog ... when the ambulance chasers turn on each other the end is nigh!

mcflurry

9,092 posts

253 months

Thursday 1st December 2016
quotequote all
The refresh style deals will fall in price once you have paid off the handsets.
A standard contract with a minimum term will roll unless you upgrade / cancel / port out etc.

A205GTI

750 posts

166 months

Thursday 1st December 2016
quotequote all
akirk said:
wrong wink
O2 certainly split the costs very very clearly
This, it depends on the wording on the original contract, my OH had this with O2, split bill, £20.00 for network, £20 for phone for 48months,

suggest she sees how the money was taken from her account or finds her original contract, but highly unlikely, this would be like having Sky paying for movies not watching them then complaining because there are cheaper deals out there.

S11Steve

6,374 posts

184 months

Thursday 1st December 2016
quotequote all
Our Tesco Mobile ( I know, council..) contract is split like that. Initially it was a phone for my other half and eldest, but he decided he didn't like the phone (or parental controls) so his Dad bought him an iPhone 6 on contract.

The original handset was sold, and I took on the remainder of the contract. As his handset was much cheaper, the monthly bill dropped after 12 months, and has just dropped again as the original Samsung S4 handset has now been paid off.

Riley Blue

20,955 posts

226 months

Thursday 1st December 2016
quotequote all
Flooble said:
DaveH23 said:
2 recent adverts that have boiled my piss are, if you have signed up to have solar panels installed at your property and you havn't seen the return you were expecting, you can sue.

The other is if you have put in a personal injury claim and didn't get as much as you liked, you can sue the person you used to sue the person/comoany who inflicted said injury.
I don't know, I quite like the second one. It reminds me of dog eat dog ... when the ambulance chasers turn on each other the end is nigh!
Future one: Have you been mis-sold a Smart Meter? Are you not achieving the savings you expected?

I wouldn't object to this as Scottish Power agreed to install gas and electricity smart meters for us but couldn't install the gas (wrong type of box) and aren't replying to phone calls or emails from us and half the time the in-house display doesn't work - and we were told it wouldn't cost us anything...

anonymous-user

54 months

Thursday 1st December 2016
quotequote all
Riley Blue said:
Flooble said:
DaveH23 said:
2 recent adverts that have boiled my piss are, if you have signed up to have solar panels installed at your property and you havn't seen the return you were expecting, you can sue.

The other is if you have put in a personal injury claim and didn't get as much as you liked, you can sue the person you used to sue the person/comoany who inflicted said injury.
I don't know, I quite like the second one. It reminds me of dog eat dog ... when the ambulance chasers turn on each other the end is nigh!
Future one: Have you been mis-sold a Smart Meter? Are you not achieving the savings you expected?

I wouldn't object to this as Scottish Power agreed to install gas and electricity smart meters for us but couldn't install the gas (wrong type of box) and aren't replying to phone calls or emails from us and half the time the in-house display doesn't work - and we were told it wouldn't cost us anything...

And what has it cost you?

Riley Blue

20,955 posts

226 months

Thursday 1st December 2016
quotequote all
REALIST123 said:
Riley Blue said:
Flooble said:
DaveH23 said:
2 recent adverts that have boiled my piss are, if you have signed up to have solar panels installed at your property and you havn't seen the return you were expecting, you can sue.

The other is if you have put in a personal injury claim and didn't get as much as you liked, you can sue the person you used to sue the person/comoany who inflicted said injury.
I don't know, I quite like the second one. It reminds me of dog eat dog ... when the ambulance chasers turn on each other the end is nigh!
Future one: Have you been mis-sold a Smart Meter? Are you not achieving the savings you expected?

I wouldn't object to this as Scottish Power agreed to install gas and electricity smart meters for us but couldn't install the gas (wrong type of box) and aren't replying to phone calls or emails from us and half the time the in-house display doesn't work - and we were told it wouldn't cost us anything...

And what has it cost you?
According to one report it costs £390 per household, a figure I doubt energy suppliers are going to absorb.

FidoGoRetroGo

125 posts

89 months

Thursday 1st December 2016
quotequote all
The next big money claim will be mis-selling of interest only mortgages.

The government actually loves this kind of thing as the "free money" gets spent into the wider economy.

As someone once said "Britain is a country where half the population drives a brand new 3-series on a PCP with a deposit funded by a PPI claim. Sad but true.

Devil2575

13,400 posts

188 months

Thursday 1st December 2016
quotequote all
A205GTI said:
This, it depends on the wording on the original contract, my OH had this with O2, split bill, £20.00 for network, £20 for phone for 48months,

suggest she sees how the money was taken from her account or finds her original contract, but highly unlikely, this would be like having Sky paying for movies not watching them then complaining because there are cheaper deals out there.
Same as my deal with Virgin. Once the phone is paid off monthly payment drops to just the cost of the call/text/data package.

Devil2575

13,400 posts

188 months

Thursday 1st December 2016
quotequote all
FidoGoRetroGo said:
The next big money claim will be mis-selling of interest only mortgages.

The government actually loves this kind of thing as the "free money" gets spent into the wider economy.

As someone once said "Britain is a country where half the population drives a brand new 3-series on a PCP with a deposit funded by a PPI claim. Sad but true.
Except it isn't true, half the population don't drive a 3 series.

It is sad that so many were mis-sold PPI though.

x type

912 posts

190 months

Thursday 1st December 2016
quotequote all
MitchT said:
I remember once having to claim back money from a personal loan company after the loan ended but the payments kept going out because I'd not cancelled the direct debit thinking they'd automatically stop taking the money.
surely that's your fault for not checking ?