Could this be the next big money claim thing?

[MitchT]

x type said:

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 ?

Sure, but I assumed (wrongly, as it turned out) that once the loan was repaid they wouldn't demand any further payments, in the same way that if a bill which you're paying by direct debit changes from one month to the next the company you're paying always demands the right amount, so I assumed that a loan company would demand 'zero' once I'd paid the loan off. Anyway, my point is that I got the overpayment back and I was pondering whether the same might apply in the case of phone contracts. If you've paid off the loan for the handset and then continued paying the same monthly amount by default then surely that proportion should be refunded as you've basically just continued making repayments on a loan that you've already paid off.

[x type]

These days mobile phone companies ten to "remind" you by hassling you near the end of your contract |

[GSalt]

x type said:

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 ?

A direct debit is controlled by the company being paid, it would be the loan companies responsibility to cancel it and they would be liable if they didn't do so. If it read a standing order it would be the payee's responsibility to cancel it.

But.. you'd be foolish not to have noted the date payments were supposed to stop and checked your bank accounts yourself. If it was just one payment is an easy mistake to make - you need to see it going out unexpectedly to spot the DD hadn't been cancelled.

[Terminator X]

This is why I buy my mobile every few years and just pay monthly rental

TX.

[KungFuPanda]

Terminator X said:

This is why I buy my mobile every few years and just pay monthly rental

TX.

Ditto, I pay up front for my iPhone every couple of years and have a sim only deal through Vodafone. £25 for unlimited talk, texts, 25gb data, 4gb for use in Europe and Sky Sports Mobile.

[Matt600]

Not sure if it's already been mentioned but Tesco and I believe O2, do sell the phone on a 0% credit agreement over 24 months. You pay £x amount for your plan and £x amount for the phone. At the end of the 24 months, you stop paying for the phone and just pay £x for the plan, rolling monthly. Always thought this was a nice way to do it. It has the added benefit of whenever you want to upgrade, you can just pay off whatever is left to pay on the "phone" portion of the contract and then begin a new 24 month contract. Worth looking into!

http://shop.tescomobile.com/anytime-upgrade#what-i...

I tend to buy my phones sim-free on 0% credit card deals over 24 months and then find a sim only contract that suits me, it's a little more work than simply going into a shop for a phone but I prefer the flexibility it gives me, as 12 months into paying for the phone, it'll often be worth more used than the outstanding amount on the CC. This puts you in positive equity, so you can sell it, pay off the CC and start the whole thing over again for no outlay, if you care about having the latest and greatest. Also gives you the freedom to swap networks as and when you please.

[rxe]

Mandat said:

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.

You could say exactly that for PPI.

The terms and conditions - both clear.
Salespeople on commission - yup.
People who are lazy get taken to the cleaners - yup.

Lets structure the deal a different way. You go into a phone shop and buy a contract iphone. The payments for the phone are clearly separated from the payments for the service. BUT - in the small print it says "even when you've paid off the phone we'll keep taking the money until you tell us not to".

By bundling the service and the phone in one deal, that is exactly what you are signing up to. Of course, if you're on the case, you'll have the date in your calendar, but most people aren't on the case and the companies know that.

Edited by rxe on Friday 2nd December 17:14

[Joeguard1990]

I'm with EE and they had the courtesy to phone me during the last month of my contract and downgraded me to a SIM only until I chose to upgrade.
They didn't have to by law but they did so hats off to them.

[Riley Blue]

That's O2, Virgin, Tesco and EE who do the decent thing. Which are the telecoms who don't?

[Ms R.Saucy]

MitchT said:

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!

that would be why a lot of providers now seperate the loan to purchase the phone from the 'line rental' and call/text /data package ... the all in one pricing model dates back to the days when phones where leased ... also given the churn / push to upgrade relatively few people hung onto an old phone ...

also 24 month contracts is a smartphone era thing , dumb phones / feature phones used to be on 12 month contracts as the prices for handsets dropped right off ...

[del mar]

Why do we keep making laws / rulings to protect the stupid from themselves ?