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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Mobile phone bill for £250 when it should have been £10. Now left with £50 to live on for 10 days!

114 replies

InsanityandBeyond · 19/11/2013 17:49

AIBU to want to strangle DS (11)? I only got him a phone as he is now walking to secondary school. It is a £10 price plan but he has run it up in internet usage (£80) and the rest on extra phone calls to his friends.

I checked my bank account today and saw there was a payment pending although I couldn't see what it was. Checked all the internet bills and I saw it Shock. Can't stop if obviously. Only £50 left now until next Friday with 4 DC to feed. It's been a tough month this month as car needed £400 of repairs.

I am fucking furious at DS. He has been told to text and make calls only in an emergency. Last month when his bill was £40 I asked T-mobile to put a block on anything over the price plan and they say they can't of course!

I have rung T-mobile up and ranted at them. AIBU to wonder why they didn't send me an email or call to warn that the bill was over the price plan?

Fucking thieving bastards!

OP posts:
Fontofnowt · 19/11/2013 18:17

Inevitable happens.
Chalk it up and switch him to giffgaff.
Paying the 10 contract and the 10 goodybag is cheaper for you.
Tmobile are a business of course they try and make money.

SilverApples · 19/11/2013 18:19

If he has LDs, he's even less likely to understand why he should have stuck to emergencies only. My DS has AS, he finds remembering to moderate his use or consumption of almost everything difficult.

Groovee · 19/11/2013 18:21

Sainsbury's Mobile are good. Ds got a galaxy fame from the MN test and I top up £10 a month and then add a bundle of 200 minutes, unlimited texts and 250mb of data.

I would go in to the phone and take 3G off. That way he cannot access the internet. Only allow him to use the wifi for internet.

Topseyt · 19/11/2013 18:21

I totally understand your frustration. For years now my children have had contract phones, and until recently been very good with them. Only a few pence over once or twice, so negligible and not worth a fuss.

Suddenly, in the last three or four months two out of the three went significantly over. My eldest daughter caused me to have a bill for £84 when it should have been at most £20 because she somehow seemed to believe she had 300 minutes talktime when it is clearly only 100. I half forgive it, because she has just left home and started uni so has a lot going on at the moment, but she has been told it mustn't happen again (and to be fair, she was shocked and very contrite). Her younger sister also did it, and for her it was the second month running. She went £7.50 over.

I have now told mine that the system is as follows:

  1. The first time you go over your limits you will get a warning.
  2. The second time, you will be charged for the additional money and will have to pay it from pocket money/savings/your student loan or whatever means you have.
  3. If it happens again you will be charged for the excess again, and your phone will be confiscated too (by me, the contracts are in my name). In the case of my eldest daughter, who bought her own handset, I will charge the excess and also transfer the direct debit to her student account, so that would make her think a bit more.

So, younger child has been charged £7.50 this month out of the earnings from her paper round. Eldest has had a warning (quite a ticking off) and knows she cannot afford to do it again.

usualsuspect · 19/11/2013 18:21

If he has used all his credit on payg, you can still ring him.

IAlwaysThought · 19/11/2013 18:21

Oh dear, Sad it was really daft to let him have the phone after running up a £40 bill last month. As everyone else has mentioned there are lots of options to prevent this type of thing.

I think capped accounts are great for everyone and not just kids. I have one myself. It stops the risk of accidentally sending expensive marketing texts or phoning premium lines. I also like it because if anyone stole my phone they couldn't run up a horrendous bill.
I am sorry this has happened to you though. I would be concerned about your son doing this two months in a row Confused. It's not unusual for kids to do this once but to disregard you for a second month is not good.
I agree with the poster who suggested taking your son shopping with you so that he understands what he has done.
I would try and get the phone company to agree to a payment plan.

Floralnomad · 19/11/2013 18:25

The thing is you've just contradicted yourself ,if he has a contract that is capped he could still use it up in the first couple of days of the month which is no different to him having a PAYG phone and using it all in the first couple of days ,either way he can still call 999.

friday16 · 19/11/2013 18:25

It is an absolute rip off and they offer low cost price plans deliberately as they know mugs are like me are going to pay through the nose for anything over that.

No, they offer low cost plans for those of us able to control our usage to fit within it.

IAlwaysThought · 19/11/2013 18:25

Cross posted.

I think you were sort of setting your son up to fail by giving him an uncapped phone plan. He must feel terrible. Sad. I understand that you want him to have some independence but a uncapped plan is a big liability.

arethereanyleftatall · 19/11/2013 18:27

This is not tmobiles fault. At all.

In fact, its a sad indication that we have become so very entitled, that we can't accept responsibly for our own mistakes.

I am very sorry for you, but stop blaming the wrong people, look closer to home for that.

MiserableCowWhenUpTheDuff · 19/11/2013 18:28

Get him a contract on 3... They cap the bill so they cannot spend a penny over! (He will also get completely unlimited Internet too :) think we pay 12 a month for kids contract xx

LuciusMalfoyisSmokingHot · 19/11/2013 18:28

My sis refuses to get my DNephew a contract phone, she puts £10 on his phone every month, if its gone, its gone.

Original poster
InsanityandBeyond · 19/11/2013 18:29

IAlwaysThought No, he is not particularly bothered. That is his nature unfortunately, zero empathy and 'forgets' everything he is told.

OP posts:
CurlyhairedAssassin · 19/11/2013 18:30

Why on earth would any parent keep topping up their child's payg phone once they've run out? How will they ever learn? In fact what lesson is it teaching them - that there are no boundaries, that they can run back to mum or dad and they'll keep subbing them. PAYG with an agreed top up level is your answer. If they want to go over they use their pocket money.

guinnessgirl · 19/11/2013 18:32

OP, I can feel your frustration but really, you need to be setting clear boundaries here from the off. switch to payg and if he uses it all up in a few days, well - you can still call him if you're worried, can't you? He will soon learn to make it last, or just deal with going without regularly!

RustyHalo · 19/11/2013 18:32

Have you checked that the phone is set to WiFi internet access only. If not it will randomly connect to the internet day & night to download updates for Apps. I only discovered this when I got a surprise £50 DD when it's usually about £18/month. Thankfully Orange refunded the extra charge & I've altered the settings on my phone.

KungFuBustle · 19/11/2013 18:34

£50 to do for 10 days. Is that just food or are there bills (other then car repairs)

I second freezer food week. It can get a bit weird but full bellys are full bellies.

Get the kids on a penny hunt. In drawers, down the back of furniture, car seats. I've often been surprised at how I can scrape a few quid together with this.

Do you have any loyalty cards? Tesco vouchers? Utilise them if you can.

Hope you get sorted Thanks

HyvaPaiva · 19/11/2013 18:39

Exactly what arethereanyleftatall said.

orangepudding · 19/11/2013 18:39

Tesco are very good, they cap at the monthly plan cost, at as little as 7.50.

sparechange · 19/11/2013 18:47

OP, if they are spending their phone credit, why on earth are you topping it up?

It makes no sense that you are endlessly topping up your DDs phone with no credit so she always has a phone working, but would have a cap for DS that would leave him without a working phone for X days each month. What would happen when the cap kicked in? Would he not be allowed out?

Plus you are doing a lot to reinforce that they have an endless amount to spend with no consequences.

It will carry on happening unless you let them see there will be consequences. Presumably your DS has seen this as well?

It absolutely is not T-Mobiles fault. If a cap was an important part of the contract, you could have found another operator that offers that option. You didn't, you haven't given your children boundaries on their phone use and this has lead to a huge bill

IamInvisible · 19/11/2013 18:48

I refuse to get my kids contract phones. But then again I refuse to get myself a contract phone. I was looking at a comparison website the other day and the total price of the contract was on there, I almost fainted. No way am I spending that on a phone for anyone.

We've all got Tesco PAYG. They triple your credit, you can buy packages of data or texts or minutes for a fiver. It suits us all fine.

I fail to see how this is TMobile's fault. If I had been bitten, so to speak, by an elder child they'd all be on a PAYG on a monthly limit until such a time that they could afford to pay for their own phones.

AngelsLieToKeepControl · 19/11/2013 18:50

DS (12) and I are with Virgin. They send me a text if he ever goes over his limit, but I recently put him onto an unlimited plan, which is £23 a month, because he was using it and then having no usable phone for a week or 2.

I would worry if he was out with no credit in his phone, or unable to contact me over something that wasn't 999 worthy so I completely understand.

Is your £50 just for food? Or do you need to get electric/gas out of it too? If it's just for food it can be done. It won't be the best food in the world but at least you won't go hungry.

exexpat · 19/11/2013 18:54

Have you disabled mobile data on his phone? If he has apps on it, they may be running up data charges by doing background updates without him even realising.

DS (15) has had a contract phone since he was 11, and has only gone over the contract amount a few times - once because he didn't realise that picture texts were always charged extra, and once when he had a couple of long phone conversations which took him over the 100 minutes in his contract (normally he just texts and hardly ever uses the call minutes).

BrandybuckCurdlesnoot · 19/11/2013 18:55

This isn't T-Mobile's fault at all. It is not their responsibility to monitor your son's phone usage to stop him spending too much. It is yours. You had 2 ways to monitor it, either by logging into My T-Mobile or texting AL to 150 to check the balance at any time.

Having £50 to live on for 2 weeks is horrible but don't take your anger out on a poor customer service person for something they are not at fault for.

steeking · 19/11/2013 18:59

mine have pay as you go with a text and web pack
250 text allownce and some internet for a month each time you top up £10. When the month is up they start eating into credit . They pay for it themselves . If they have no money they have to do extra chores .