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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:
travailtotravel · 19/11/2013 18:59

Well, how is he going to pay this back? There is some great advice on here but LD or not, he has caused hardship to the rest of your family ...

I hope you have a well stocked freezer/cupboard!

LittleTulip · 19/11/2013 19:00

Tesco mobile £10 a monthly rolling monthly contract, shit loads of mins, texts and data.

Plus I've put a £15 limit on mine so I can't go over it!

FortyDoorsToNowhere · 19/11/2013 19:04

I'm with tesco with a cap that I can go over by £2.50

I think it's nuts an 11 year old having an uncapped mobile.

azzbiscuit · 19/11/2013 19:04

You gave an 11 year old a contract phone paid for by you. What did you expect...

theywillgrowup · 19/11/2013 19:19

op i feel your pain

not phone related but my 15yr old rang up £380 with microsoft in 8 days

i was not happy (i took it out his bank)

you are not alone

rallytog1 · 19/11/2013 20:17

YABU. Presumably the contract is in your name, seeing as he's not old enough to take out a contract himself. If your name is on the contract, you are responsible for monitoring the usage. You might not like the way the tariff was marketed, but ultimately if you are an adult of sound mind (which I assume you are), you are also responsible for ensuring you understand the terms and costs of the contract you've agreed to.

You need to accept that on this occasion you've made a mistake. Find a capped tariff or switch to payg, and you can make sure this doesn't happen again.

You're not helping your children by giving them unlimited access to minutes, texts and data. Far better for them to learn that once they've reached a set limit, that's it.

Twoandtwomakeschaos · 19/11/2013 20:37

T-mobile don't sound as if they have been overly helpful, when she enquired about a cap for a contract she's tied into .....

spanish11 · 19/11/2013 20:47

My son got tesco mobile contract, but he can't go over the limit because it is capped at 12.50 per month.

Caitlin17 · 19/11/2013 20:51

I still pay for my son's whose has just left uni. He has a 30 day rolling contract with T mobile for I think £15 per month. It includes unlimited texts, 300 minutes and "unlimited"(i.e within fair use levels) data. There is a block on him doing anything which costs me anything extra. It's been like that for several years. He had no data access to begin with and it only cost £10 per month, data was added for £5.

A full contract for an 11 year old is madness. So far as your son, what did you expect? So far as T Mobile, sorry , but you signed up for this.

AngiBolen · 19/11/2013 20:53

This is why I only let dc (and me!) have PAYG. There is no way I would let DC have free rein over anyting linked to my bank account.

LisasCat · 19/11/2013 20:53

I thought I heard a news story a couple of years back that a phone company had introduced a tariff specifically for younger phone owners which included unlimited calls to some pre set numbers, eg home phone and parent mobiles, but everything else was PAYG. Only having smallies it wasn't relevant to me at the time but I remember thinking what a genius idea and I would do that when mine are older. Did I completely imagine that or did it not catch on and was discontinued?

AngiBolen · 19/11/2013 20:54

And I really don't think you can blame an 11yo for running up £80 of internet usage. He really will have had no idea.

Caitlin17 · 19/11/2013 21:02

One really good thing about T mobile is when you are abroad they will not allow you to access the internet unless you buy a data bundle for foreign use, which can only be done in the country when you arrive. It's not cheap but you know exactly what you've bought and when it's used up the phone can't access the internet unless you buy another bundle.

It's a very good idea. What's surprising is just how quickly data is used up.

optimusic · 19/11/2013 21:02

Yabu to blaim the phone company because you didn't bother looking around for offers, and looking in what companies cap..

Those saying the op was daft for giving her ds a contract.. No, she was daft to not drill into him not going over, and when he did last month, taking the phone away. And of course, for not shopping around.

moldingsunbeams · 19/11/2013 21:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AlwaysInBed · 19/11/2013 21:45

My 13yo got a contract phone at 10. We drilled into her what we expected, and that included only emergency Internet usage (e.g to find out directions or bus times if necessary) and what would happen if she went over, and about emergency texts and a limited amount of friend texts, we basically gave her a small limit to texts to friends. She hasn't ever gone over and I don't know any but one teen/kid who has gone over their limit due to having it repeatedly drilled into them. Every month I remind her and every month we only have a bill of £10 as usual.

enriquetheringbearinglizard · 19/11/2013 21:59

I'm not going to rub it in any more as in this situation it's a case of being burned and being wise after the event.

What I can offer is a hint to try Ovivo if you have an unlocked phone.
I bought a SIM for £15 and every month get free minutes and data use, and as long as I don't go over that use I pay nothing more as it all gets renewed every month
I think they went up to £18 or something now, but the point is you never pay more unless you go over your allowance, if you do that comes out of your initial payment (£15 or £18) which you would have to top up at that point. I think emergency numbers would still be accessible.

Anyway, search for it. I'm not affiliated, so can't give any advice about how suitable it is, other than it works for us and it limits your exposure to added costs. Used sensibly it doesn't have to cost any more than your initial outlay - ours hasn't yet.

Hope that's useful for somebody.

enriquetheringbearinglizard · 19/11/2013 22:00

Just thought. I think Ovivo piggyback off O2 network, but check that, don't take my word on it.

DontGiveAwayTheHomeworld · 19/11/2013 22:09

I'm on T-mobile - 26 quid a month, unlimited texts, unlimited internet, 500 mins (I think 500 - I never use them all). Maybe a plan like that is something to consider in the future? It's a bit more than most would spend on a kids phone contract, but no chance of running up a silly amount on the bill.

As long as you don't have to worry about gas/electric, you will probably be ok. Mix up meals were a staple when I was growing up, and I still do it even though I can afford not to!

moldingsunbeams · 19/11/2013 22:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Mmmbacon · 19/11/2013 22:16

Ring up t mobile again, they may but be c able to cap the bill, but they should be able to disable the internet, so at least that part of the bill will be gone, he shoild still be able to b use wifi,

BackforGood · 19/11/2013 22:35

I don't understand the bit where you said your "dd had a PAYG, would use up the credit in the first few days, so I had to keep topping it up" Confused er, no, you didn't. All my dc have been given £10 credit on their first phone, and then it was up to them to make it last as long as they wanted - they will be putting the next £10 and they don't get that much pocket money, so understand the point of not spending their credit. It's how people learn to budget.

VonHerrBurton · 19/11/2013 22:35

My friend got a contract phone for her 10yo son. For the life of me I will never understand why people would do this, unless money is no problem.

Within a month he'd lost the phone, that wasn't insured, and for the month he had used it, the bill was
£180.

Payg is a no brainer for any offspring for whom you have financial responsibility as far as im concerned!

My 11yo ds has his allowance we put on it monthly, he bought the phone himself so if its lost/stolen/broken its one of our embarrassing', prehistoric, dusty ones from the messy drawer, im afraid!! ;)

borninastorm · 19/11/2013 22:37

Please make sure you check the actual phone bill. This happened to friends of mine for 3 months in a row and they blamed their DS for using the Internet too much and texting and phoning over his allowance.
Turns out it was a repeated mistake by the phone company.

phantomnamechanger · 19/11/2013 22:46

totally do not get why people get their DC swanky phones. Mine have a bog standard cheapo phone they can text or ring on if they need to. no internet access. I top it up about £20 every 4 months, if that!

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