Stolen phone- do we have a leg to stand on?

[randdom]

I hope someone can advise.

For the last couple if years my husband and I have paid for my younger brothers phone contract as he is a student. It is attached to my husbands phone contact. Today my husbands phone suddenly was blocked and when he called them up they have informed him that there are £2000+ worth of charges on my brothers phone. When we spoke to my brother he admitted that he had misplaced his phone for the last two weeks (his use is intermittent and he often won't use it for two weeks). He genuinely thought it was in his office. It turns out it has been stolen and used to call loads of 0909 numbers. It has obviously now been reported to the police as stolen and blocked.

My question is that they are saying that we have no option but to pay the full cost as it wasn't reported as stolen until now. I was just wondering if anyone knew of anything else that we could do. Between us we can afford it but it us a huge amount if money.

Obviously I am furious with my brother but that doesn't really help anything.

When your phone goes missing you are liable for all call charges until you report it to the network so I'm afraid they are correct. You should try to negotiate with them. They may be willing to reduce the bill as a goodwill gesture but they don't have to. If they insist on you paying the full amount I'm afraid you will have to do so. If they won't reduce it they may be willing to agree a payment schedule.

Sorry you and your DH have been landed with the bill.

If your brother is expecting you to pick up the tab in future, I would suggest that he get himself a pay-as-you-go, if he only uses it intermittently, and pay for it himself.

I'd try and get the charge reduced but I'd also tell your brother he owed you £2,000 or whatever the reduced amount is. If I had extra cash laying around I'd probably say I'd go halves on the bill for being daft enough to pay for his phone that he doesn't use . I've never met a student who doesn't check their phone at least once a day or every two days.

Let him buy and fund his own cheap phone