Phone bill is ridiculously high - help needed in getting it down a bit (lot)

[Brownflowers]

I’ll try to explain everything in my post in the hope someone might be able to help.

For a not inconsiderable length of time, I had a number of phone connections,all with the same provider (O2.) I obviously had to pay for the line rental, which totalled around £100 a month at the peak time. In addition to this, I had phone bills of usually over £100 a month. As you can imagine, it was costing a lot.

I have now paid off all of the connections apart from my current phone, an iPad (this expires in July) and an Apple Watch. So my line rentals are now down to a much more manageable £45 a month which will go down again to £30 a month in July.

I thought, probably naively, that my phone bills would come down too but they haven’t. I rang O2 last week to try to get to the bottom of it and I’m none the wiser. It was honestly the most unhelpful phone call I’ve ever had and was also nearly two hours of my life I’ll never get back!

I could really use some help. I do use my phone but I wouldn’t say enormously excessively - I’m not making calls abroad or anything - and I don’t think it’s data use, as I don’t use my phone enormously out of the house. I don’t watch videos or films using data either.

Any advice?

What do your bills say you use it on?

Do you own all the devices or are they being paid for through line rental

What is actually costing that much? It seems unlikely to be calls as most plans have unlimited ones included these days. Are you using a lot more data than your plan includes?! We really need a breakdown of a bill.

If you are with O2 you can log in to your account and look at the bills. Also, you mention line rental, is that for a landline? I moved house two years ago and never installed a landline and don’t miss it. I just use my mobile. I’m have no signal at home most of the time but use calling over wifi which replaces the signal. My bills are approx £18 a month on Vodafone.

Do you need line rental at all? I have unlimited calls and texts on my mobile for £6.99 a month. Broadband is £26.

Your phone bills should tell you how many minutes you are using to different types of numbers and the cost attached, how many sms and any costs plus amount of data used and costs. Mobile phone contracts typically have an amount of inclusive call minutes, sms and data so most people choose a contract which reflects their usage and means they only pay a flat fee each month with everything included. If you don't have data included every time you leave the house and are not on Wi-Fi your phone will be doing all sorts of things in the background and using data unless you have mobile data switched off. It would be very easy to run up a large bill that way. Could you take photo's of your bill and post them to try and see where the problem is?

I think I used the wrong term, sorry, not line rental - I mean the device plan!

So I am still paying off the device plan on my phone (£20) and the iPad (£12.50) and my watch (£12.50.) However, this is separate to my bill.

so it says lines of your contract:

and then five numbers, even though only three are active. So it looks as if I am still paying for all my phones, even though only three are active and in use. This is what I rang O2 to fry to sort but got nowhere.

Hmm, I also have something called a late landing charge - does anybody know what this is? I have never, ever been late paying either the bill or device charge.

Don’t you get free minutes/data with your plan? My bill is only ever the contract charge because everything else is included.

Why do you have a device plan for your iPad and watch? I just use Wi-Fi for them? Or cld use hotspot from phone if needed for iPad?

Once you are out of contract/have paid off the devices. it would probably be worth switching to another provided. GiffGaff is excellent and uses the O2 network.

Often if you phone the company and use the "I'm thinking of leaving" option they will try to sort your problems out rather than lose you.

Yes, @DanceMonster

Looking into it, my main phone (the one I use) it says

Tariff charge £26.05
monthly extras £0
Minutes £0
Messages £0
Data £0
charges when abroad £0
premium and information services £3.13 (I assume that’s a call to O2, but I have to admit I am not sure.)
Things you’ve bought - there’s a couple of things on iTunes plus this late landing charge which is £19.49. So I need to query the £19.49, and the £3.13.

Then I am charged a tariff on two phones that are not in use totalling nearly £40, so that combined with the ‘late landing charge’ seems to be the source of the problem, as that’s £60. But trying to actually get someone at o2 to sort it is really incredibly difficult.

@bestbefore I know but at the time wasn’t in a position to buy outright.

@SoupDragon i probably will. It’s just that I won’t pay off my phone until September 24 and I do need to get it sorted before then.

So you finished paying the device plans on 2, and still have 3 left?

Plus each of them have or had a contract for data/texts etc.

So are you sure when the device plan was paid off that you also cancelled the data/text package for them? Just because one ends doesn't mean the other has to.

It is a loan. So essentially I’m guessing the OP purchased the watch and iPad through this and paying it back monthly. A late landing charge usually means for calls abroad that were not charged at the time

@Damia thats what I tried to do Monday, but it was as if I was speaking gobbledegook. I have honestly never had such a frustrating phone call. I thought I was being perfectly clear but they are still showing on my o2.

@SpeckledlyHen thats really strange, I haven’t been abroad since summer 2019

It is usually that, but it could be for something else. I think you need to phone them today and tackle each part of the bill seperately. So phone and ask about the landing charge and get that sorted, once that’s sorted move on to the next issue, carry on like that on an individual basis and it might be less confusing for both sides.

I just looked at the O2 website and a device plan is a loan to buy a device, surely more expensive to buy than saving up or spreading the cost on a low interest credit card but anyway.

So can you be clearer about how your bill breaks down, @Brownflowers

Device plan (loan): 45
Phone contract: xx
Usage charges: xx (a combination of calls, texts and data)

You later mention you have five phones on this one bill - these are actual phones, not other devices? I have three on mine - DH, ds and mine. So I assume you are paying for other people in the household as well.

It looks as if there are five active phone contracts despite there being only 3 phones in use? Were there five at one point? How did that become 3, i.e. were two contracts meant to be terminated and weren't?

A late landing charge just looks as if it is a charge that was delayed being applied to the bill, so not you being late but rather O2 being late.

Can you show us a picture of the summary page of your bill? With identifying details scrubbed out of course.

I think you're using confusing terms.

I'm with o2 and pay for three phones. Each number is listed individually on the app, and they have a device plan which is the cost (loan) for the phone and then an airtime bill which is the data package.

I have two year contracts on them all. When the contract is up I own the device and can switch to eg giff gaff.

If you have phones you're not using anymore have you cancelled the contract so you're not paying the airtime bills? You can't do this if you're not out of contract yet.

@SpeckledlyHen but when I spoke to them on Monday all I wanted was to terminate the two numbers that are not in use and got nowhere. It took nearly two hours to get that far, and they are still on my O2.

@tribpot no, all mine - I have a phone, iPad and watch. I could post screenshots but it’s literally just what I posted above.

@cocksstrideintheevening yeah I’m out of contract, or should be, I assume I am if I have finished paying the device plans?

Did you speak to the department for leaving 02?

If you speak to that department and say you're leaving totally for all the phones etc out of contract and move to another supplier

im with vodaphone and although not great, im paying £50 for landline, broadband and phone

I know what you mean but the problem is I’m not leaving, as in I’m not going to another provider. I literally just need those lines terminating. I can try that again, I suppose!

You say you’ve finished paying the device plans, but also that you’re still paying the device plans (they’re on your bill). Is that correct?

When did you set up these unused 2 lines. Are you still in the contract period?