Blacklisted? Phone Contract fraud

Op stop saying you were forced to do this. You wasn't, you were stupid and greedy. The simplest way to solve it would be for your parents to pay it off, if you really wont do that then contact the phone companies involved ASAP. Tell them you cannot make the full payments, work out what you can pay (it will still have to be a significant amount) and arrange with them to pay that. Phone companies have allowed this for relatives of mine but never 5 contracts at one time. If you can't even pay that much then look into borrowing the amount. As you've already proven your stupidity i'll add avoid loan sharks and any loans you can't pay back

yeah now i dont trust no one. and alright ill see how it goes tromz when i call the companies up and see what i can do and yeah i wil defo stay away from loan sharks i dont want to do anything illegal anymore.

i done all these last week Wednesday/Thursday.

and the guy was Somalian

Right you're really stuck now, here is the only logical way which will get you out of this situation.
Wait for the phone companies to call, wait for them to come to you and when they do answer, the you must say:

"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for a phone payment, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills -- skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you cancel my contracts now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you"

You do know that debt collection is done on an outbound dialler, they don't particularly care who they get through to. Its standard objection handling they go through and basic DPA to recover debt. You can say whatever you want, they don't care. They are paid commission on what payments they take, usually a percentage.....as 1-2%....which is quite significant in the number of phone calls they are expected to make. You just the just the one thats going to look stupid, because they have made contact....which is good under the statute of limitations - i.e. contact within the last 6 years,lol.

You realize I was joking?
Anyone who took my liam neeson quote seriously is a fool,

I get that, but this kid is very naive, if your telling him this. He will take it at face value and probably do it and make it worse!

Yeah I have to agree with this. The joke didn't really serve any purpose apart from satisfying your own ego. Maybe it wasn't meant to be taken seriously, but this is a pretty serious issue being discussed, so probably not the time and place.

I feel bad for the OP, we've all done stupid things in our lives, especially when we're younger. If you're just leaving home for the first time and all of a sudden you are in control of everything, its not easy for everyone to adjust. I made a mess of my money when I went to Uni, first year I didn't know what I was doing, I ended up getting a couple of defaults, affected my life for several years.

Don't get me wrong it was a bad decision mate, and there will be consequences. Its good to see some have offered you some advice rather than just judging you.

You won't be charged with fraud because technically you haven't committed any fraud, you purchased several phones with contracts and as far as the phone company is concerned, you are going to pay for them. So you're lucky there won't be any criminal charges. Even if this is escalated to worst case scenario, its a civil matter.

How long ago did you get the phones and were they posted to you? Legally you can cancel and return items within 7 days under the Distance Trading Selling Act and you don't need a reason to do this.

The other thing you should do is speak to the company. Bottom line is if you ignore it, the situation will just get worse. See if the company will reduce the contracts on the phones, explain that you won't be using the contract your purchased at all. Be persistent as well, if they say no the first time, maybe ask to speak to a supervisor and explain the situation. Companies can be flexible if they want to be, but most chose not to be as they want to make money.

Right now I'm assuming you haven't breached your contract with the company and as long as you pay your bills, you're not at any risk. If they won't renegotiate any of the contracts and you can't afford to pay, eventually the contracts will be passed to a debt collection agency. Its at this stage where you would face consequences such as defaults and possibly a CCJ (only a small percentage of collections reach this stage). The term blacklisted is a meaningless phrase, its not black and white like that. Credit reports simply show all of your financial history for the last 6 years, good and bad. Whilst any negative information is harmful, its not like you won't ever be able to get credit again, but it will time (years) for you to build up a good reputation again.

There is a lot of information online on about credit reports and how to handle debt collection companies etc, including newbie proof sample letters and scripts for phone conversations. I would recommend reading more to prepare yourself if it gets to that stage.

Best advice I can give you is don't ignore it, the problem won't go away and the people you owe money to won't forget. As far as saving up money etc you are probably going to have to forget about that for now mate, but hopefully it will help you to learn your lesson.

He could potentially file for IVA or Bankruptcy.....paying £950 instead of £4,500 might be more practical.

It is an option, but declaring bankruptcy is a very serious decision, its more damaging than a default or a CCJ. If its just the money itself that is the problem, then yes it would wipe away the debt, but the consequences are pretty extreme, for a start all of your assets can be seized including your bank accounts (frozen and you won't be able to withdraw money, regardless of how much you have).

It seriously affects your credit report as well. A lot of housing agencies, landlords and employers run credit checks on reputable jobs. A CCJ or default may appear on these, but they aren't necessarily going to affect the outcome of the application, whereas bankruptcy will show on every credit report that is run. That means he would struggle to find a place to live through any medium that runs a credit check (private landlords and agencies) and getting a mortgage would be very difficult.

After Uni if you're looking to start a good job that requires your degree (grad schemes etc), chances are an employer will run a credit check. You would never be able to get a job involving anything financial and most public service careers. Private companies will have their own policies regarding bankruptcy so I can't fairly comment on that. If the OP's goal is to avoid a damaged credit report, its probably a bad idea. It would come off your credit report after 6 years, but that is a very long time to be financially handicapped at this time of your life

Ask any financial advice service and they will tell you bankruptcy is a last resort.

Not sure whether to cry out of laughter or pity.....
You'll have to pay the phone companies otherwise they'll just get debt collectors after you.
Not sure how you fell for this.............

"Hey pay loads of money for some phones and I'll keep some and you keep some. They will then become magically free. Like those flying elephants, over there, talking to the flying pigs."

He might actually have no choice once they get the CCJ on him.... that means the creditors don't need to file a statutory demand on him. This won't be for a few months at a time, every late payment for a phone bill, he is digging himself a grave. They would just need to pay the insolvency fees, in a fee weeks he could be Bankrupt....the practitioner will see he has nothing, he has no assets as he said and he's 19. He will be discharged within a short time frame. In the short term might be to try take out a loan, even if its with a relatively high interest rate, to pay these all off and get a job. I don't think will ever need a credit check for a job if he's falling for schemes like this, he isn't going to be on the Goldman Sachs Grad Scheme. Tesco's Retail, for checkout staff, don't need credit checks.

One issue with applying for bankruptcy is his illegal activities

He does not have all of the assets that he fraudulently acquired ... how is he going to explain this

LOL, all these Iphones = personal possessions,LOL....

He's got his Somalian friend to vouch for him, by coming to the hearing and swearing an affidavit that they are,LOL.

I think you have mis-understood or perhaps mis-construed my post

haha, not everyone has common sense

He might actually have no choice once they get the CCJ on him.... that means the creditors don't need to file a statutory demand on him. This won't be for a few months at a time, every late payment for a phone bill, he is digging himself a grave. They would just need to pay the insolvency fees, in a fee weeks he could be Bankrupt....the practitioner will see he has nothing, he has no assets as he said and he's 19. He will be discharged within a short time frame. In the short term might be to try take out a loan, even if its with a relatively high interest rate, to pay these all off and get a job. I don't think will ever need a credit check for a job if he's falling for schemes like this, he isn't going to be on the Goldman Sachs Grad Scheme. Tesco's Retail, for checkout staff, don't need credit checks.