Pay Monthly - Missed Payment!!!

Hello. I used to have a Saturday job of which i was able to pay my £30 a month. However, i do not have this job any more and my dad refuses to pay for the bill, which in fairness is ok in my opinion. Carelessly, I am no longer able to keep up with my payments now and what I am thinking is,

1) How can O2 take out money from my account which i dont have? BTW I dont have an overdraft facility either so they couldnt even if they wanted to.

2) Would it be against the law? i.e What would happen to me lol? Seeing as i am not able to pay my contract and still have many months left on it.

Reply 1

ben_stretch

I'd say they would send people round to take stuff from your house if you refused to pay it. They're not going to forget about it if thats what you were hoping!

Reply 2

TheOneWho

12

They will continue to take the money from your account and your account will be charged by the bank for going overdrawn. Unless you cancel the direct debit and contact O2 as soon as possible. You have taken out a contract so are obliged to continue paying for it, but they might be able to help you out if you are pro-active and don't just ignore it. They could put you on a re-payment plan or something like that. You would need to contact them and find out what they can do for you.

Reply 3

Sir Joe

1

i'd find a way to pay it. Missed payments will hurt your credit rating which may hinder you when you are older.

Reply 4

alenax

14

They're going to take it out because it's a direct debit payment, and in addition the bank is going to fine you for an unauthorised overdraft.

Reply 5

Singh42

OP

alenax

They're going to take it out because it's a direct debit payment, and in addition the bank is going to fine you for an unauthorised overdraft.

how can they fine me if i have nothing?

Reply 6

alenax

14

Jammer

how can they fine me if i have nothing?

It's not their problem, they'll expect you to have money to pay for it.

Trust me... you must have heard the whole bank charges debate a while ago?

Reply 7

Singh42

OP

alenax

It's not their problem, they'll expect you to have money to pay for it.

Trust me... you must have heard the whole bank charges debate a while ago?

nah what was it all about?

Reply 8

Joanna May

15

If you're 18 or over, you're responsible for any debts you accumulate. Which means they will keep chasing you up for the bill until you pay it off. Your bank will probably take you into an unathorised overdraft, which means you will have to keep paying bank charges on the overdraft until you're back in the clear.

Reply 9

TheOneWho

12

It'll go into negative balance and you'll be asked to pay it back, along with the fine for getting overdrawn.

If you can't pay it then you'll need to find a way to. There is a debt charity, CCCS, who might be able to give you advice on how to talk to your bank and O2.

Reply 10

alenax

14

Old enough to have a bank account, old enough to have a phone on contract, old enough to have to be able to pay it off somehow.

Reply 11

tinkerbellejess

13

Even if you can't go overdrawn as such, if the payments fail the bank will charge you (around £40), and they will turn this into an unauthorised overdraft in order to pay it if you don't put the money in the account. So you'd have a failed direct debit charge to pay, interest on that and you'd still have the phone bill to pay.

Reply 12

englishman2987

6

Well i used to work for the Vodafone debt collections dept. If people don't have enough money in their bank then the direct debit bounces for which you will be charged by the bank upto £35 per application, usually gets applied for twice. O2 will bar your phone so you can't use it to make calls at first, eventually they will stop you from using it all together. Once you go over 30 days overdue with anything you will get a late payment mark on your credit file and every 30 days there after another late payment mark. In the time of the credit crunch this is not a great thing to have and will raise interest on any loans or whatever and you won't get a mobile contract for anything from 3 months - 6 years depending how late you have been. Eventually if you still haven't paid (after 1-3 months depending how long you have been with 02 and how much you spend with them) they will cancell your contract and charge you the l/r to the end of your commitment eg if you still have 15 months of your contract left and you pay £30 per month you will have to pay £450 on top of your overdue balance. This total debt will then be passed to a debt collections agency which will place a default on your credit file, this means your credit rating will be **** for the next 6 years minimum, for mortgages longer. If you don't pay it at all you will be lucky to get any credit at all until it's paid. If you dont make an arrangement to pay with the agency they will take you to court and that's where you will get ccj's etc. The agency have an obligation to accept anything you can pay so if it does get that far even if you can pay a fiver per month that will help. My advice is do not let it get that far, get another job asap and get it paid. O2 will be able to help you with payment plans etc, give them a call. Anyway the above is how the Vodafone system works, i imagine it's the same for O2. Any q's i'll answer as best i can. Holy **** that took ages :biggrin:

Reply 13

snu

2

Jammer

1) How can O2 take out money from my account which i dont have? BTW I dont have an overdraft facility either so they couldnt even if they wanted to.

The bank will put you into an unauthorised overdraft. Google "unauthorised overdraft" for more information, or refer to the fee schedule for your bank account.

Even if they don't put you into an unauthorised overdraft and reject the Direct Debit, they will charge you a fee for the administrative hassle.

2) Would it be against the law? i.e What would happen to me lol? Seeing as i am not able to pay my contract and still have many months left on it.

Well, you'd be in breach of your contract with O2. As others have said, O2 will not take lightly to this, will report you as a non-paying debtor to all the credit reference agencies (which will make it hard for you to get a credit card, a loan, a mortgage, etc... even to get a student bank account if you're planning on going to university - and this information will stay there for six years).

They will refer it to a debt collection agency, who can go to court to get a legal order compelling you to pay. They can send the bailiffs round.

Basically, you can't get out of this. You agreed to pay the total line rental for the length of your contract, so you'd better find a way to cough up. Perhaps if you explain to your dad how much of a problem this may cause for you, promise to pay him back, go out looking for a new job over summer, and generally grovel, you might be able to sort it out.

Reply 14

englishman2987

6

snu

Even if they don't put you into an unauthorised overdraft and reject the Direct Debit, they will charge you a fee for the administrative hassle.

This is what they did at Vodafone so i imagine it will be the same at O2

snu

Well, you'd be in breach of your contract with O2. As others have said, O2 will not take lightly to this, will report you as a non-paying debtor to all the credit reference agencies (which will make it hard for you to get a credit card, a loan, a mortgage, etc... even to get a student bank account if you're planning on going to university - and this information will stay there for six years).

They will refer it to a debt collection agency, who can go to court to get a legal order compelling you to pay. They can send the bailiffs round.

They won't send baliffs round to pick up your stuff, they will just take you to court which is where you get county court judgements (ccj's) which screw your credit file up big time. All late payment marks, defaults, ccj's etc stay on your credit file but most companies only look back as far as 6 years for loans etc. Mortgage companies do look back further though so be warned this can be very damaging.

snu

Basically, you can't get out of this. You agreed to pay the total line rental for the length of your contract, so you'd better find a way to cough up. Perhaps if you explain to your dad how much of a problem this may cause for you, promise to pay him back, go out looking for a new job over summer, and generally grovel, you might be able to sort it out.

Sounds like good advice, get on your knees and start groveling!

Reply 15

Laevis

13

snu

Basically, you can't get out of this. You agreed to pay the total line rental for the length of your contract, so you'd better find a way to cough up. Perhaps if you explain to your dad how much of a problem this may cause for you, promise to pay him back, go out looking for a new job over summer, and generally grovel, you might be able to sort it out.

Quoted for the attention of the OP! It's a pretty serious problem, but not an altogether difficult one to get out of.

Pay Monthly - Missed Payment!!!

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