£550 Vodafone bill, need advice

[kisangoli78]

Hi UKPF!

So as the title suggests, my sister has just been hit with a £550 vodafone mobile phone bill. She started a 2 year contract 4 months ago, and for the first 3 mVidMateonths, as a perk, she received unlimited data usage. However, this month the tariff changed, and she was being charged £16 per 250mb of data used.

I realise that to get to £550, she has used a LOT of data (her kids are on youtube most nights after school). But £16 for 250 MB?? Is that fair? Vodafone didn't even let her know that the bill was increasing higher and higher throughout the month. If she'd have known, obviously she would have stopped using the data straight away.

Vodafone did send texts to say how much data she'd used in Mb's, but not in £ terms. Being non-tech savvy, she doesn't know a Mb from Gb, so the text flew over her head mostly. She absolutely cannot afford to pay this bill, is completely stressed out and doesn't know where tMobdro o turn.

So I'm looking for some advice here. What is the best course of action? Would it be worthwhile writing to Vodafone to try and get them to lower the bill as a gesture of goodwill? Does she have a right to complain on the basis that £16 per 250 Mb is ridiculous? (I'm pretty sure it's cheaper to roam data in Australia!) Or is her only option to walk away from the debt and ruin her credit rating?

Any advice much appreciated.

[BandOfBrothers]

With people being in lockdown and working from home and children being off school thus using mobile data for online home schooling and for other usage such as gaming / YouTube etc one's data allowance can soon be eaten up !

Some don't have Home Broadband so can't use Home Broadband Wi-Fi.

I understand it can be confusing to those that are not savvy to how many Mb's make up a Gb versus actual cost.

Pay Monthly Contracts do have cap options in your myvodafone app / myvodafone online so I'm not sure why this didn't come into play.

How-do-I-set-up-or-remove-a-data-cap. 

And there is some good information in Managing-your-data-usage. 

These are hard times most most find themselves in whether it be due to financial difficulties,  mental wellbeing reasons or both,  so I'm sure the bill did come as a shock to your sister.

Some devices also have inbuilt data usage restrictions so check that.

Also sine devices can automatically switch from Home Broadband Wi-Fi to Mobile Data etc so when a person is wanting to remain on Home Broadband Wi-Fi it's best practice to turn Off Mobile Data in the phone's settings.

Here is Vodafone's official help pages in regards to payments.

Financial-difficulties. 

And

What-should-I-do-if-I-can-t-pay-my-bill. 

I would suggest you ask your sister to contact Vodafone Customer services ASAP  on 191 or 0333 3040191 or Live Chat to start a conversation with them in regards to the bill.

Please advise her not to “ walk away ” or cancel her Direct Debit etc. The impact would cost her 6 years of not being able to apply for certain types of Credit.

Contacting Vodafone will then hopefully stop any restrictions of services,  debt collection and in the extreme a 6 year default on her Credit File.

You can ask for a Payment Plan but Vodafone could if they agree to this place a marker on your sisters Credit File which has the potential to affect her Credit Score.

There's nothing lost in her asking for a reduction due to not being aware of the costs vs usage in Mb's but it would be a Goodwill Gesture on Vodafone's behalf if they wish to do this or not.

I wish your sister all the best with this.