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[Deleted User]
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Is anybody else having/have they had problems with 3 and a company called ATB?
This month, I found myself unable to pay my £30 phonebill. I'm on a 24 month contract and this is my first time I've not been able to pay, around 9 months into the contract.
Since I missed the payment, two weeks ago, I've had around 6 calls a day from 3.
I answered at 8pm on the first day after a day at work to a rather rude abrupt man claiming that before he spoke to me I had to pass security by asking me about six questions and then telling me I'd failed the check! I became annoyed and hung up.
The next day, I received another five calls between the hours of 10 and 2pm during work hours, and once again when I answered that night... I managed to get through security to be told I NEEDED to make a payment now or my account would go into collections.
I explained my reasons and he told me this was fine.
The phonecalls continued every day, with a different person accosting me for not paying my bill and the same thing happening.
Today, I got a call from ATB, calling "on behalf of 3" and he arrogantly told me that "if there wasn't a problem, my details wouldn't have been passed onto me" and that I needed to clear my balance now or they would start proceedings (FOR THIRTY POUNDS!)
This month, I found myself unable to pay my £30 phonebill. I'm on a 24 month contract and this is my first time I've not been able to pay, around 9 months into the contract.
Since I missed the payment, two weeks ago, I've had around 6 calls a day from 3.
I answered at 8pm on the first day after a day at work to a rather rude abrupt man claiming that before he spoke to me I had to pass security by asking me about six questions and then telling me I'd failed the check! I became annoyed and hung up.
The next day, I received another five calls between the hours of 10 and 2pm during work hours, and once again when I answered that night... I managed to get through security to be told I NEEDED to make a payment now or my account would go into collections.
I explained my reasons and he told me this was fine.
The phonecalls continued every day, with a different person accosting me for not paying my bill and the same thing happening.
Today, I got a call from ATB, calling "on behalf of 3" and he arrogantly told me that "if there wasn't a problem, my details wouldn't have been passed onto me" and that I needed to clear my balance now or they would start proceedings (FOR THIRTY POUNDS!)
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Comments
What did you expect to happen. Why didn't you just contact them yourself and pay the bill.
You have no right to complain.
I contacted the customer service department to let them know I was having difficulties paying and was told it would be fine to make the payment after the 31st. If I had simply cancelled the payment and not let them know, I would understand why I was receiving these calls but I specifically informed them of my situation.
Had I known there would be so much of a problem, I would have gone overdrawn just to save the hassle.
As much as you may think that your blunt reply is heroic and speaks for everyone out there, I find it ignorant. Perhaps you should re-read the original post before speaking down to me.
"or they would start proceedings"
They never will don't worry this is a scare tactic.
Of course they will, not only will your credit record be tarnished, but they will eventually take you to court ad get a judgement once the amount gets high enough.
Your original post doesn't back that up.
Your original post says you waited at least a minimum of two days to tell them.
So i don;t know what to believe. If you'd told them before you missed the bill and they said it was ok then fair enough. But why have you left it 2 weeks without doing anything?
Well i have yet to see this. the fact is debt collectors will try and scare you but eventually they will simply sell it on.
the credit record thing would already be damaged for late payment.
They will get a CCJ when the amount is enough an then enforce it with a bailiff to take goods for auction and recovery of the money if necessary. Your credit record would be heavily damaged with just 2 payments in a row missed.
yeh but bailiffs cannot enter a property without permission unless its council tax etc.
The bill was scheduled to be paid on the 10th of this month. I called up on the 9th to inform them and they said it would be okay for me to pay after the 31st.
A few days later (on Tuesday 14th), I started to get the phone calls.
The first time, when he told me I'd failed security, I was wary about giving him any more information so I asked if I could call him back. He told me no, I couldn't call him back and that he needed to take payment now, but in order to do that I had to give him the information he needed.
The second time, I successfully passed security with the same answers as I'd used the first time, and that's when he told me my account was in arrears and they would pass it onto collections should I not pay him. I explained I'd spoken to customer service and he basically called me a liar which, fair does, I understand they probably hear it all working there but his manner was atrocious.
The person who called today, when I answered, said "Let me speak to Emma please". He was forceful and unfriendly and when I told him that I'd be paying 3 next week and I wouldn't be paying him, he started raising his voice and telling me I would get into trouble for breaching my contract.
I'm not looking for sympathy here. You can believe me or not. My issue is that if I'm getting calls like this day in day out over something that I assumed to be resolved, then what else are they doing?
I understand how credit ratings work. But it is only logged as a missed payment if the outstanding payment isn't cleared by the time the following payment is due, which it will be.
It would go to a debt collection agency, such as Robinsonway and then when they haven't had a satisfactory response from you within a few months, they'll start sending letters threatening to take you to court or get one of their bailiffs to come around, and finally, depending on the circumstances, they'll just give up.
The only time I've heard of the bailiff thing actually happening is with council tax.
They can clamp your car though, take things from outside the property and climb in through open windows etc. You'd have to live your life knowing you'll keep getting knocks at the door and knowing that every visit is charged to you and racks up the bill by another £100 or so. it'll ruin your credit and be unable to get loans, mobile phones, credit cards or mortgages etc.
Incidentally if you owe criminal court fines then they can break in, as you mentioned earlier.
Couldn't you convince your bank to let you have an overdraft or borrow some money to pay? did you overstretch yourself a bit financially?
All mobile phone companies will do this when your payment is late. However it sould like the person you spoke to didn't enter the information on to the computer correctly. Have you called 3 again to agree to pay at the end of the month and see if that will stop the debt collection?
The calls you are getting were probably automated and when you answer go through to a call centre? that's probably why you're getting so many.
The council tax people are even worse (depending on local authority), you miss a payment, get a couple of letters and then a summons from what I hear, no messing around, they get a court judgement and then to the bailiffs.
The first thing you need to do is pay three the bill no matter what.
Then you need to get them to listen to the recording of the call where you were told you'd be allowed to pay on the 31st.
Then you go from there.
I don't think that's right, as checking my credit report from when I missed payments on things years ago I got back marks for doing so, and the 2 times I missed a credit card by more than 1 month it had a number 2 by it.
I struggled to borrow for years, it's all cleared now and dropped off after 6 years, but I think it's when you haven't paid by the due date you get an X on your file.
CCJ's will show up too, and once you've got one you can pretty much kiss goodbye to a phone contract for the next 6 years, as well as lots of credit.
I think it all depends on who you are with for your credit report.
The numbers symbolise how many payments in arrears you are. I remember from when I was with o2 for my first phone contract years ago. I had a similar incident and was told by the lady that as long as I paid this months bill before the second one came out there would be no problem and it wouldn't affect my file, but if I wasn't able to pay by that date then I would be classed as 'in arrears'.
I think you can default on five payments before it's classed as a default. Luckily, I've never defaulted on a phone contract, however I do have a friend who defaulted on an overdraft and it's excruciatingly difficult for her to get credit.
I doubt that is correct, 5 payments before you defaut!!!
I've used checkmyfile, experian and equifax via the 30 day trials mostly, before applying for a mortgage.
It only took a single missed payment to show an X with these, and as I say 2 missed payments in a row is bad when reading the notes on checkmyfile, with the explanation of the number 2 in the box.
If you do get a CCJ you'll really struggle to get a contract with a free phone, although you might get a 30 day contract with a very limited credit limit.
With multiple 2's recently on your report you'll only get approved for the "repair my credit" cards with the much higher APRs, and again only limited credit limits.
I went through hard times when I lost my job some years back and even though I only missed one or two payments on things it really did dent my credit ratings. Gladly everything is over 5 years now and 34K owed is now 0 and I sucessfully got a mortgage.