O2 claim my daughter is topping up - help I'm now broke!!!

[poppynurse]

My daughter has a pay as you go phone with O2. I occasionally top up with my debit card but usually get her a voucher.

O2 have taken 5 x £10 from my account in the last three days, they say daughter must have memorised the last four digits of my card and used express top up, she is adamant that she has not. She has been receiving unsolicited reverse billed texts that have been eating her credit.

O2 claim that they cannot remove my card details from their system and tell me to cancel my bank card. I don't really want to cancel my card as it is hugely inconvenient.

I've spoken to the bank and they suggest that O2 may have set up a continuing authority on my debit card which is allowing them to top up automatically if she has no credit when an unsolicited text is recieved and charges her account. Is this likely???? I don't think daughter would be so stupid as to top up without permission as she knows I check my account nearly everyday.

[Hobbie]

Ask O2 to provide you with dates and times that the "Express Top Ups" took place, then put this to your daughter.

DEMAND that O2 remove your debit card from the system and stop processing any further payments from that card, also report it to the bank as unauthorised transactions, this will then also get the bank involved and O2 will need to prove to the bank the details

[poppynurse]

I've already got the dates/times and daughter swears innocence. The bank say if I state unauthorised transactions they will involve fraud team and block my card (I can't survive without access to my cash)....I don't believe my daughter has done anything wrong but can't be 100% sure and don't want to get her into major grief with external folk. I need to know if it is theoretically possible that O2 are just processing payments without instructions.

[Hobbie]

Poppy,

If you have no reason to doubt your daughter, then its clear and simple, O2 have taken payments without your express permission.

As for the bank blocking your card, this is standard practise for banks, but most if not all banks follow the banking code of practise, and if your card is blocked, you have the right to request a replacement, you'd have a new card within usually 3 days.

The only trouble is, if you can't be 100% sure your daughter has done any wrong, and the bank and O2 investigate and it is found that calls to the express topup service was made (O2 would be able to trace to the postcode and in some cases even to the house number that the calls to the topup service was made from.)

It could cause major grief for both yourself and your daughter if it is found she did use the topup service memorising the last 4 digits of you card, as you will need to sign a declaration with the bank that you did not authorise the transactions, but in fact your daughter used it, would leave her open to possible fraud and theft of service, obtaining services by deception... should the bank or o2 wish to proceed that way.

Hope i've explained clear enough.

[Michael Browne]

As far as unsolicited texts go, this thread may be of interest:
Reclaimed money for premium rate text messages

[poppynurse]

Thanks guys.

I am 99% certain that my daughter did not do this but as you say it will cause major grief if I'm wrong, but equally I don't want O2 to get away with it if they are messing me about.....

[Hobbie]

An idea I came up with, ask O2 to provide you with documented evidence of how the £50 credit was spent.

If it was SMS/MMS/CALLS you would then know if it was in fact that 1% of doubt you have.

[barracad]

Whilst not impossible, it does seem unlikely that O2 would just randomly take 5 payments from your card without being requested to do so.

Obviously you know your daughter better than I do, but you state she was aware that the premium texts were using up her credit, and that she needed more credit to be able to use her phone... even if she claims she didn't top the phone up, did she not wonder how the phone kept magically topping itself back up?

[poppynurse]

She actually told me twice that it had done this, hence I phoned O2 on the second occasion (the first time I was half asleep when she text to tell me).

[buzby]

O2's website makes a FEATURE of asking you to provide a card number to 'ensure you never have to search for a voucher again'. From this it would be reasonable to expect O2 take the top-ups as and when required to keep your daughter online. Don't confuse this with 'validating' a credit card to be used for future top-ups, this is a completely different service. In this latter case, only the customer can initiate the credit, it looks as though she's opted for the first one.

[poppynurse]

And I bought pay as you go to ensue I could control top ups....

[buzby]

However giving anyone a CC number to affect payment is sharing or abrogating responsibility to look after the finances (a bit like Direct Debit).

[goodwill]

Originally Posted by poppynurse

I've spoken to the bank and they suggest that O2 may have set up a continuing authority on my debit card which is allowing them to top up automatically if she has no credit when an unsolicited text is recieved and charges her account. Is this likely????

Your daughter may have been 'signed up' to a premium rate subscription service that is draining her account.

PhonepayPlus - adjudications

Your daughter should first contact o2 to see if this is the case.

[lawbunny]

Have you asked O2 if they have your daughter's account set up to automatically top up whenever she runs out of credit?

I have never come across any networks doing this. Usually, if a customer has signed up to a subscription service but has no credit on their phone, the network simply do not forward on the subscrioption text until there is enough credit to pay for it - in fact, you usually get a text from your network advising that you do not have enough credit to recieve this message so you need to top up.