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Hello, I just wanted to share my experience with these Premium Service companies and O2. To begin with I need to clarify that I DID NOT (either accidentally or otherwise) sign up to any of these services. I recently noticed from my phone bill that there were lots of additional charges on a phone which I rarely use. These charges were from the following companies; Cellfish Media, Mobiclix Group Pte, "My Mobile Company" ,Snack Games, UME Ltd and Watch it. These charges ranged from £2.99 to £9.99 and totaled £150 over a 2 month period. I contacted O2 my provider and asked them about the charges. They told me that the charges were nothing to do with O2 and I would have to contact the companies in question directly. They assured me that if I contacted the companies they would give me a full refund. (Interesting I see that other people are saying that O2 refunded the charges - O2 told me they could not do this.) O2 also assured me that they do not make any money from these transactions or third parties. In fact they said that O2 pays a fee to the third party companies (which makes no sense to me at all). I contacted each of the companies in question and, after 2 or 3 emails in some cases, all but one company gave me a full refund. The 1 company who did not was "Mobiclix" aka mocoplay.com. They had charged me £9.99 twice and in an email agreed to refund my the full amount, I then provided them with my paypal details for the refund. . A few days later I checked my paypal account to see that only 9.99 had been refunded. I contacted that company again and was told that they changed their minds and were only going to refund me 9.99 in total. I told the company that I would be taking the matter further and asked them to provide Proof of Debt - showing that I had given permission for them to charge me. I contacted O2 again and asked them for the full company details of this 3rd party Mobiclix. They have refused to provide it. Some questions I would have; 1. How can these companies legally apply these charges without the customer's consent? 2. How can O2 (and other providers) be allowed to let these 3rd party companies apply charges to my O2 account without my explicit consent? 3. How can O2 simply wash their hands of the issue and not take responsibility? 4. What action can be taken against these 3rd party companies and O2? Paul

Quick Update: The BOI as expected asked for an adjournment pending the delayed OFT report. I objected of course, (that would have brought my case to 2 years in court), the judge however seemed set on hearing the case today and so rejected the request for adjournment. We took a 15 minute break during which the bank's solicitor phoned for instructions. She was instructed not to defend the claim. They settled in full. There were no conditions so I accepted. One interesting thing came up during the the adjournment agruement. The judge asked the solicitor if the bank used default charges to subsidise other parts of the business. She admitted that they did. This was something I wanted to press during the actual trial but of course never got the chance. But I feel that this amounts to an admission that the charges are profit making.

They did not send any further documents, apart from a copy of the statement from the OFT saying that the report will be delayed.

My case was adjourned again until 16th of April. That will bring my case to 14 months after submitting my small claim. The judge has set aside a full day for the hearing and has ordered the BOI to disclose any and all documentation that they will be relying on before April 1st.

Folks, Sorry for being so quiet. Just so busy at work. But i agree I need to be checking the other threads and updating more frequently particularly as it seems that my case is going to be one of the first in N.Ireland that the bank is going to defend and all the other cases are being adjourned pending this case. My case was adjourned again until 16th of April. That will bring my case to 14 months after submitting my small claim. The judge has set aside a full day for the hearing and has ordered the BOI to disclose any and all documentation that they will be relying on before April 1st.

I am currently involved in a case for bank charges against the Bank of Ireland. I have recently been informed that the BOI send copies of all of my personal and financial details to another claimant. I ask the bank to tell me exactly what and to whom they had sent this info but they refused to tell me. I wrote to the Info Commissioner regarding the situation and requesting them to take action. It has been over 3 weeks and I still have received no response from the ICO. My question is where do I turn to next? If the ICO are ignoring me what options do i have? Thanks.

I have no intention of disappearing. I will not accept a settlement which is conditional on me keeping quiet. The latest report from the Competition Commission has some interesting points. It is focused on the competitiveness of banks in NI and not the legality of the charges but there is alot of information that is of use in our cases.

Hi there, As Big Aid has said check out my thread it gives the details but in summary I seem to be the furthest along in terms of BOI. I started my claim way back in Feb, it was listed for June then rescheduled for Sept. So went to court in Sept and they turned up with a full team. They asked for a Stay pending test cases in England and the second statement by the OFT. I objected to the stay on a number of grounds (which seemed to take them by surprise - think they were expecting me to just accept it and that would be it posponed indefinately). I objected stating that there was no gaurantee that there would be a test case as over 300 cases have been settled out of court and none had been heard in full. Also that the first statement of the OFT was to Read Across to all financial institutions and that the OFT had not given a date for publishing a second statement and that the first took 2 years. The judge agreed with me but did adjourn until Nov 21st but said that if no settlement is reached he will hear the case and if needs be it would be the test case (so there is great interest in this one). I can't find anyone else who has been to court with the BOI please let me know if you know anyone who has. As for them taking it seriously, perhaps they hadn't up until my day in court as they came with alot of documentation ( over 100 pages - most of which was irrelivant - full statement of my account etc) but they had not supplied me with a copy of any of it (which i complained about) but they didn't seem to be ready to actually defend the claim - i wish they had have. Since the court case I sent them a letter offering to alter my claim to only those charges which exceed the actual cost to the bank for the offences (i would imagine that to be all of them) if they will supply me with a detailed and itemised breakdown of their actual costs. Copied this to the court too. No reply of course.

I there sorry I have only seen your post today and too late to give you any advice. I started my claim against the BOI way back in Feb. The court date was posponed until Sept. They did actually turn up then and the judge adjourned until Nov 21st as the BOI said that the second statement from the OFT will be out by them (It wil not!) But the judge said that unless a settlement is reached he will hear the case and if needs be it will be the test case in NI as no other (at that point) had actually been heard in the court all others had been settled (i think this is still the case - if anyone knows differently please let me know). I am fired up for this and cannot wait until Nov. They have had ample opportunity to offer to settle and they have not (haven't even contacted me). I sent them a letter after the case telling them I would settle for only those charges that actually exceeded their actual costs and for them to outline and itemise the charges. Of course they did not reply. But it looks like BOI are actually going to go into the court to fight this. Absolute madness as the law is on my side and if/when they do loss it will cost them and all of the other banks millions as this will act as a test case. Very interested to know how it went today.

"Didn't" really speak to me....

Court 4 Small Claims. Did really speak to me. I introduced myself to them at the start but on the way out they said nothing.

Update: The BOI did turn up with full legal team. The case has been adjourned until 21st Nov in the hope that the OFT's statement (relating specifically to Current Accounts) is published but either way on that date the judge says he will set a date to hear the case. He suggested that we should consider settling outside but the BOI seemed to have no interest in doing so. Apparently there have been 6 cases in the same court but all have settled outside of court.

Hi folks, I started this thread a long time ago and my case against the BOI has been a long and drawn out one. I was originally given a court date in May but the court relisted it for 1 Sept. (this Friday). So I am preparing for court now. Not taking a solicitor, going to put the case forward myself (probably not a wise move especially as it seems to be the first NI case to actually go to court - please correct me if I am wrong on this) I will update the forum as soon as the case is heard. Fingers crossed! P

I have started a claim for just under £2000 in the small claims court. The bank has until April 21st to respond. They tried to palm me of by saying that they had passed the matter to thier legal department for advise and that they would get back to me within 2 days, as expected this was just a stalling tactic. I waited the 2 days but heard nothing more from the bank so I continued with the claim. Will keep you up to date. P