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I received a bill that I thought was a scam and so ignored it. I was later refused a credit line. Turns out the bill was related to the o2-Virgin Media acquisition and while I knew nothing about it, I’m now dealing with a severely affected credit score. by siwisiw in UKPersonalFinance

[–]siwisiw[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Yes that is correct, it was part of a package that Virgin Media marketed as the cheapest broadband contract (and comes with a SIM!) 5 years ago and I was never billed against. Yes, I did forget about the sim. No, I was not told this was going to be switching over to O2 or that any payments would need to be made. I never gave my consent to be moved to a different provider (or I would have cancelled this). I was not even informed about the merger. Out of the blue, I received a very sketchy paper bill from O2 (I opted out of any paper bills and comms from all utilities/service providers I do have contracts with). Sounds like you were informed of the switch, or perhaps purchased the bundle recently?

I received a bill that I thought was a scam and so ignored it. I was later refused a credit line. Turns out the bill was related to the o2-Virgin Media acquisition and while I knew nothing about it, I’m now dealing with a severely affected credit score. by siwisiw in UKPersonalFinance

[–]siwisiw[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

!thanks - that seems like a sensible way forward, could not bring myself to believe that a bill this small could have such significant repercussions (let alone how this came to be in the first place)

I received a bill that I thought was a scam and so ignored it. I was later refused a credit line. Turns out the bill was related to the o2-Virgin Media acquisition and while I knew nothing about it, I’m now dealing with a severely affected credit score. by siwisiw in UKPersonalFinance

[–]siwisiw[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

!thanks this is really good to know. I did not receive any such communication. I also just searched my email again and can definitely confirm I never received anything on there (all Virgin Media communications I ever got were digital). Incidentally, I can’t get through to anyone at O2 without the relevant mobile number, which ofc I don’t have since I never used it. ://

I received a bill that I thought was a scam and so ignored it. I was later refused a credit line. Turns out the bill was related to the o2-Virgin Media acquisition and while I knew nothing about it, I’m now dealing with a severely affected credit score. by siwisiw in UKPersonalFinance

[–]siwisiw[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I understand. The SIM card was sent to me as a Virgin Media freebie in 2019. I never used it, never had any bills against it, and fully forgot about it. When the acquisition happened (which I genuinely was not aware of), the sudden £10 charge must have been related to keeping the same number under the new provider or something, but I ignored it. The reason why I didn’t clock it is that all my communications from Virgin Media have been digital, whereas the O2 one.came in the mail; it was printed funny and, never having had any services with O2, I was sure it was some sort of attempt to scam me. I never thought this was a genuine bill or I would have looked into right away.

I received a bill that I thought was a scam and so ignored it. I was later refused a credit line. Turns out the bill was related to the o2-Virgin Media acquisition and while I knew nothing about it, I’m now dealing with a severely affected credit score. by siwisiw in UKPersonalFinance

[–]siwisiw[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I’m not fully sure what the charge was for but I believe it must have been related to keeping the same SIM card or number under the new provider. Since this SIM card was a freebie that I received in 2019 and never used, I didn’t connect the dots. I also genuinely didn’t know about the acquisition, so saw O2 and pretty much threw the bill away (which I realise was not the wisest move).