Flexpay is two bills and ruined my credit file

[Vanndammo]

I have been a EE customer for 16 years and on my last phone upgrade I was offered a FLEXPAY contract. I feel I was not explained to well enough due to the fact this is actually a unsecured loan and not a standard phone contract and credit agencies and mortgage lenders look at it totally different to a phone contract. This Flexpay is also on a separate bill from my phone calls and I didn’t know I would have separate bills until it was too late. When I say too late I missed a payment in April and a payment in October last year, even though I have never missed payments with my actual phone calls tariff. This has now ruined my credit rating and a mortgage I was applying for has been rejected. Has anyone else had this problem of not being aware of 2 separate bills, Flexpay being an unsecured loan and EE not being helpful when being asked to help sort the credit reporting situation. I have missed out on a £170,000 mortgage due to missing two £33 a month bills by about 10 days. I am so annoyed 

[Chris_B]

@Gills25  This is all explained to you when you take out this type of contract.    And you agreed to it 3 times.  It has to be because it’s a credit agreement.  
 It’s a credit agreement ie a loan and so because of that you’ll be credited checked.  
sorry to say but going to Ofcom after having 3 separate credit agreements isn’t going to go in your favour.        

[XRaySpeX]

@Chris_B : I was thinking of going to OFCOM as a general Q of regulation of this practice, not as an individual complaint. The poster was referring to "many others will be in the same position and feel this needs to be addressed".

[Chris_B]

@XRaySpeX  As it’s a credit agreement and you are made aware of what’s involved. ( any credit agreement will result in a credit check) 
  It’s basically a loan and to have a loan just like you would say from a bank you are told what you’ll be paying each month for the duration of that credit agreement.  You even have to sign it.  If it’s over the phone you end up going a screen share where everything is in front of you.       Even online it’s all there for you to read and understand.  
You even receive an email which shows exactly what you’ll be paying for the device and the airtime and these are split in to two separate items.  Both with their own costs listed separately. 

Not paying attention to what you are agreeing to at the point of sale is down to the individual.   

you receive this. 

Thanks for ordering a new device using Flex Pay.

Your monthly payments are now split in two and you will see two Direct Debits from EE moving forward, one for your Flex Pay agreement (EE Device), and one for your Airtime plan (EE Ltd). They'll total the amount you agreed to unless there are any out-of-allowance plan charges.

You can view your Flex Pay documents once your device is dispatched in the EE app.

If your new device supports eSIM, you can download one through the EE app or scan the QR code from your eSIM pack during the setup process. Otherwise, you can use the physical SIM we’ll send with your device.

[Matt_124]

The practices around Credit Agreements may fall into FCA territory more-so than OFCOM.

[bristolian]

---

@Matt_124 wrote:

The practices around Credit Agreements may fall into FCA territory more-so than OFCOM.

---

Pretty sure you're right Matt.

I strongly suspect the escalation process for the finance side is to the Banking Ombudsman, where the airtime side would go to Comms Ombudsman.

[XRaySpeX]

@Matt_124 : Yes, I was thinking that, too.