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 

[XRaySpeX · Accepted solution]

Flex Pay Explained

[Chris_S]

Hi @Vanndammo 

I'm very sorry to hear about your experience.

We aim to be as clear and transparent as possible when offering contacts, so I'm concerned to hear that we've fallen short of your expectations on this occasion.

When you took out your deal, did you order your device over the phone, online or in one of our stores?

Chris S

[bristolian]

When a new FlexPay plan is taken out, an integral part of the process is a DD for the finance loan alongside the existing airtime plan - and also a 14day statutory cancellation period.

I've never known FlexPay send a separate bill alongside the airtime element.

[Vanndammo]

I took out the new contract via the chat option  on the EE app. I was not told they would be done in two separate payments. I now know but I was not aware at the start and it’s ruined my credit 

[Vanndammo]

Both of these need paying separately and both are different on my credit file  

[Vanndammo]

I wasn’t even offered anything Barr “Flexpay” had I known this was a credit agreement while I was in the middle of huge mortgage applications, i would have said no from the outset 

[Peter_W]

Hi @Vanndammo, thanks for sharing those extra details with us.

When you take out a Flex Pay contract, the terms of this will either be read out verbally, or included as part of a screen-share session that you need to explicitly approve. 

You should also receive the pre-contract information explaining the details of your agreement prior to the device being received too. 

I can really appreciate how much of a shock it must have been if this has impacted your credit file, though. 

If you haven't already I'd recommend reaching out to our team so we can further investigate what exactly has happened, and you can also find the details of our complaints process here:

EE Complaints Code of Practice - March 2024

Peter

[Gills25]

Hi. I also was not made aware that this was a loan agreement. I have three phones on my account t and now three unsecured loans show which has now also affected my credit rating. 

I believe many others will be in the same position and feel this needs to be addressed by the ombudsman.  

[XRaySpeX]

@Gills25 : I don't think you mean the Ombudsman. He's for arbitrating individual complaints as a last resort. You may be thinking of OFCOM, the statutory regulator.