Initial charges on new account

[RichardSutton1]

I hope someone might be able to help me with this query.

I have spent hours on the phone to EE since the 23rd December 2024 trying to sort out the complete mess they have made of my account, which includes billing me for equipment and lines that I have never asked for and never received.

Anyway, I think this is slowly being sorted out but, at the most recent call yesterday, I was still querying why I was charged a double monthly charge for the 4G Smart Hub that I am actually using. Bearing in mind that I have been through this a dozen times with different agents over the last 6 weeks, the agent yesterday explained that I have paid a double charge because the first month that you use the line you pay a months rental in advance plus another month which is held by EE until you cancel the contract (18 months in the case of my EE4GHomeUnlimited contract, I believe) at which point you are repaid the one month. 

When I queried that this was not in any of the online paperwork I had received and none of the previous agents had ever provided this explanation, the agent was surprised that no-one had mentioned this because it is EE standard procedure and everyone is treated in the same way.

Please could someone confirm that billing of one month in advance plus a one month holding charge is the norm for EE home 4G mobile broadband?

Many thanks

Richard

[Chris_B]

@RichardSutton1  you should be charged up to your billing date as the bill needs to include the period of time up to  when the bill got generated and then for the month ahead.  You shouldn’t be charged for 2 months.     

ie you got device then 7 days later the bill is generated so you have 7 days of payments and then the 30 days after as you pay pro rata.  
This is an example as I don’t know when it got it to when the bill was generated. 

[RichardSutton1]

Thank you Chris

My actual billing from EE is in a terrible state as I'm being billed for 3 mobile lines, 2 of which I have never had, and a fixed line broadband link, which I have also never had, so trying to sort out which bills relate to which service, real or fantasy, is extremely difficult.

Anyway, your response encouraged me to try and dig deeper into the bills to try and see which charges and refunds apply to which line.

The line that is the real one, according to the billing, started on the 24th December 2024, at a cost of £45 per month. I appear to have been billed £90 on the 3rd February 2025 which states that it is for the period 24th December 2024 - 23rd February 2025. The charges I have paid on the 7th January 2025 and the 4th February 2025 appear to be related to the fantasy services but they are making the whole picture very confusing.

Anyway, it seems to me that the charge of £90 on the 3rd Feb 2025 was for the first month of service in arrears and for the second month up to the 23rd Feb 2025 in advance, as you say, and all this rubbish about EE charging an extra month on commencement which I will be refunded if I terminate the contract was simply nonsense.

The next bill will presumably be due around the 24th Feb and will be for the month from 24th Feb to 23rd March.

Hopefully EE will be able to sort out this mess in due course but, in the meantime, thank you for pointing me in the right direction.

Richard