Permanently barring 3rd party purchases

[Callzz322]

So basically I have a bit of an addiction which means I basically max out my credit limit on 3rd party purchases every month. 

This is not sustainable for me as it means my bill is around £300 a month and is helping to keep me in debt. EE keep telling me there's nothing they can do on their end however I refuse to believe there is nothing EE can do to permanently block 3rd party purchases on my account.

What are my options because unfortunately texting bar to 150 doesn't help as I can just easily unbar whenever I want and I need a more permanent solution. 

Do I need to contact a solicitor or something?

[XRaySpeX]

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@Callzz322 wrote:

Do I need to contact a solicitor or something?

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Whatever for?

[Schockwave]

@Callzz322 ,Just make sure that your spend cap is set to 0, then you cannot spend it, but there is no other way to stop. You spending if you change it, EE cannot do anything about 3rd party purchases, they have nothing to do with that, is not their problem, you need to get control of your spending yourself, choose a service that helps with addiction if you cannot control yourself, but getting a solicitor involved, is expensive and not sure what they can do and a waste of money.

[XRaySpeX]

Spend Caps don't restrict Charge to Mobile purchases see Set up and manage Spend Cap :

A Spend Cap can’t restrict:

• charge to bill services like using your mobile bill as your App Store payment method or to enter text-based competitions and make donations

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[Chris_B]

@Callzz322  Are you trying to blame EE for your own lack of self control ?   Are you going to pay for a solicitor who’s not going to win you anything as it’s a you issue not an EE issue.    You’re spending habits are your responsibility not some company that’s the payment method.  perhaps you should blame the bank for handing over the payments to EE that you made.  
At least you acknowledge you have an issue and that’s the most important part.  Might be time to seek professional help. 

[Michael_D]

Hi @Callzz322 

You can place a restriction on third party charges from being applied to your account by texting BAR to 150, but this is something that could be controlled by you.

We don't have an option to permanently block the charges from our side, just the same block that you can add, which can then be removed.

There is more on this on our Charge to Bill page.

Michael

[bristolian]

I've never used third party "charge to bill", but my understanding is that password-checks & user-verification are managed by the third party, and EE have no direct involvement here. Thus in your case, perhaps one way forward would be to trust a friend or relative with some of your account logins, and thus remove the temptation.

[Northerner]

Hi @Callzz322 

Move to PAYG.

Or set a password on your play/apple account random numbers and letters you won't remember. 

Sadly and unbelievably there is no way to remove this feature and you may want to consider a carrier which does have this facility. 

Lastly if this is gambling related and you are seeking help then you might be able to register a vulnerable customer. https://ee.co.uk/help/here-for-you/account-support-vulnerable-customers

Thanks