Verizon Dismisses Man & Son's $18,000 Phone Bill

[jellico]

[citation][nom]slaphappy[/nom]Hate to go off on a tangent, but FYI your credit building system (one which is shared by most people ignorant of how credit scoring works) is useless. You really think the credit bureau's arent aware of the difference between buying a pack of gum for 99 cents and making sustained monthly payments for $400 on a boat? Every credit purchase is not treated as equal. What drives your score upward is the demonstration that you can responsibly handle a routine payment of some significance, like paying off a car loan, a mortgage, or any other loan that takes more than 3 months. Buying groceries on credit and then paying the bill online as soon as you get home does nothing for your credit score.[/citation]

While you are very correct about the credit value of a consistent, monthly payment versus putting your minimal purchases on a credit card and then immediately paying them off, there are many more factors that go into your credit rating: numbers of lines of revolving credit, balances on lines of credit relative to the credit limit, income to debt ratio, amounts of unsecured debt versus secured debt, etc.

It's pretty damn convoluted and I don't pretend to understand it all. But suffice it to say that it certainly won't hurt to do the buy-it-with-a-CC-and-then-immediately-pay-it-off thing. It's a good way to get started until you buy your first car, or something of that nature.

 

[tainted_peak]

But at one time, there was like a 5GB limit on the "unlimited" plan. Ironic I know.

 

[Guest]

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"HotRoderX :

What serious company is gonna look at a 9000 dollar credit mark from verizon and not lol in there face seriously thats ludicrous. I dont think any linder would take that as a sign of what kind of borrower you are and if they did maybe thats not the place you wanna borrow money from





Maybe it's not the same where you are, but in the US if you want to use your credit the only thing lenders care about is your score. They let a computer program crunch every detail (including written off debt) and it spits out a risk score. This is what's used, and most of the time a human never even sees that score; the end user (the would-be customer in most cases) just sees an "Accepted" or "Rejected" status on their credit application.

So despite our ability LOL at this, no a lender will *not* ignore it just because it's from Verizon."
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And that is why the US is run by complete morons.

 

[htmaster]

The remaining impact is that, if Verizon reports this as a charged-off account to the IRS, that poor guy will have to pay income taxes on it.

 

[beayn]

I once bought a cell phone with a limited minutes plan and unlimited minutes after 6pm. After talking for a month after 6pm, I found out it was actually 8pm and the salesman messed up. I got hit with a $350 phone bill.

I called the company and they blew it off saying I'd have to pay. When I spoke to a Supervisor, she happily applied the next tier plan that covered my calls and applied it retroactively so I ended up with a $50 bill from then on. (It was supposed to be $35 per month).

Why wouldn't Verizon just retroactively apply a data plan to this account and solve it that way? Then the customer is happy and they don't get a bad news story like this, AND they actually get paid. These people probably did not pay one cent.

 

[demonhorde665]

[citation][nom]chunkymonster[/nom]Who cares if it leaves a mark on their credit report. When will people realize that credit scores are a form of slavery? Pay cash and live within your means! Better yet bring back the barter system...[/citation]
LOL ifevery oen in this country actually lvied with in thier means , 2/3rds of all entertainment companies might have to file bankrupcy with in 6 months LOL but yeah i totallya gree 2with you we are in teh economic hole we are because so few people actulaly live with in thier means.

 

[eddieroolz]

I disagree with many here.

I believe that it is the consumer's fault for racking up that much in costs. Whether or not it cost Verizon that much to service them, should not matter - they are a for-profit corporation. Not carefully reading the contract was their fault.

Perhaps it's just a different mobile culture in the US. I constantly have to keep an eye on my mobile usage in Canada because we are ripped off horribly when we go over.

 

[Guest]

this is just ridiculous.

 

[beayn]

[citation][nom]eddieroolz[/nom]I disagree with many here.I believe that it is the consumer's fault for racking up that much in costs. Whether or not it cost Verizon that much to service them, should not matter - they are a for-profit corporation. Not carefully reading the contract was their fault.Perhaps it's just a different mobile culture in the US. I constantly have to keep an eye on my mobile usage in Canada because we are ripped off horribly when we go over.[/citation]

I live in Canada as well and while I agree with you to some extent, there should also be a finite value assigned to such a service. The actual costs are minimal. There is absolutely no way it cost them $18,000 to provide the service for 2 weeks, especially if they normally charge say $90 a month. Like I said in my previous post, Verizon should simply retroactively apply a data plan to the account to bring it down closer to what it actually cost them to provide it, which is their normal charge.

 

[TheKurrgan]

why do they even bother running this up? Just forcibly add the price of the data plan to the bill for the month when data is used once it hits the price of said data plan in usage. Fact is, for bout 45 to a maximum of 90 a month the data plan could have been added. 18K?
dear friend please.

 

[klavis]

It doesn't matter to much, the black mark on his credit score will be gone 7 years from the date that it was sold to the debt collectors. The debt it's self would have been gone 6 and a half years after the last date he made a payment on the account.