My mobile was stolen... now I’ve got a £1,130 bill

DURING a recent holiday to Barcelona, my phone was stolen. I had become separated from my friends, so had no way of calling my network — Vodafone — straight away to alert them to the incident.

At 1am, I reported the theft to officers at a police station, and then spent ¤ 15 trying — unsuccessfully — to use the payphone to inform my network.

I finally got back to my hostel and had to wait until it opened at 8am, when I managed to use a friend’s phone to report the theft.

By then, the thief had made £1,130-worth of fraudulent calls to Spanish premiumrate numbers.

When my bill came through, Vodafone said that I had to pay these charges. After negotiations, they have offered to reduce the bill by £200.

N. P., Luton.

ASTRONOMIC phone bills for victims of mobile phone thefts overseas have become an increasing and unwelcome phenomenon.

As Money Mail reported last year, the handset is often incidental — for crooks, the real money is to be made in calls to premiumrate phone lines.

In the hours before the phone’s theft is reported, the thieves dial premium-line numbers they set up deliberately in order to profit from the charges.

Phone companies are supposed to limit your charges from the moment you report the phone as missing. Some insist on this being within 12 hours.

However, like you, many have struggled to alert their phone company quickly enough — and end up facing huge bills.

Three weeks ago, the five biggest network providers (Vodafone, ee, Virgin, o2 and Three) voluntarily signed up to an agreement that stops victims from being charged any more than £100.

Three was the first to bring in the £100 cap (it already applies) and ee will follow suit in the coming weeks.

Virgin is set for a cap in July, and o2 in September. The bad news is that Vodafone has also pencilled in a summer deadline.

However, in your case, Vodafone has agreed to waive the bill in full. You will no longer have to pay a penny.

A spokesman for Vodafone says: ‘We are sorry our customer had this problem, especially as we suspended his account within five hours of the theft. We did this because our systems had highlighted the unusually high spending on it.

‘In light of this, and the fact that the customer contacted us within eight hours, we will waive all the fraudulent charges incurred during this period.’

Vodafone added that its delay in bringing in the new charge cap is due to staff training and new processes. The spokesman adds: ‘In the interim, we will look sympathetically at anyone affected by a theft.’

I HAVE a pension with a major insurance company. I understand that the new pension freedoms will let me cash in my fund, so I contacted the company to do this.

However, I was told over the phone that I was not allowed to take my pension because the freedoms could be reversed after the forthcoming election.

The call centre operator said I may have to wait a year to get my money. Am I being fobbed off?

J. W., Salford. You’re not being lied to. However, it sounds as though the operator has not explained things to you as well as they could have.

Since April 6, everyone over the age of 55 with a private sector pension pot that isn’t in a final-salary scheme has been able to take it to spend how they like. Part of the reason for your confusion is the fact that the word ‘pension’ means many things to many people.

For some, it means money you are saving up for your old age, but haven’t yet taken. For others, it’s the payout you receive in retirement.

What you meant by the word ‘pension’ was the latter.

It emerged that, a few years ago, you used the pot you saved with the insurer to buy an annuity. This pays a guaranteed amount for the rest of your life — in your case, £50 a month.

unfortunately, this means you are currently barred from the new freedoms as you have already started taking your pension as an income. Those who have already taken an annuity are not yet allowed to unwind the deals in order to get a lump sum.

A consultation is currently taking place about whether these savers will be able to sell their annuities to another pension company in exchange for a lump sum.

The rules could be in place by April next year — although it’s not clear what could happen in the event of a change of government. So the operator was correct on this point.

If the rules do come into force, and you cash in your annuity, it’s vital that you check carefully any offer you do receive. Your pension company is likely to charge you for the privilege. It’s also important to remember that you would be giving up a guaranteed income.

MY HUSBAND popped into a small grocery store after a day out to get some emergency money from a cash machine located inside.

Three days later, he spotted a £1.85 fee for withdrawing his £50. I thought fee-paying machines had been outlawed?

My bank — Lloyds — says it will not refund this charge.

E. R., Warwickshire. The majority of us are lucky enough to be able to easily access fee-free cash machines in High Streets.

It must have been some time since you were caught short and had to use a charging machine — they are dotted across the UK in their thousands.

Nearly one in three charges fees of up to £2 (and far more in places such as nightclubs or bars). In 2013, the number of fee-paying machines stood at 20,260, while free-to-use cash machines numbered 46,472.

Fee-paying machines still spark furious debate as they’re often sited in areas the banks have long abandoned — and are often largely used by those in poorer areas, who can least afford to pay fees.

But, on the plus side, they do offer cash in places where banks aren’t prepared to step in.