Unable to afford contract

[Jade81]

My mum isnt great with her finances and signed up for a sky contract a few months ago which she is completely unable to afford now. She accidentally got the contract with a lot of other TV features which she doesnt need. The entire thing has been cut off now due to missed payments and she in unable to 1.pay to get it back on so we have no internet and 2. Pay any future payments. She says she has called customer service to try and sort it out but was told she has to wait for her contract to end and cant afford the termination fee either.  Im concerned that since she cant pay it the debts will build up and end up being thousands by the time the contract ends. Is there anything we can do to get rid of the other features and just keep the broadband or just terminate the contract fully without the owed money being increased?

[SKY1992bf]

@Jade81  If services are restricted you will have to do the following (which applies to all customers regardless of circumstances) before being able to contact sky to discuss options but sky are within their rights to either hold your mom to the contract or allow termination by paying early termination charges 

If your account is restricted then unless you can get through via a number not linked to your account or by putting 141 before sky’s number then unfortunately you will need to do one of the following in order to remove the restrictions as sky won’t take your call until you do

1. Pay the outstanding balance in full (which you can do here https://www.sky.com/myaccount/bill/pay#M1014) and setup a new continuous payment method (which you can do here https://www.sky.com/myaccount/bill/change-payment-method#M1014) (services won’t be restored until the payment has cleared, so if payment is/was made on a weekend or bank holiday then it’s unlikely that payment will clear and services are restored until the next available working day)

Or

2. Pay all bar £25 (use the link posted above)(the unpaid £25 will be added to the next bill) and setup a new continuous payment method (use the link posted above) (services won’t be restored until the payment has cleared, so if payment is/was made on a weekend or bank holiday then it’s unlikely that payment will clear and services are restored until the next available working day)

Two important points about option 2

1. There is no guarantee that it will work as it depends on payment history

2. It is not applicable to mobile accounts

If your more than two weeks late in paying sky will insist on you paying next months bill in advance as well before restoring services

It is also important to note that sky don’t do payment plans I’m afraid (except on a legitimately closed account)

If you disagree with the billed amount it’s advised to pay it first to get service restored then you will be able to contact sky to dispute it and should sky agree an error has been made they will refund any overpayment

important note: if no payment is made within 56 days of payment due date of the last unpaid bill, Sky could cancel your account automatically.

[Daniel0210]

@Jade81 

Not what you or your Mum want to hear but in addition to the above, late payment fees will probably be added and should the debt not be paid Sky are likely to pass the debt to a debt collection agency. This is normal as I'm afraid your Mum entered into a contract for a set period and agreed to make regular monthly payments.