My girlfriend and I separated in late 2024 and moved out of our shared home.
Ending the BT broadband contract proved ludicrously difficult.
When I called, the person said there was an ‘issue with the account’ and they couldn’t close it. I was put on hold and no one ever came back. This happened at least five more times between December 2024 and February 2025.
In February, I cancelled my direct debit in the hope this would trigger a response from BT. I eventually I got a letter saying my service would be cut off – great.
I called to settle the remaining balance, which was £296 including bills for the months that had elapsed and a fee for cancelling mid-contract. But again, I was told my account couldn’t be closed and left hanging on the phone.
Last month, I got a letter saying BT had handed my account to a debt collector. I spoke to BT once more, and it said it would write off the balance as a gesture of goodwill and close the account – but I’ve since learned that still didn’t happen.
I’m now buying my first home, and just have been rejected for a mortgage because of unpaid debts with BT. My credit rating is otherwise excellent. B.S
Net loss: This reader’s outstanding internet account led to him being rejected for a mortgage
Helen Crane, This is Money’s consumer champion, replies: First things first, I want to call out the telecoms firm for its total incompetence in your case.
It is outrageous that BT’s inability to cancel your £33 per month broadband contract led to you being rejected for a mortgage.
You were never told why your account ‘couldn’t be cancelled’.
You had been more than clear on the phone that you would happily pay the early exit fee, and also pay for the router, which you couldn’t return because had got lost in your house move.
This amounted to about £200 – but dismantling a collective life after a break-up is a slog and you just wanted to cross the internet off your to-do list.
BT didn’t seem to want to accept your offer, though, and instead gave you the run-around for months.
As you still had a year and a half left on your contract, I do wonder whether leaving people hanging when they phone up is a tactic to prevent them from cancelling.
Cutting off a direct debit without telling the payee first is never advised.
That is because it can lead to situations such as yours, where companies turn to debt collectors and credit ratings are affected.
That said, I completely understand why you did it. For months you’d been paying BT for broadband no one was using, in a home you no longer lived in.
You’d given the company much more than a fair chance to take what you owed, and it had ignored you. It felt like the only way you could get a response.
Somewhere along the way, someone at BT seemed to acknowledge this – as when you called again they agreed to write off your remaining balance as an apology for the way you’d been treated.
But that never happened, and you were stunned to find that this ended up in a failed mortgage application.
I can only imagine how stressful and upsetting that was, especially as you were a first-time buyer. This could have derailed your house purchase, for which you’d diligently saved a £50,000 deposit.
I contacted BT to ask why on earth this happened, and tell it to sort out the mark on your credit report without delay.
Not only could this lose you the home you wanted, but mortgage rates are moving quickly and you could end up locked into a more expensive deal if they began to rise.
I’m glad to say that BT did close your account, waive the debt and contact the relevant credit agencies to remove it from your record.
You have now had a mortgage approved with a new lender, and are on the way to completing on your home.
However, there are two things I still don’t think are right. First, BT never explained why it wouldn’t close your account, simply sticking to the line that there was ‘a problem’.
And second, it only paid you £100 compensation for this ordeal.
It will cost you much more, as you ended up taking a mortgage with a higher rate, as well as an £1,000 arrangement fee.
That said, you were pleased to get it sorted and move on.
A BT spokesman said: ‘We’re sorry B.S’s experience with us fell below the high standards of service we always strive to deliver for our customers.
‘We have now cancelled the debt in question on the account and offered him a gesture of goodwill to acknowledge his experience. He is happy his complaint has been resolved, and this has now been closed.’
The mystery of the disappearing John Lewis voucher
In January, my work colleague welcomed his first baby and I organised an office collection to buy him a John Lewis voucher.
I ordered the £120 online gift card to my work email before forwarding it to his.
In April, the colleague told me that he had tried to spend the voucher online, but the balance was zero.
We’ve both spoken to John Lewis and it said the voucher was spent in February on the purchase of a laptop, in circumstances we thought sounded suspicious.
But we were told John Lewis won’t be refunding the balance because this was a case of ‘human error’.
We don’t understand what that means and I’m sad that the money I collected from my team has been stolen. A.H, West Midlands
Gift grift: The John Lewis voucher this reader gave his colleague was stolen
Helen Crane replies: Working out how someone got their hands on this voucher has been a real puzzle – but one thing that is certain is that this sounds very suspicious.
On one conversation with John Lewis, you learned that the £120 balance from your gift card was then added to an existing gift card, which had collected the balance from four other cards to total a balance of £500.
This was then used to purchase the laptop, which was later returned for a refund.
I have written before about the ways physical gift cards can be hijacked by fraudsters, but accessing the balances of online ones is trickier.
In the case of John Lewis, vouchers are sent to an email account and have a long gift card number and a Pin, which must both be entered to make a purchase online.
One theory is that someone hacked into your colleague’s emails, and got the code for the voucher that way. However, you spoke to your employer and there is no evidence of this having happened.
While it is impossible to be certain, you work for a company that holds lots of sensitive data. In the event of a hack, you told me, a stolen John Lewis voucher would be the least of your worries.
There are other possibilities, too. According to Norton Antivirus, computer bots exist which allow fraudsters to exploit the online gift card balance checks used by retailers.
These bots scan the websites for active cards, and can test more than a million card and pin combinations each hour.
Once working combinations are obtained, they can be used by the scammer or sold on the dark web.
This is one of the theories that circulated regarding the Nectar card scam.
If your colleague’s voucher was stolen in this way, I’d argue it is a failure of John Lewis’ security and you should be paid back.
Frustratingly, when I contacted John Lewis, it refused to confirm how your colleague’s gift card account was compromised.
It said: ‘We’re really sorry to hear about [his] experience. We take security very seriously and have measures in place to protect our gift cards, with each having a unique number and Pin which only the receiver has access to.’
It also said the voucher was delivered to your colleague successfully and that Pins can only be accessed via the receiver’s email. John Lewis staff do not have access to these.
It added that when you were initially told the fraud was due to ‘human error,’ that was not correct.
I then contacted Voucher Express, the company which operates the voucher scheme on behalf of John Lewis and other retailers. It said the matter had already been addressed by John Lewis.
Sadly, it’s still not clear what has happened here.
I’m interested to hear from anyone who has had a similar experience with an online gift voucher – with John Lewis, or another retailer. Perhaps it will shed more light on what is going on. You can contact me on helen.crane@thisismoney.co.uk
