Virgin - Excessive charge for Internet usage.

I used my computer to access the Internet via my Virgin mobile for for a couple of weeks during August. (PAYG Direct Debit Account)

For the first 15 days the charges appear to have been reasonable although I can't see the detail. Total charge for the whole period £19.82.

On the 23rd of August the internet access stopped working in the evening. In the morning I got a text message to say that my credit limit (of £125) had been exceeded.

I am fairly certain that when I opened the account the credit limit was £100 and I certainly never asked for it to be increased.

Looking at my account today on the Internet it says that I owe a total of £406.84.

Some of the detail for 23rd August (the only day for which there is information) is shown below.

Can anyone explain the charge of £316.04 at 22:54:05 given that at the charge was £0.00 at £22:53:58:

The Virgin Moble customer services were unable to properly explain the charges and have emailed their technical team.


23-Aug-10 23:56:31 Unknown £0.00
23-Aug-10 23:49:27 Unknown £0.00
23-Aug-10 23:34:29 Unknown £0.00
23-Aug-10 23:19:31 Unknown £0.00
23-Aug-10 23:04:32 Unknown £0.00
23-Aug-10 23:03:37 Using the internet £3.38
23-Aug-10 23:01:17 Unknown £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:54:09 Using the internet £67.60
23-Aug-10 22:54:05 Using the internet £316.04
23-Aug-10 22:53:58 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:53:53 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:53:48 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:53:43 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:53:37 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:53:31 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:53:26 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:53:21 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:53:16 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:53:11 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:53:05 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:53:00 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:52:55 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:52:50 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:52:44 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:52:40 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:52:35 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:52:29 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:52:24 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:52:19 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:52:14 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:52:09 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:52:03 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:51:59 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:51:52 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:51:47 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:51:42 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:51:37 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:51:31 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:51:26 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:51:21 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:51:16 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:51:11 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:51:06 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:51:01 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:50:56 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:50:50 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:50:45 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:50:40 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:50:35 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:50:30 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:50:25 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:50:20 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:50:14 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:50:09 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:50:04 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:49:59 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:49:54 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:49:49 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:49:44 Using the internet £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:49:39 Using the internet £0.00

its all based off usage, the price plan is as follows

Mobile internet per day
30p a day or 5£ a month(need to subcribe to the bundle)

Here is the catch they have a fair usage limit of 25MB, so you would not pay any extra fees as long as your usage was under 25MBs. If you go over they charge £2 per MB316.

What most likely happened to cause the bill of £316 is that you PC downloaded an update, £316 is about 150MB of usage.

Thank you for your comment.

The PC did not download a Windows update. I checked. I did not agree to any other update. And 150mb is a large update for other software on the PC.

The download speed was about 320kbps. So I could not have downloaded that much data since the previous charge of £0.00 onlly 7 seconds earlier.

if you look at the bill closely you will see though you had been billed 67£ just before the 316£
the first entry before both of those was 24 hours earlier, could it be that the charge is for you whole usage that day?


23-Aug-10 23:01:17 Unknown £0.00
23-Aug-10 22:54:09 Using the internet £67.60
23-Aug-10 22:54:05 Using the internet £316.04


What has virgin mobile said??

The earliest entry is at the bottom of the list, and the list spans a period a little less than 1 hour 10 minutes.

I did almost certainly exceed the 25mb limit on the 20th August. but the charges that that might well have incurred are not reflected in the totals.

The Virgin customer services man was going to ask their technical team to investigate.

In the meantime I have written Virgin a letter. I think that my best strategy is to plead with them for leniency. Unfortunaley I am a PAYG Direct Debit customer so I could get hit by the whole bill. If I was an ordinary PAYG customer it would just have wiped out the account credit which might have been £20 or so.

when i was with virgin there was a cap on you allowance you could spend

also not sure of this if you can demostrate that gave you "too much credit" then that is ground toi get them on.

i.e. if you keep going bankrupt and then a credit card company gave you a 20k£ credit card that would be deem illegal and not enforceable as far as i can remember

On Sunday at about midday I received a phone call from Virgin in response
to my letter. Apparently they had some problems on 22nd and 23rd of August, so they have credited my account with the £380 or so that they charged for the 23rd.

I was hoping for an outcome like that, but was so relieved when in actually occurred that I forgot to ask to some compensation for the agro and not being able to use my Virgin sim card for the past couple of weeks!

lol that great to hear, its makes you wonder how many of these mistakes happen

Sorry, can't help myself, but that's VIRGIN ON THE RIDICULOUS. I would be dumping them just for the agro and stress caused
Glad to hear it has been resolved