Victims of mobile theft protected by new cap on bills

£100 cap introduced to protect victims.

A voluntary agreement between five mobile networks – EE, O2, Three, Virgin Media and Vodaphone – will offer some protection to people who have their phones stolen.

The five companies will set a liability cap of £100 when a phone is reported missing within 24 hours of being lost or stolen.

Protection against fraud

The cap is being put in place to prevent customers being hit with shock bills following its loss or theft, where the phone has then been used by someone else and a massive bill racked up on the account.

Every year 300,000 mobiles are reported stolen to the police in the UK. Citizens Advice said that it is approached for help by victims who have been stung with bills of up to £23,000 through no fault of their own.

However Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said that the cap doesn’t go far enough.

He criticised the introduction of the £100 cap, saying that not only was it long overdue but “falls short of expectations,” as it doesn’t do enough to protect people from unfair bills run up by criminals.

Which? wants mobile phone operators to not charge customers anything if their phone is reported lost or stolen within 48 hours, and to make it easier to report loss or theft in the first place.

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Transitional period

The cap will not be introduced immediately but is to be phased in by each provider in their own time. Three already implemented the protection during January 2015.

As you can see, some of the proposed timeframes are rather vague, with only Virgin committing to a specific date.

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