Volt Benefits not available - best way to meet the criteria

[Pieman1972]

Hopefully someone will be able to help here....

Current situation:
Virgin Media account in Wife's name with me as a named person, I have always done the contract chats etc. It is historical that it was her name on the a/c before we met, and the account has just "followed" us. Broadband is currently 200Mb.

O2 Account. I have one O2 SIM Only (12 months) account in my name.

Both accounts - same address & managed by same email address.

The wife (and 2 kids) are both currently on SIM only deals with Tesco Mobile. I am looking to transfer them to O2 SIM Only (12 months) via Uswitch..... [4GB Data / Unlimited Calls & Texts for £6 per month) which with the Volt boost would make it 8GB. I will then also resign on the same deal as at the moment I'm paying £8.11 for 8GB. I may by the looks of it also qualify for O2's group save but that's outside of this conversation.

So I've logged onto the O2 site and I get the message "You already have Volt benefits or not available in your area".

I phone 150 today to ask VM to possibly swap the names around on the VM account as we are both named etc. I was told that that was not possible simply. The way to do it would be to do a transfer of ownership, which as I was within my 18 months contract (renegotiated May 21) would probably incur Termination charges, they would then start up a new account in my name!

The operator then said - about creating new SIMs on the O2 side in a new account in my wife's name then create the new SIMs in different email addresses.....this is where I started to think that's not right as the documentation I've seen says about same name and household.

Can someone in the know please clarify what I can do to benefit from this new offer......

Thanks in advance 🙂

[newapollo]

Hi @Pieman1972 

The following info may help, it's from post 2 on <<< this page on the O2 forums >>> 

 Can I change the name on one account to become eligible for Volt?

A. O2 – You can transfer the ownership, but it’s subject to verification checks, including credit checks – we can’t guarantee it’ll be successful

Virgin Media – You won’t be able to transfer responsibility. You’d have to close your existing account and create a new one under the new name (this will require credit checks and a new contract). It also means you’d lose your Virgin Media service for up to 24 hours and lose any discounts you may have.

Going by the above I would possibly look at transferring the O2 sim into your wifes name.

[Pieman1972]

Thanks very much for the reply - reading the O2 forum post you linked to, another thing that grabbed me was........whats the definition of "Soon" 🙂


Q. In my household, one person pays the O2 bill and another pays the Virgin Media bill. Why are we not eligible for Volt benefits?

A. You will be soon. But right now, Volt benefits are only available when the Virgin Media and O2 accounts are under the same name. Keep an eye on My O2, you’ll see the option to activate Volt benefits when it becomes available to you, and you can also stay up to date by visiting https://www.o2.co.uk/virgin-media-o2

[Pieman1972]

Looks like there "may" be some movement......I've just logged into My O2, and I get the Thanks for your interest in Volt - which is saying you're seeing this for 1 of 3 reasons......

Tariff in O2 / or Broadband in VM hasn't changed yet so perhaps we are seeing the different account names / same address issue being resolved?

[Paul_DN]

Hi Pieman1972,

Thanks for reaching out to us and for the update, it does look like things are going in the right direction, it can take upm to 14 Days so please let us know how things go.

Regards

Paul.

[Pieman1972]

Still nothing - asking for more info on the O2 side - anything to update from the VM people ????

[Alex_RM]

Hi Pieman1972,

Just to reiterate, both the O2 and Virgin Media accounts need to be in the same name, can you confirm that this is the case?

Alex_Rm

[Pieman1972]

Hi Alex

Thanks for replying.....No they are not - but as per the O2 side they are saying that this was being addressed - as I saw the update in message I (now perhaps incorrectly thought) that things were moving forward.......

So from a VM side are you saying it will definitely not work and never will if the first names are different on the accounts (and bearing in mind that I am a named person on the VM side).....

Thanks in advance

[Serena_C]

Hi @Pieman1972

Thanks for getting back to us and confirming, I would like to apologise for any confusion caused.

As the accounts are not in the same name, the Volt benefits are not currently available yet. Thank you for your patience, please stay tuned for further updates on this.

Kind regards,

Serena