O2 damaged my credit for no reason – and now ignores me.

You could have known that no money was being debited from your account by checking your bank statements, but of course you should have received notification from o2 as well. What you describe is certainly not normal.

You hadn't changed your email address or moved house and forgotten to update your address?

You are still paying although your connection has been deactivated? Why would you do that? Who told you the contract had been terminated?

I am not sure whether a moderator here will be able to tell you much at this stage in the process but you could send a complaint to o2 via the contact form and request an explanation.

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I could have noticed that payments weren’t withdrawn if I had any reason to suspect something was wrong. But this is precisely why companies are expected to notify customers — especially when automatic payments stop unexpectedly.

I did not change my email, address, or phone number. They said - I was informed in system. What system? Mein O2? There is nothing! 

O₂ had all my valid contact details. They just didn’t use them.

And now they act as if it’s my fault that they stopped withdrawing money, didn’t inform me, didn’t send any reminders, and instead went straight to debt collection. That is not just unprofessional — it’s legally questionable.

Also, I still don’t have access to the contract I signed. It’s missing entirely from the O₂ portal, and I was never sent a copy by email or post.

This situation is absurd.

Wait for a moderator to reply here. They can hopefully at least see what information was sent out and by what means. Yes, it certainly sounds absurd, but what you describe is also not normal practice.

Legally there is actually no requirement to notify customers who are in arrears before passing the debt on to a debt collection agency, but it is good business practice to do so. o2 usually sends text messages, emails and letters so if you received nothing at all something has gone very wrong.

The fact that you also never received contract documents suggests that maybe there is a problem with the email address they have on file.

Thanks, Giulia. That’s exactly the issue — I never received any message, letter or email, even though all my contact data was correct and verified.

Also, I signed my contract digitally, but I don’t have access to it, nor was it sent to me. It’s not in the portal either.

I’ve contacted O₂ multiple times, but instead of helping, the chat gets cut off or I’m ignored. Meanwhile, the balance was paid, yet I continue to receive no explanation, no documents, and no legal confirmation that anything is terminated.

How is a customer supposed to defend themselves when O₂ controls both the communication and the information flow – and simply shuts the door?

This is not how a responsible company behaves.

Thanks, I will call.

You signed the contract digitally in a shop? Then there is at least a chance that the shop messed up somehow.

Advice for future contracts (not just with o2): Never sign digitally in a shop. Always insist on signing on paper and being given a copy. If the shop refuses then the alarm bells should start ringing. Also, did the shop give you anything at all? The summary of terms (Vertragszusammenfassung)? if not, the contract probably wasn’t even effective as that is a legal requirement. https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/tkg_2021/__54.html

As Giulia suggested, see if the billing department can shed any light on the situation, otherwise don’t call or use the chat, but instead send in a detailed complaint via the contact form. Request a copy of the contract you signed and copies of all documents that were sent out concerning missed payments. If that doesn’t help you might want to consider seeking advice from the consumer protection agency (Verbraucherzentrale). It is not very expensive - an initial consultation should cost around 30 Euros.

In the subject you wrote that o2 damaged your credit (I assume you meant rating). How? Did you get a negative entry with a credit reference agency (e.g. Schufa)?

Thank you for your helpful reply.

To clarify my situation: I signed the contract digitally in an O₂ store using their phone – not on paper. I had just arrived in Germany and didn’t fully understand the local system, including how telecom contracts are structured or what documents I should have received.

I was briefly shown some figures and asked to sign digitally. I received a Vertragszusammenfassung for the iPad contract, but it seems this was only an add-on – dependent on a main contract I’ve never seen or received, neither digitally nor on paper. To this day, I honestly don’t know what I agreed to.

Regarding my credit: I meant my credit rating. O₂ passed my case to a debt collection agency without ever notifying me of any missed payments – no letter, no SMS, no email. The direct debit was silently deactivated, and I only found out something was wrong when the debt collection agency contacted me.

Even without official confirmation, I assume this has resulted in a negative Schufa entry, as this is standard practice in Germany. I now face long-term damage to my creditworthiness through no fault of my own – I wasn’t even given a chance to pay, because I was never informed.

This is what I mean by saying that O₂ has damaged my credit. Even if no formal entry exists yet, the damage is already done: I’ve been treated as a delinquent customer due to a failure in O₂’s communication and system.

What surprises me most is the attitude.

The iPad contract is linked to a data SIM – if the contract was terminated, why is the SIM still active, and why is money still being charged for it?

All I want is to restore a manageable payment schedule for the iPad contract – I cannot afford to pay the full amount at once – and to terminate any other active O₂ contracts. I simply can no longer trust this company.

Moin Moin,

In a continuing obligation, a reminder to specify the performance date according to the calendar is generally not required to place the debtor in default. If a fixed date for performance has been agreed upon, the debtor automatically falls into default upon expiration of that date.

Starting this new year, consumers will be able to get rid of their negative Schufa entry after just 18 months – instead of the previous 36 months. However, this only applies under certain conditions. Delinquent consumers will be able to get rid of a negative Schufa entry more quickly in the future. In the case of a single payment default, such data will be automatically deleted after 18 months from January 1, 2025, instead of 36 months. However, one of the requirements for this reduction is that the unpaid invoice is paid within 100 days of a reminder being sent to the credit agency.

Source 

Hardware and mobile contracts a separated from each other!

So if you „don’t“ pay the hardware O2 will only quit the credit for the hardware, not for the SIM.

Hello ​@Lionesse,

schluej already explained how installment plans for hardware and mobile and broadband contracts are separated. Not so good if you did not receive contract related documents from the shop where in the bill for example the contract number for the installement plan is written down for you to be able to register a customer account for the installement plan to check with the monthly installments.

I also advice you to contact the colleagues from our dunning department via hotline 0176 888 533 45 or our contact form to have them check why you did not receive any payment reminders as they are automatically sent by letter and by SMS.

Best Regards,

Gerrit

This is information it would have been helpful to have initially. The credit contract for the hardware will have been terminated after two missed payments and then you have to pay the whole amount. This still doesn’t explain why you didn’t receive any information, but I do suspect something was maybe not quite right with the way the shop processed your contract. To be honest, I am quite surprised o2 agreed to let you pay in instalments if you had only just arrived in Germany.

You can request your data from the Schufa here: https://www.meineschufa.de/de/datenkopie

Thank you all for your suggestions.

I will contact O₂ via their contact form (as my official objection sent by email has been ignored), and I have just submitted a formal objection to the debt collection agency to stop the process.

I tried the contact form, but it’s not a real contact form. It’s just a bunch of shortcuts to service pages. No matter what you click, you never reach an actual form where you can write a complaint.

I guess O2’s idea of a “contact form” is just endless links that lead nowhere. Quite symbolic, really.

Hello ​@Lionesse,

try this link, it is a bit more exact on our page: Kontaktformular

Best Regards,

Gerrit

FYI, there is no email address for customer services, which is why you should use the contact form.

Thanks!

If O2 has handover the missing payment to the debt collection agency than the debt collector is your reference. O2 is selling the open debt to the collector, than O2 is not longer you communication partner.

Thank you for your opinion. However, under EU consumer protection law, I still have the right to request documentation and explanations from the original contracting party – O₂.

Until I have been properly informed and provided with the original agreement, billing details, cancellation notice, and proof of communication attempts, I consider O₂ to remain responsible.

A company cannot simply assign a debt and absolve itself of all responsibility – especially if the existence and terms of the contract are being disputed.

I have now submitted a formal written complaint to O₂ and expect a legal response.

I don’t think you will get an illegal response ;-) You may receive a response from the department Recht + Inkasso, which is the department that should have sent you notices already, or from the complaints mangement team. Let us know what they say.

Of course you have the right to contact the company you have / had the contract with and request full clarification from them, but specifically regarding the assigned debt, it is in fact the debt collection agency that is obliged to provide you with all necessary documentation to prove that the debt (the Hauptforderung) exists and that they are entitled to collect it. In this respect ​@schluej is correct. If the debt collection agency (I assume either one beginning with K from Hamburg or with B+ from Erlangen) do not or cannot do so, there is no obligation on your part to pay, in particular if you do not believe it is owed. In fact you can just choose to ignore any demands from them until such time as a default payment notice (Mahnbescheid) comes from the court. Then you must reply within 14 days disputing the claim.

​@Lionesse Jupp you may know thinks better…

Thank you all — the information you’ve shared is extremely helpful. Your support is truly worth gold.

However, I believe that communicating only with the debt collection agency would mean treating the symptoms, not the cause.

I must clarify the origin of the problem with O₂ directly.

I am a business owner myself, and in my professional experience, if I fail to properly inform a client — or cannot prove that I did — the responsibility is mine. No inkasso agency would help me enforce a claim that hasn’t been transparently communicated.

In fact, in most cases, I wouldn’t even be legally entitled to assign such a debt to a third party.

That’s why I have already disputed the case with the collection agency (B+), as I firmly believe the contract is still valid. I have received no official notice of cancellation or termination.

Therefore, I do not accept that I should only communicate with the inkasso agency — I have no contractual relationship with them.

And here’s the key: today I confirmed that O₂ has accepted my most recent payment under the same contract number, and the amount was deducted from the remaining iPad balance.

If this contract were no longer active, my payment would either have been refunded, or counted as an overpayment toward a “main contract” — which I have never seen or been introduced to.

I may be unfamiliar with German bureaucracy, but I am well aware of binding EU consumer protection laws, including the right to transparent information, and the right to dispute unjustified claims.

​@bs0 Just to add: I already received a message from the “Recht + Inkasso” department — that’s how I even found out a problem existed in the first place.

I tried to communicate with them and submitted a formal objection, but I never received an official reply.

Instead, they offered an absurd payment proposal without any deadlines — and then passed everything straight to inkasso.

Hello ​@Lionesse ,
we are sorry that your issue has not yet been resolved. 
If the claim has already been handed over to a debt collection agency, we are unfortunately unable to help you here in the community. 
In response to your message dated July 10, 2025, we replied a week later by email to the email address you provided. 
I cannot say whether the offer is still valid. 
Please contact our billing department directly by phone on 089 9787979456 or 0176 88853345, Mon-Fri 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. 
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Best regards, 
Solveig 

​@o2_Solveig 

Hello Solveig,

Thank you for your response.

Unfortunately, your message illustrates exactly the problem I’ve been trying to resolve for weeks — O₂ forwarded the issue to a debt collection agency without ever clarifying anything or properly responding to my formal objection (Widerspruch) sent on July 10th, 2025.

Yes, I received an email reply on July 18th, but:

• It was not an official answer to my Widerspruch,
• The numbers mentioned in the email did not match those in the customer portal,
• No explanation was given regarding why I received no prior warning about missed payments,
• I replied to the email — and never received a response.

Furthermore, I made a payment using my contract number — and it was accepted and allocated to my device payment plan, meaning the contract is obviously still active.

If the contract were truly terminated, this payment would either:

1. be refunded, or
2. redirected to another open invoice or
3. registered as an overpayment on the main contract — which I’ve never even seen.

Therefore, this entire Inkasso claim is not only procedurally questionable, it’s legally flawed, since O₂ failed to respond officially to my Widerspruch and never justified the termination or demand.

I kindly ask you to escalate this issue to the appropriate legal or compliance team — and to confirm whether my Widerspruch was registered at all.

Thank you in advance.

Hello ​@Lionesse,

Please understand that we cannot resolve payment matters here in the community. To reach an agreement regarding the outstanding amounts, please contact our billing department at the number mentioned above.

I'm still very surprised that you haven't received any of our numerous letters. Your contact address hasn't changed?

Best regards

Giulia

​@o2_Giulia  I have already completed all the required steps on my part. I submitted an official Widerspruch (objection) on 10.07.2025. and 2.08.2025, requesting clarification, legal proof, and documentation regarding the inconsistent information I had received. And I have no debt.

To this day, I have received more structured information from this public forum than via any official O₂ communication channels.

Let me be clear:

• O₂ ignored my objection,
• failed to address my specific legal questions,
• provided contradictory billing data,
• and ultimately handed the case to Inkasso without resolving anything.

I am frankly losing trust in whether O₂ is even capable of handling disputes in a lawful and procedurally correct manner.

Even basic communication with your company is nearly impossible — your contact forms are deliberately obfuscated, requiring hours to navigate. The chat is cut off the moment questions become “inconvenient”, and email replies are unsigned, vague, and dismissive.

I’m also deeply surprised that O₂ considers it acceptable to completely bypass resolution and escalate a legally disputed case to collection agencies — even though an objection was properly filed and never responded to.

P.S. I do receive postal letters and SMS regarding the primary contract (mobile data), so my address is correct. However, I never received any letters or reminders about the iPad contract. No notifications, no invoices — nothing.

I’m still open to resolving this fairly — but O₂ must start acting in accordance with German and EU consumer protection laws. Since I am not a German , O₂ is pushing me to use SOLVIT as help.