Direct Debit from PSN

[Travman1976]

Hi

Ive had a direct debit come out of my account today for a larger amount than usual.  On contacting three they have said its for a PSN charge on my daughters phone.

She is adamant she hasnt bought anything.  Three have told me to contact PSN directly but other than the phone number and the amount of the transacation I have no other details.

Can anyone offer some advice?

[PeteG]

Hello there. 

You don't need to own the system to have the charged be applied. It could have been done through someone else's machine, or through the app. In order to successfully set it up though, the person would have needed to have possession of the phone and SIM in order approve the set up of mobile billing via PlayStation Network. It's likely that those charges are for a game or service within PlayStation network that costs £19.99, and the person has purchased many of them in the hopes of doing it before getting blocked. 

It's likely that your credit limit is not £0, as this will prevent any and all additional spending within the account, that includes Three Pay. you might be referring to Spending Cap which can be set to £0 within the App. This is not a credit limit and won't stop Three Pay charged. To set the credit limit to £0, you'd need to reach out to the Support Team and request for them to set that for you. If you've done that already and are still being charged, I'd recommend contacting them again to ask them to double check it. 

You can also reach out to Boku directly and request for them to remove your number from their system and prevent any further charges from being applied. 

Pete. 

[cte]

So, on Three website there are 2 options provided by the Chat bot:

This looks like a legal cover for unauthorized charges. Most of, if not all those on this blog, have no notion of any notification or request for authorization for being charged. Why is there a sense of defending PSN in this instance, like they can do no wrong.

I believe we are being charged without consent. I don't have any payment method on my mobile, so this is a loophole they have found to get free money. 

Almost reminds me of the Jason Stratham movie - BeeKeeper. But this is real.

Still Livid as ever - consumers getting taken for a ride - again!

Here are Three's definitions:

Credit Limits

Credit limits are applied as standard to all of our customer accounts. This is a form of spend control which helps make sure your bills don’t accidentally skyrocket.

If you’ve recently hit your credit limit, feel free to get in touch. You can either: 

• make a payment to bring your bill below the credit limit, or 

• chat to us about the possibility of increasing your limit. 

We will sometimes review your credit limit to make sure it’s appropriate for your account. Don’t worry – this doesn’t affect your credit score, and you don’t need to do anything.

If you want to know more about controlling your monthly spend, check out our Spend caps page.

Spend limits

Why we’re applying Spend Limits to your account

The Payment Services Regulation 2017 restricts how much you can charge to your mobile bill. This aims to make payments safer while protecting you and your money.

Spend Limits cover spending on third-party digital content, subscription services and premium rate calls and messages.

• A limit of £40 per single payment transaction.
• A cumulative limit of £240 for payment transactions made over the course of a month.

Unlike a Spend Cap, the Spend Limit is a legal regulation and can’t be removed or changed.

Affected services

The regulations apply to all third-party payment services, including carrier billing and premium rate services. The cost will be added to your bill if you’re on Pay Monthly. Or deducted from your credit if you’re on Pay As You Go. Here are examples of the type of transaction that will be affected by Spend Limits.

• The purchase of third-party digital content such as:
  
  • Music
  • Movies
  • Games
  • Apps
• Calls to premium rate voice services such as:
  
  • Numbers starting with 084, 087, 09 or 118, including calls to directory enquiry services. These calls are split into two charges. There’s an access charge, which is set by us at 55 pence per minute, plus a 1 minute minimum charge. And there’s a service charge, which is set by the company you’re calling. The Spend Limits only apply to the service charge element of your call.
• Services accessed by text, picture message, calls and video shortcodes.These are a series of numbers, usually around five or six digits long. Examples include:
  
  • Entering competitions
  • Downloading games to your device
  • Voting in TV reality shows
  • Calling into video chat services
  • Charitable donations like text donations
• Roaming services such as:
  
  • Text, voice and data services outside of Go Roam countries
  • Buying tickets

In all cases, the value of any single payment transaction can’t exceed £40 and the cumulative value of all payment transactions in a month can’t exceed £240.

Reaching spend limits

We’ll contact you by text when you’ve reached one of the Spend Limits. If you’re on a call at the time, a voice message will play. It’ll let you know that you’ve reached the limit and your call will then be disconnected.

[zolagal]

My daughter's phone was charged recently with £39.99 surprisingly just under the mentioned spend cap... bunch of scam bags from left, right and center 😞

[JonathanB]

Hi @zolagal,

Sorry to hear you've had these charges, here's a link to Playstation's support page about unauthorized transactions: https://www.playstation.com/en-us/support/store/unauthorised-payment-compromised-account/#A2

You can also deal with this through their payment merchant Boku: https://boku.com/help

You can also find the Boku customer portal here: https://customer.boku.com/login

This site should allow you to view details of transactions, cancel any subscriptions, and block your number from future transactions through Boku there too.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[PeteG]

There's no defending of PSN, just an explanation of how the payment service could be activated, the same process would be involved for any other companies. 

The information you have pasted here reaffirms what I've advised in relation to getting your credit limit set to £0. The Spend Limit is always there, and not something you can interact with. The charges you've seen so far don't exceed those limits of £40 per transaction and £240 per month. 

Once the Credit Limit is set, it will prevent further charges being applied. As for the charges you have already, all I can recommend is to speak to Boku about that.

Pete.

[Nkosi]

Its crazy that three will happily charge us with Boku with no prior agreement and arrangements. I have had the same issue, on my daughters phone, she is 13, and has a spending cap but three OK'd this. Three do not care about customers at all. I am counting down till my daughters contract ends. 

[JonathanB]

Hi @Travman1976,

Sorry to hear you've had a PSN transaction you don't recognise. There's not a lot of info on their support website but I did find this page: https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/support/store/ps-store-mobile-top-up/#pay

And some instructions on how to view your PSN transaction history. Assuming she has a PSN account, you should be able to log in to this and check for a matching transaction.

To set up Three Pay as a payment method for a service, after entering the phone number, there'll be additional verification such as One Time Passcode sent by text before a payment can be authorised. So it's rare for this to be a scam unless someone else has been given access to the phone, or convinces the user of the phone to disclose the OTP code.

The links I've shared should help you get in touch with PSN support, please let us know how you get on with this.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[Travman1976]

She has no playstation account and has about 5 text messages to enter a code as a payment method for PSN?

[JonathanB]

Hi @Travman1976,

Thanks for the further info. It sounds like these messages are the passcodes I mentioned. Someone would have to either have read these from the phone, or been forwarded them to enter them on a PSN account in order to authorise transactions.

We'd suggest in the first instance to contact Playstation's support team and get their advice on unauthorised transactions. You can find more info and how to get in touch here.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[Katiethree3]

The exact same thing happened to me on 10 jan 2025 payment codes that were sent to me yet still able to be processed as payment of only my number has access to the codes and I didn’t request these payments or use the codes how were they managed to be accepted as method of payment . They maxed the credit limit within 40 seconds !!! At a time I was in bed a not even on my phone . Something is fishy !