If you’re a customer of mobile phone operator 3 then you’ve probably received a txt message recently warning you that you will receive a late-payment fee if you don’t pay your bill on time – though the company admits it has never charged anyone for failing to do so.

3 defends the text message by saying that if a customer pays a bill late then it reserves the right to charge then an additional £5. Although they claim to have never charged anyone with this, they use the, message as a threat to encourage customers who have not set up a direct debit for their contract.

Other service providers such as O2, Orange and Vodafone don’t make such charges, although Orange did admit to cutting people off if a bill has been left unpaid for over two months. T-Mobile is happy to admit that they stick £5 on your bill if it remains outstanding.

UK mobile phone users are particularly bad at paying up for their bills. In Germany T-Mobile customers pay their bills promptly, as late-payment carries a greater social stigma.

According to Ofcom, the UK regulator, an operator is allowed to charge a late-payment fee to recover the expense in paperwork, postage and lost interest, as well as covering the cost of bad debt which is likely to be incurred by the kind of person who pays their bill late.

Basically, if you’re a 3 customer and you receive a text, don’t panic, they’re bluffing, if you are a T-mobile customer, you’d better keep on top of things.