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It's good to talk... unless you fail to read the smallprint on your new mobile phone contract and end up with a bill for £27,322.
Ian Simpson, 29, was sent the bill for four weeks' service after wiring his mobile up to a laptop to download TV shows - and only then found out his £41.50-a-month deal didn't include unlimited web use.
Last night the factory worker, from Darlington, Yorks, said he feared he could be made bankrupt.
He said: "I just laughed out loud. How on earth could I afford to pay that?"
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Ian signed up for a Vodafone Anytime 800 contract and added a £7.50 inclusive internet deal to let him use his phone for surfing the net.
But his first bill had hundreds of extra charges for online use - some at £18 a minute. He said: "My mate told me how to wire my mobile to my laptop as a modem. It meant I could download faster than on the handset and get a proper internet connection in my flat.
"I probably downloaded 20 or 30 TV shows and four albums. I assumed it'd be OK, but they cut me off. I rang up and they said I owed them nearly £30,000.
"If I'd known it would cost so much I wouldn't have done it."
Vodafone said rules state the web package has a limit of 120 megabytes of downloads - designed for casual use to check emails, browse and download the odd song. A spokesman said: "Few customers exceed the fair usage. But it seems clear Ian has run up these charges legitimately."
A source added: "The rules are clearly stated. Mobile web pages use fewer megabytes. That package is not designed for large-scale downloading or computer-speed web use."
But last night Ian blasted the firm, saying: "I cannot believe they would let me run up such an enormous bill - £27,000 would almost buy me a flat where I live. I can't even afford a mortgage so I rent a room.
"Unless they take a sensible approach I don't think I'll have any choice but to go bankrupt."
Vodafone added last night: "The intensity of Ian's downloading was such that by the time our systems flagged anything up he had already racked up a massive bill.
"Our advice would be to never use a mobile as a modem. We will try to come to some sympathetic arrangement. And we hope he won't make the same mistake again."
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