How break a cell phone contract and avoid an early termination fee
Cell phone companies are keen to lock you into a two year contract. It is totally unfair to do this when THEY are the ones that are so lousy they make you want to leave. If you were happy with the service, why would your worry about this anyway? So, how do you get out of cell phone jail?
Start by reading the contract. Some companies now have decreasing fees, so your early termination may be only $50 if you have just a couple months left, maybe not worth messing with all this other jazz. If it is high, start by trying to find someone to take over the contract. Check with sites like trademycellular.com or cellswapper.com who will help you transfer your contract to someone else. They get the remainder of your contract without an activation fee, and you pay no early termination fee. You can also do this “change of responsibility” with relatives or friends, just make sure they know what they are getting into.
If you can’t find anyone, put your phone on suspension. You can call in and tell them your phone was lost and they will suspend it for 30 days. The great thing is while it is suspended, you pay no fees, and the contract does not extend. After 30 days, your line gets cancelled, but again here, check your cell phone company for their rules. In most cases, you can restore service within 60 – 90 days AFTER. So, think about it, you could knock up to 120 days off of your contract this way, and then, when the phone is turned back on, you might just happen to “loose” it again the next week. Kind of a hassle to keep doing this, but again, what is your time worth?
If you want to get cute, change your address. No, I don’t mean move, just change your BILLING address, this is where the company THINKS you live. Look on the company’s website at a map of their coverage. Find some place in Timbucktu that has zero, and I mean zero bars of signal. A good place to check are in the vast open areas of Nevada, Montana, and the western states. Then, call the company and say, “I just moved there and need to change my address.” Just be sure to set up paperless billing so your real bill doesn’t actually go there.
Then about a week later, call the cell phone company and raise cain about poor reception, or better yet, no reception. In most cases, if a cell phone company can’t provide service where you live, they will let you out of the contract with no early termination fee. They may ask you to prove where you live, but it’s easy enough to draw up a rental agreement with a form bought at Office Goliath and fax that to the cell phone company “proving” where you live.
You can also say you are moving overseas. Again, companies can not provide the same service as in your contract in Hong Kong, so they will waive your early termination fee. They may ask you to mail a utility bill or rental agreement from your new abode, but it is easy enough to find a picture of a Brazilian utility bill online, photo shop your name on it and mail to them. (check with your 5th grader if this sounds difficult).
If you don’t want to go to that length, simply look over your contract. It the company changed terms on you, such as rates, fees, or taxes, THEY are breaking the contract. In almost every case, something has changed, so you may be able to go back on the contract to get your early termination fee waived.
If that isn’t an option, call and tell them your phone doesn’t work. If it is under warrantee, they have to replace it. The easiest replacement is to tell them your screen is a wavy, and you can’t read it. There really isn’t much they can do to fix that. Have them replace the phone a couple of times then call back and say “It’s doing it again!” and tell them how disatisfied and angry you are and want to cancel.
They will transfer you to a cancellation “specialist” where you will have to rant and rave for another hour about how crappy your phone is and you can’t even use it and everything they send you is complete junk. Most of the time though, if you cause enough trouble this way, they will simply let you out of your contract because it costs them a lot of money to keep replacing phones.
If the cancellation department won’t help, call back in and ask to speak to a supervisor, and then that person’s supervisor, etc. until you can finally get someone that is willing to help. You will have to tell your tale of woe many more times, but it may be worth it to save the fee.
Worst case scenario, change your rate plan to the basic, lowest plan available and “ride out” the contract. Some companies have plans as low as $29.99, so see what is available. Just make sure that changing your plan doesn’t put you in another contract!
There are so many options, no one should have to pay this fee if they really don’t want to. Just make sure and don’t spend so much time trying to save $200 that you miss $500 worth or work!
