If you break a cell phone contract, will you get to keep the phone?
You might want to get out of your cell phone contract and still keep the phone for a number of reasons. You might want to use that $500 phone you just bought with another service. You also might want to be able to sell that same phone to recoup part of your investment. Well, there are definitely advantages to doing this.
In most states, you have what is called a buyers remorse period where you can take your new cell phone back and get out of the contract with no problems. This is usually 14 days in most states except California which saw the light and has a 30 day remorse period. During this timeframe, you will be asked to take the phone back to the store or send it back to where you purchased it from in order to cancel. Now, if you don’t take the phone back, they will charge your the full price of the phone, which is pretty much defeating the purpose.
How do you get around this? Well, your options are pretty limited in this area. Number one, you can always wait until the buyers remorse period has ended and cancel your contract.
In many cases your early termination fee is only $200, so for some phones like the iphone or G1, you are still better off than paying the full cost of the phone because they are like $500. See my article on breaking your contract without an early termination fee for even better savings.
You can also do a change of responsibility to get the contract out of your name. Then, the person can use their own phone and you can keep yours. There are web sites out there (see my other article) that hook people that want to get out of contracts up with people who want them (for whatever reason). So, you can still keep your phone and get out from under the contract.
Most people want a phone, they just don’t like paying for the excessive phone plans and the fact they get locked into contract forever. I totally understand. I hate that stuff as well. Sometimes it is just better to maintain your flexibility and buy your own phone outright. You can go on Ebay or other sites that sell used cell phones, or even better, buy a discounted prepaid phone and just put your prepaid sim card in it. That has worked for me to save money. By not having a contract to begin with, you won’t be locked into a high price, crappy service phone carrier. You can take your business where you want and save money. See my article on the best phone services for the best deals in cellular.
