So lets say the police confiscate my sons camera as evidence (misdemeanor charge), is he required to continue to pay for the phone service fees while it is in the possession of the police, or can he deactivate the cell service. He just doesn’t see why he would need to pay the monthly service fee (about $50 for his plan) if he doesn’t have the phone. The phone is being held as evidence due to a few pictures/video recordings on the camera. Thanks for your thoughts!!!
I suppose it might depend on local rules, but it stretches the bounds of credulity to believe that it’s required to maintain service on a phone that’s been seized for the photos/videos it holds.
It would appear sensible in such a case to suspend/cancel the mobile phone service. Better still might be to obtain an equivalent device (eBay?) and activate that under the same service plan. If & when the original is returned, you could sell that.
If the police are going to have it for months, I can’t see any reason why they would need cell service on it. I would turn it off (or have it moved to another device). It would still have wi-fi if they need it to connect to the internet for some reason (assuming it’s a smart phone).
If they’re just going to have it for a few days I would leave it alone, no reason to piss the cops off if you don’t need to. Also, if he’s dealing with a lawyer, it might be helpful to ask him/her first, just to be on the safe side. I was going to suggest asking someone at the police station, but if you do that, I’m sure they’d tell you to leave it alone, whereas if you just turn it off they probably won’t even notice if all they’re doing is going and retrieving pictures or checking text messages.
Of course, if you are on a contract (like most cell phone users), if you just stop paying the monthly fee, you’ll have to pay the Early Termination Fee (ETF) to the phone company. That’s the price of getting a discounted or free phone when you signed up.
But I would definitely call the phone company and deactivate the phone. While it’s out of your possession, who knows what kind of a bill might be racked up on your phone for international calls, premium text services (horoscopes, ringtones), or whatever other gotchas the phone company charges. I’m not saying that it’s necessarily the police that will do this, but it might be returned to the wrong person or be stolen or misplaced or whatever. Until you report the phone to the phone company you are responsible for all charges.
But why can’t he just transfer the contract to another phone?
Of course he can. But the OP seems to imply that he intends to just stop paying. If that happens, the cell company will attempt to collect under the terms of the contract. If he wants to get another phone (from the cell phone company or ebay or whatever) and keep paying, that’s fine. The cell phone company wants its money. They don’t care that the police took away his phone.