There are step-by-step guides online about various complex legalistic machinations you can go through to try and bust a cell phone contract, but what if you just pay the contract to the most current date, and then tell and write them that you are unilaterally terminating / walking away from the contract, and will not pay any further bills or a termination penalty.
Do the carriers (say Verizon) actually send bill collectors and chase you in court to force performance on the contract? Is it recorded as a credit strike on our credit report? How far do they usually go in this?
Yes they send it to collections, and collections tries to get their 300 dollars or whatever you owe, plus the fine for breaking the contract. I had to fight to get T-Mobile to break my contract because I couldn’t get phone reception at my house, but I could get it most other places. I ended up signing with some one else, and basically told T-Mobile to shove it. They sent the collections notice after me, and it did show up on my credit report.
My assumption (and based on other’s experience) the cell phone company/collections agency isn’t going to take you to court over something that would cost them more to get than it’s worth.
I had a fight with a previous carrier, and switched to another provider. Even though I didn’t break my contract, they assessed me with some other fees, including a “port fee” to port my number over to the new carrier. I was so mad at this point, and since I had good credit, I decided to just let it play out and see what happened.
When the started calling, I told them that they were only allowed to contact me by mail and I then wrote a letter disputing the charges and copied all 3 credit bureaus. I really didn’t have a leg to stand on, since the fees they assessed were in the original contract, but my goal was to have them spend more than the $50 I owed them in staff time and administrative burden. Kind of like payback for terrible customer service.
Nothing happened. For a long time. Like almost 3 years. Then, about two months ago I got a call from a collection agency. I explained the situation to them, and again asked again to not be contacted by phone.
I check my credit reports every 6 months to a year, and to this point it has not shown up.
The best way to get out of a cell phone contract is to wait for the provider to change anything about the terms of the contract, which they do all the time. Change the privacy notice so it’s even more unfavorable? Break the contract. Raise text messaging rates a penny? You get to leave, no fees or penalities.
You just say you’re leaving because of “materally adverse changes” to the contract and they can’t charge you those fees. Technically, when Verizon or Sprint raises rates unilaterally, they’re breaking the contract.
Do a search on the Consumerist; they have loads of detail in some of their older posts.
This method isn’t a “complex legalistic machination;” it just requires a keen eye and the willingness to wait for a cell phone company to be a dick and change the terms, like they always do.
Cell phone companies are now merciless about putting it on your credit report. About every third report I pull has a cell phone collecton agency account on it.