Is US Cellular charging you a bogus Early Termination Fee? FairShake can help.
When you take out a new cell phone plan, you usually get a new cell phone. Only, you don’t pay full price for that cell phone. The cell phone comes with the plan. But it doesn’t actually come for free. Cell phone companies will give you a promotion when you sign up by offering you a cell phone at a discounted price. You might pay a minimum deposit and then sign up for a 2-year contract thereafter.
You actually pay the full price of the cell phone over the duration of your contract so, if you cancel prematurely, companies have the right to charge you.
This varies based on your plan. Most of the situations where there is a fee is because you purchase a device in the form of an installment plan, so if you cancel early, then you have to pay to recoup the costs. If you have a contract for a hotspot device or modem, there is a $150 fee and for a tablet there is a $350 fee. If you have a prepaid package with no contract, then you don’t have an early termination fee more than likely.
No matter the carrier you have you always have the option to try and avoid early termination fees. The best way is to pay for a phone up front in full and to choose a plan that only includes a SIM card and is prepaid every month.
If you are under contract, you can try to reduce your early termination fees by talking to customer service. If, for example, you have lost your job and you are no longer able to support as many phone lines or as high a phone plan, you can explain all this to customer service and provide proof of that and they might be willing to waive the fee.
Companies add early termination fees as part of the contract stipulating that if you cancel within a designated amount of time, you owe them money which is technically designed to recuperate the Lost income they would have received had you remained on as a customer.
Yes, it is legal. The FCC allows companies involved in telecommunications to charge early termination fees in order to compensate the company for situations where they lose money because of a canceled contract.
The idea is that most people will stick with a company for a reasonable amount of time but some people will take advantage of special discounts and then cancel their service when that discount comes to an end, effectively hopscotching from one provider to another based on who is offering the best deals. To try and stop that, reasonable early termination fees are allowed. It is up to you to be vigilant about asking what fees there are in the fine print.
You have to read your contract. Reading over your contract and the terms and conditions of your service is the only way to verify whether there is an early termination fee. While you can contact customer service, all of the pertinent information is going to be listed in these areas.
From time to time companies can charge you an early termination fee without you realizing it, usually because you are misled when you sign up for service or when you cancel service. Sales staff don’t have to tell you everything in the fine print–that’s what the fine print is for. So it’s up to you to check.
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