cancelling a monthly mobile contract.

Schizo · 17 May 2011 at 22:23

Hi all,with the cost of living rising im looking at cutting back on a few non essentials like my mobile phone contract,it is £35 a month with roughly 18 months left to go.

Now ive rang 02 and they said i would have to pay £500 to cancel the rest of my contract,now i don't have a spare £500 lying around an wondered if anyone on here has managed to get out of there contract early with out any fee's ?

any help would be appreciated please.

Deluxe1 · 17 May 2011 at 22:24

Offer them £250.

vanandjuanunited · 17 May 2011 at 22:25

Good luck
Unless they change the terms to your detriment I would say not a hope
Have you asked if they will put you on a lesser tariff?

Schizo · 17 May 2011 at 22:25

Deluxe1 said:
Offer them £250.

could do with out spending that kind of money as well

plus i dont have it.

Schizo · 17 May 2011 at 22:26

vanandjuanunited said:
Good luck
Unless they change the terms to your detriment I would say not a hope
Have you asked if they will put you on a lesser tariff?

i have asked for a lower tariff but it's only £5 a month (which ill be doing soon)

Schizo · 17 May 2011 at 22:29

i didn't think there would be a way out but just curious to see if someone else has managed it lately.

Haggisman · 17 May 2011 at 22:29

Not meaning to sound harsh, but shouldn't you have thought of this before signing the contract? I'm assuming you got a free/reduced handset as part of the contract, so obviously they need to recoup the cost of that. Of course the option is to sell the handset, and use that money towards paying off the contract.

What you might find useful, is that I believe you can reduce your contract down a certain amount every few months, but I may have just imagined that.

tl,dr version. It's called a contract for a reason, shouldn't have signed if you weren't sure about it.

Smithy0115 · 17 May 2011 at 22:31

You could have sold your soul and first born to O2 for all we know, they could put anything in those big blocks of text that no-one reads...

Haggisman · 17 May 2011 at 22:34

Smithy0115 said:
You could have sold your soul and first born to O2 for all we know, they could put anything in those big blocks of text that no-one reads...

Except that stupid/unreasonable terms in contracts aren't really enforceable...

Smithy0115 · 17 May 2011 at 22:37

Haggisman said:
Except that stupid/unreasonable terms in contracts aren't really enforceable...

No they aren't. But Apple do put that their products aren't meant to be used to launch nuclear missiles in theirs (didn't they?).

Haggisman · 17 May 2011 at 22:40

Smithy0115 said:
No they aren't. But Apple do put that their products aren't meant to be used to launch nuclear missiles in theirs (didn't they?).

Haha, I can just imagine the court case =P

.Lethal · 17 May 2011 at 22:42

Smithy0115 said:
No they aren't. But Apple do put that their products aren't meant to be used to launch nuclear missiles in theirs (didn't they?).

**** does this mean I'm in trouble now

Moredhel · 17 May 2011 at 22:58

Most computer manufacturers put terms along the lines of "Not to be used to design, build or operate chemical, nuclear or biological weaponry" in their T&Cs. Mostly because they can then charge governments a bloody fortune for a version without that term.

And if they didn't the US government could potentially accuse them of exporting weapons illegally. Much the same way they attempted to stop things like 128bit SSL from leaving the states, classing encryption software or implementations as weapons exports. (they got around that one by printing the source code as a book and selling the book internationally for other people to type back up into software)

Spook187 · 18 May 2011 at 00:43

Haggisman said:
Not meaning to sound harsh, but shouldn't you have thought of this before signing the contract? .

How was the guy supposed to know what was round the corner when signing up for a new contract,we wouldnt know what state our money matters would be in 6 months would we :confused:

muon · 18 May 2011 at 01:33

I assume you got a very nice phone on that contract. Sell that.

Zarf · 18 May 2011 at 01:53

If you have a mate who hasn't got any reception with O2 you should be able to get out, just ring them up, say you've been living at that address for a few weeks now and have no reception. They'll check the postcode against their signal maps database and should let you out on favourable terms (you'll probably need to send the contract phone back, but shouldn't have a hefty early cancellation fee)

I got out of my Three contract early with no fees after I moved back to my parents after uni, because there is no reception there. Was all sorted over the phone in about half an hour.

Haggisman · 18 May 2011 at 02:20

Spook187 said:
How was the guy supposed to know what was round the corner when signing up for a new contract,we wouldnt know what state our money matters would be in 6 months would we

It's pretty obvious though, you don't just go signing a long-term contract without taking into account what could happen in the long-term, it isn't like there are no alternatives available, e.g. pay & go, simplicity.

westylakey · 18 May 2011 at 06:06

I know loads of people that get tempted into contracts just for a nice shiny phone. but then when it comes to pay the bill they are skint. (mainly girls mind you)

Myshra · 18 May 2011 at 08:37

iPhone? I hope so for that amount per month at least. Sell it, you'll get the majority of the £500 as long as your handset has been treated well. Save the SIM, buy a £10 payg phone and use only the entitled minutes/texts/data.

Schizo · 18 May 2011 at 08:59

selling the iphone is not a option as i sold it in November.

i just have a basic Samsung phone which suits my needs.

i dont really want to start selling items to get out of this contract to be honest.

all i was asking if there was a loophole someone had used to get out of there contract.

if there is no possible way then ill carry on until my contract finishes.

ive had this 02 contract over 10 years and realise how much it is a month but with money being tight due to my daughter going to school now and needing a lot more items i thought the £35 a month would help.

thanks for the replys.