Is there any way out of a mobile phone contract early without penalty?

platypus

platypus

platypus

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Yes I entered into the contract knowing how long it is, it's my own fault, etc, however circumstances are pretty exceptional.

I'm being relocated abroad, but still have a year on my O2 phone. I can't get an intelligent answer out of O2 support so was wondering if anyone knows a course of action I can take, whilst I try and do some further research.

Or am I going to have to take it on the chin and pay the exit fee (whatever that may be - length of contract left I presume?)?
 
pay the exit fee :) unless they have breached to contract you have no clause to leave early really.. just take it up the chin, pay up and move on
 
When I left O2, I had to pay off what was left minus the cost of any bolt-ons, which was Internet for me. They sorted it all and billed me when the normal bill was due, but took the bolt-on price off twice!
 
platypus said:
Yeah I'd already tried that tack, they're paying for other expenses but won't pay the phone for some reason.
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Strange, looks like you're only option is to pay it off.
You don't pay VAT on services you haven't used though so take 20% off your normal monthly cost when working out how much you'll have to pay.
 
BigBruiserAl said:
Strip the account of bolt on's lower plan to the lowest your contract allows wait 1 month until your bill is reset and then buy out :P
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Most places let you move down 1 tariff step every month or two. I say most places as I recall this was common practice at Vodafone & O2 when I worked there years ago :)

People did go down by more than 1 tariff at a time occasionally but they shouldn't have been allowed to ;)
 
GhostWKD said:
Most places let you move down 1 tariff step every month or two. I say most places as I recall this was common practice at Vodafone & O2 when I worked there years ago :)

People did go down by more than 1 tariff at a time occasionally but they shouldn't have been allowed to ;)
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That's why I put "lowest your contract allows" if you get a nice csr they don't give a hoot anyway
 
GhostWKD said:
Most places let you move down 1 tariff step every month or two. I say most places as I recall this was common practice at Vodafone & O2 when I worked there years ago :)

People did go down by more than 1 tariff at a time occasionally but they shouldn't have been allowed to ;)
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This behavior is long gone on Vodafone, at least.

ETF it is, I would expect. They should take VAT off then offer a 2% discount.
 
If you want to keep your number just keep paying the monthy fee. No point paying it up in one hit. They won't give you a discount and you never know you may come back early or not like the country.
 
I've got pretty much the cheapest contract I could get (£16/month), and don't have any bolt-ons.

Was wondering if I could offer to return the handset to knock some money off it?

_Jimlad_ said:
If you want to keep your number just keep paying the monthy fee. No point paying it up in one hit. They won't give you a discount and you never know you may come back early or not like the country.
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Yeah this is not a bad shout either, it's not a huge amount but when I asked about the early cancellation fee the guy said £300. They do charge VAT on early exit fees, so will work out cheaper in the long term to keep the contract. Ah well.
 
Some networks will freeze a contract if your temporarily abroad for awhile but I think thats mostly only available to those in the military.
 
Rroff said:
Some networks will freeze a contract if your temporarily abroad for awhile but I think thats mostly only available to those in the military.
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Aye I asked about that, O2 don't do it, and it's not applicable anyway as it's an indefinite move.
 
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