Mobile Phone Contract + Emigrating....

Dr_Evil

Dr_Evil

Dr_Evil

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HI all,

does anyone have any experience with the above mentioned? Basically I'm emigrating in 2 months but will have 6 months left on my mobile phone contract. I don't want to pay for the remainder of the contract and I'm happy to hand my phone in, but what is the best way to go about this?

any advise welcome, as long as it's constructive...
 
read the terms and conditions of your contract under "termination"

it should say something.

Generally you'll find 12 month contracts are not refundable and non negociable and you should have paid upfront but the company is kind enough to let you stagger your payments.

I doubt if you'll see any cash back.
 
You're most likely going to have to pay the remaining line rental, unless you hav Carphone Warehouse Lifeline insurance which sometimes includes Airtime Cancellation Protection, which means you can give CPW your phone back and they will cancel the contract for you and pay the remainder. No other insurance offers this facility as far as I'm aware.

Otherwise, if it's 6 months left then you can usually downgrade the tariff to a lower/lowest price, so it might work out okay if you sell your phone and then use the money to pay off the contract.

If you plan to emigrate permanently and have no intention of coming back, of course there's the option of just leaving and not paying the line rental, but I would strongly recommend against doing it because you never know what you might need/do in the future. But it's an option nonetheless.
 
I asked the same question here a few months back.

From what i found out you can't cancel :( but you can downgrade your contract to the lowest tariff until it runs out and you can cancel it.

I'm still paying £20/month for a contract i don't use.
 
There's no option C, basically you sign a contract for a minimum term, you're bound to that unless you can prove that the mobile network has breached their side of the contract (generally very difficult)

Alternatively you could try getting someone else to take the contract on and become the account holder if you know someone who has need of a new phone/contract...
 
Doubt you'll want to do it , but option C could be if your emigrating just do a runner I hardly think they gonna chase you for £80~

just an idea , doubt i'd do it but still .Doubt they would try and trace you :p
 
You could always ask a friend if they are willing to use the phone and pay the line rental for a few months. Then tell them they can have the phone and either use it or sell it on.
 
The find a friend option only works if you *really* trust them not to spend masses and have you charged for it, *and* if you will still have a UK bank account to pay the bill with. You can't transfer the contract to them.

Of course there's no way to get out of your contract. Going abroad makes no difference to the company you bought the phone from, you agreed to pay the line rental for 12 months (or 18 or whatever) - either you keep paying it, or you cancel the contract as per its conditions which will include paying the lump sum line rental off. Selling your phone might help offset that cost. Why would they let you get out of it any other way?

The "run away" option sounds like a pretty bad idea - for the sake of £100 or so it seems a bit silly to get debt collectors after you for potentially years to come.
 
PinkPig said:
The find a friend option only works if you *really* trust them not to spend masses and have you charged for it, *and* if you will still have a UK bank account to pay the bill with. You can't transfer the contract to them.
Click to expand...

You can, or you certainly can with Orange... Other networks may vary
 
What's the lowest tariff on O2, anyone know?

I think i'll take the option of selling the phone on the bay and just paying the lowest remainder for the contract, as I won't have any use for it.

Perhaps i can make a deal with O2. If i keep the phone and contract, how do they know i'm going to pay and how would they know i'm not just going to call and call until they bar the number? it's a risk for them as well letting me keep the phone when emigrating....

(Ofcourse I don't want to go down this route..)
 
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