is there any way of backing out of my contract?

ohcherefille

hi everyone, i'm wendy - 21 years-old from liverpool.

at the start of february this year, i renewed my 18-month 'Flext 35' contract with T-Mobile.

unfortunately, at the beginning of march, i lost my job due to ongoing health issues, which meant i had to move back across the country to live with my parents. i started claiming job seeker's allowance, which just about covered my food and rent expenses, so i couldn't really afford to keep my contract going.

i e-mailed T-Mobile about this in detail, and a few days later someone got back to me and informed me that the only way they would consider cancelling my contract was if i bought out of it - at a cost of £480. they also said, that as this probably wouldn't suit me, they would take the unusual step of lowering my contract cost from £35 down to £25 per month. this was somewhat helpful but i still can't afford it. i'm aware that i can transfer the contract into someone else's name but i'm having trouble finding anyone who is willing to take it from me. is there any way of convincing T-Mobile that i really need my contract cancelling?

[Deleted User]

Are you able to sell your phone and pay off the remainder of your contract with it?

ohcherefille

i doubt it, as to buy out would cost £480 and the phone is by no means worth that much!

Crazy_Jamie

The short answer is that there is no fool proof way of backing out of your contract. You are stuck with it unless T-Mobile show a considerate side and do something to help you.

What phone do you actually have, and what condition is it in? One option, purely from a 'keeping your head above water' perspective, would be to lower the contract to £25 a month, then sell the phone and use the money to pay off as many months as possible. Alternatively find someone who would take the contract for, say, £20 a month and pay them a £90 lump sum to cover the difference.

ohcherefille

i have a silver sony ericsson w890i in near-mint condition; the only flaw on it is a small chip at the bottom from where it knocked against my door keys in my bag! but it's not even noticeable.

i looked up my phone on eBay and it seems that most of them are going for somewhere in the range of £80.

i called T-Mobile up this morning and they said that since my line rental has been lowered to £20 per month, that means that my cancellation fee is reduced significantly (at the moment i believe it's just over £200) so my other option is to wait for a few months until it comes down a bit further, then bite the bullet & cancel it. at least then i can sell the phone and that'll take a bit of the edge off the price i have to pay. does anyone else think that this is a good idea?

macman

Cancelling the contract is pointless, because the early termination fee is always going to be the same amount you would have paid up to the end of contract anyway. If you are paying for it, you may as well have the airtime to use.
You've already got the monthly payment down from £35 to £20, which has saved you about £225, now sell the phone for what you can get and transfer your SIM to a cheap phone (a tenner on eBay) for the remainder of the contract.
The only way to cancel a mobile contract early is death or bankruptcy, neither are presumably attractive options.