how do i get out of my mobile phone contract when emigrating

robt_2

karatedragon wrote: »

You will already have paid for any used talk time and SMS in previous Month's Mobile bills. What I say is unfair in a Mobile Contract is that you in effect pay for future *UNUSED* minutes and talk time that you will have no benefit of when you are fleeced for their cancellation fees.

Can you say 'PAYG'?

I just feel that it warrants investigation but clearly you appreciate people being ripped off and paying for services you will have no benefit from by defending the poor profit hungry mobile companies.

Clearly you will have no problem should you accidentally go overdrawn in the bank and be stung for their perfectly fair charges. I hope to not see any posts on here from you to that effect as you are perfectly happy with the level and fairness of those charges also as you are with Mobile Phone cancellation fees.

You just lost any argument that you had with that post.

lucylucky

Jon_01 wrote: »

I'd avoid the term 'signed', a lot of mobile contracts aren't signed these day.
I always put 'agreed to' or you'll have people saying that as they didn't sign anything there's no contract. . .

I was using "signed" as shorthand hence my use of inverted commas, however I do take the point. Many things are not signed but agreed nowadays

lucylucky

robt wrote: »

Are you seriously saying you can't understand the difference between bank charges and a phone contract?

It appears you have hit the nail on the head!

lucylucky

karatedragon wrote: »

I don't think it is different. You have agreed to pay the penalty charges imposed by a bank should you go over an authorised limit or allow items to be rubberized by signing your contract to open an account. The benefit of the Bank's contracts is that if you don't misbehave you don't get charged.

You will already have paid for any used talk time and SMS in previous Month's Mobile bills. What I say is unfair in a Mobile Contract is that you in effect pay for future *UNUSED* minutes and talk time that you will have no benefit of when you are fleeced for their cancellation fees.

I just feel that it warrants investigation but clearly you appreciate people being ripped off and paying for services you will have no benefit from by defending the poor profit hungry mobile companies.

Clearly you will have no problem should you accidentally go overdrawn in the bank and be stung for their perfectly fair charges. I hope to not see any posts on here from you to that effect as you are perfectly happy with the level and fairness of those charges also as you are with Mobile Phone cancellation fees.

Why did you enter into a contract you felt was unfair?

I hate people being ripped off, which is why when my mobile provider tried to do that very thing I left - with no penalty to myself.

But then I was able to read an understand a contract to which I had agreed.

Possibly a lesson for you in the future.;)

karatedragon

lucylucky wrote: »

Why did you enter into a contract you felt was unfair?

I hate people being ripped off, which is why when my mobile provider tried to do that very thing I left - with no penalty to myself.

But then I was able to read an understand a contract to which I had agreed.

Possibly a lesson for you in the future.;)

You seem to be mistaken that I am being ripped off by a Mobile Company. This is not the case. Have you not read the Opening Poster's question. I am not the Opening Poster

I merely began to debate the "fairness" of any cancellation fees insomuch as you are fleeced for *UNUSED* airtime together with the cost of any subsidised handset. I just feel this is unfair and perhaps ought to be investigated. Am I not allowed an opinion or to have feelings on something? Surely anything to make something fairer is a good thing? Or do you not agree with that?

But of course we live in "Sheep Britain" where average people sign up to anything no matter how unfair it and no one else gives a damn, they simply accept the fact they are being ripped off and say nothing because it's not worth the hassle. Well that is what companies rely on.

And no I don't see any difference in a Bank's contract or a Mobiles Phone. At least with the Bank if you stay within your limits you don't get charged. You don't get charged for leaving them unlike a Mobile Company. Well I havn't been charged by a bank for leaving them anyway.

robt_2

karatedragon wrote: »

And no I don't see any difference in a Bank's contract or a Mobiles Phone. At least with the Bank if you stay within your limits you don't get charged. You don't get charged for leaving them unlike a Mobile Company. Well I havn't been charged by a bank for leaving them anyway.

Try leaving a bank you owe money to. It isn't just written off by the bank.

karatedragon

robt wrote: »

Try leaving a bank you owe money to. It isn't just written off by the bank.

That is totally different.

You do not owe anything for future airtime on a Mobile contract as it is still in the future and unused. The future hasn't happened because, umm er. It's in the future.

If you have borrowed from a bank then it has to be repaid if you wish to leave. You have not borrrowed any future airtime on a mobile contract as you cant skip forward and use it in a time machine. :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

robt_2

karatedragon wrote: »

That is totally different.

Thats funny. It was 'no different' when it suited your argument.

karatedragon

You know it is different - You can't borrow December's Air time for use in March on a Mobile contract because December hasn't happened. Mobile contracts have set limits per month.

You are not actually borrowing anything to pay back on a mobile contract. You simply use your "in month" quota and pay for it.

easy

karatedragon wrote: »

You know it is different - You can't borrow December's Air time for use in March on a Mobile contract because December hasn't happened. Mobile contracts have set limits per month.

You are not actually borrowing anything to pay back on a mobile contract. You simply use your "in month" quota and pay for it.

But you are, if you don't pay for the handset at the outset. In effect, you are getting credit terms on the handset. As was said at the beginning of this thread, if you take out a contract which provides a handset "free", then each month your contract payments are paying for a proportion of the handset cost, and some calls/text/web time. If you end the contract early, then you won't have paid the full value of the handset. Yep, the mobile company could take that cost out of the profit on the months you have paid so far, but they are businesses, who are supposed to make profits, sao they are unlikely to agree to that (as a shareholder, I'd be cross if they did).

To the OP. In your shoes, firstly confirm that you really will be emigrating, and when (takes months to sort out, I believe). Then I would start by calling your contract company, and explain to them that your circumstances have changed, because of something that was unforseen when you took out the contract. See what options they offer (including any discount they offer for early settlement). If they can't offer you anything suitable, ask if you can change to a much lower tariff (mine costs me £10 a month, but then I only have a bog-standard phone).

Finall option: see if a trusted friend would like your phone (and number), and if they will pay you for the monthly contract until it expires.