Cancelling a mobile phone contract

shevs_2

I'm trying to find out if there is anyway of getting out of a Mobile contract with Vodafone set up via the call centre.

I have 8 months left, but would like to cancel as I'm leaving the UK to work in Sweden, and therefor do not need the extra monthly cost.

Vodafone have given me 2 options - to pay the remainder of the contract which would be over 200pounds OR switch to a lower tarif and let the contract run untill it expires in April 08. Any other thoughts/suggestions greatly appreciated! Thanks

Quentin

You could combine these options which would mean you were finished with them, rather than have them billing you when you are abroad.

Reduce your tariff to the lowest available, then once this is in place ask to cancel. You will be charged a cancellation fee based on the tariff current at the time you give them notice.

If you have no-one to use the phone you can trust whilst it completes its minimum period there is little else you can do.

spunky

Hi,

I've used this strategy several years ago and it has worked for me. There is no guarantee it will work for you but might be worth a try.

I took a 12 month contract with T-mobile. After about 4-5 months I no longer had need for the phone so decided to cancel. T-mobile said I'd have to pay the cancellation charge of about £200 or keep paying till the contract ended.

So I refused payment and stopped using the phone. T-mobile eventually cut me off for non-payment and started sending threatening letters for the unpaid bill. I ignored them until they sent the baillif letters.

At this point I called them up and paid the outstanding bill, they told me that as I had breached their T&Cs I would have to pay a reconnection charge or lose my line. I told them I did not want the line any longer and that was that.

I only ended up paying up to the 7th month so about 2 months of unused calls. But hey that sure as hell beat the £200 fine.

This strategy had no adverse affect on my credit rating and since then I have had 3 separate mobile phone lines with 2 network providers.

However as stated, use at your own risk.

faza20

Hi Shevs

As long as you've been connected for 9mths, you'll be able to downgrade your tariff to a lower one, then you can simply pay that off instead of paying off a higher line renatl.

Vodafone do also offer Vodafone Passport which will reduce usage costs if what ever reason you decide to keep the contract

shevs_2

thanks everyone for the advice! i think i have found a soloution - my sister is taking the phone on for me untill the contract expires. seems like the easiest way to avoid the stupidly high charges! thanks again!

faza20

Hi Shevs

Glad it's sorted. The only thing I will say is make sure you transfer it into her name completley, otherwise you'll still be liable (you can just call 191 together to do this when you both together), and will also experience problems when trying to close the account