Getting out of a cell phone contract used to be extremely difficult.
Most of the time you had no choice but to ride out the full term of the cell phone contract, in many cases, these were 24 months.
Thereafter you were obliged to give notice of your intention to cancel the agreement. Thankfully, this is no longer the case and canceling a cell phone contract is easier today.
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20 Days Written Notice
If you need to cancel your cell phone contract, you can give your cell phone contract provider twenty days written the notice. An explanation for the reasons you are canceling the cell phone contract is not required.
Keep Proof
When sending the written notice, make sure you send the notice via email, post or fax. Always keep a copy handy as proof that you did, in fact, send the request to cancel the cell phone contract.
Inform Your Bank
You can always provide your bank with a copy of the notice to cancel the cell phone contract so that they can cancel any future debit orders from the cell phone contract provider.
Financial consequences
Canceling your cell phone contract before the initial contract term is up will have some financial implications. Depending on the service provider there are some penalties involved due to early cancellation.
You will be liable to the service provider the amounts owing up to the date of cancellation such as any airtime you have used to date including SMS’s and data bundles.
Depending on the service provider you are canceling with, you may need to pay, where applicable any associated costs such as administration costs and outstanding device costs.
So as you can see, canceling your contract is quite easy, but once you have made the decision to cancel the contract with your service provider, make sure that you are keenly aware of any charges you may be accountable for.
One of the best ways to check on this is to log on to your service providers website and read the terms and conditions of the contract you have signed with them. If you find all the legal jargon confusing, calling the service providers customer care will help in this regard.
A point of interest to note is that cell phone contract service providers are no longer allowed to immediately renew your cell phone contract when it becomes due without your permission.