Mobile Phone Contracts - Getting out of them!

[pintsofguinness]

How easy is it? 
What's people's experiences of this, what's the best way to go about it? 
I've heard of people getting them to change their phone from contract to pay as you go and I'd assume you've to pay for the handset after that?   

I've contract with orange and have just realised (because I'm a stupid bollocks)  that the "unlimited text messages" promised actually means unlimted text messages to UK phones! I don't even want to know what the promise of free minutes actually means or I'll f**king lose it!!!!

[Syd]

Myself i wouldnt go back to contract, i sm on Pay and Go with Orange and if you top up a tenner a month you get 300 free txts and a "Magic Number" (must be Orange Number) that you can ring for an hr and only pay 15p. I dont use it during the day cos im at work and in evenings i just txt. One less bill at the end of the month !

[stew]

I work in the cellular industry over here in the states and I have to say you bhoys get royally screwed when entering contracts and the money for the minutes you get is ridiculous.

For 20 quid you get 1,000 anytime minutes and free nights and weekend minutes and you can get unlimited text mesaging packages for about three quid and you can text anyone in the world without penalty.

A Motorola razr phnoe here costs $450.00 full retail but you can get them buy one get one for $49.00 if you sign a two year contract which costs a hundred quid to get out of if you choose to do so.

[Fionntamhnach]

I work in the cellular industry over here in the states and I have to say you bhoys get royally screwed when entering contracts and the money for the minutes you get is ridiculous.

For 20 quid you get 1,000 anytime minutes and free nights and weekend minutes and you can get unlimited text mesaging packages for about three quid and you can text anyone in the world without penalty.

A Motorola razr phnoe here costs $450.00 full retail but you can get them buy one get one for $49.00 if you sign a two year contract which costs a hundred quid to get out of if you choose to do so.

One major difference is however is that in Europe, as long as you're not roaming you're not charged for receiving calls.

[hitzelsperger]

aye lads contracts are a feckin bollox, i had tariff of 500 mins and 1000 txts per month for 30quid, because i was going over it bills were coming in at 60 and 70 quid a month, student cant afford that shit! so i rang up to cancel it, they said no problem but it would take 30 days i agreed, a month later i rang back to enquire why contract hadnt been cancelled and was told that i was meant had to have had rang back before 30days was up to confirm, pure and utter shite!!...after a few days they gavein and offered me better tariff for cheaper, the feckers will do all they can to get money out of ya!

[tone]

I had a contract with o2 through car phone warehouse and I ended early through my insureance,I just had to settle all the outstandng bills over the counter.

[stew]

 There are companies over here that give you free inbound calls, i used to work for US cellular and they don't charge you for inbound in your home area. Roaming packages can be bought for $10.00 for 100 minutes as well not to mention the national plans that cover the entire country.


Even though Europe is all GSM technology you all still roam all the time and get gouged, that is a shame.

[thejuice]

I had to pay €70 to cancel a contract I wasnt even using. I wont ever have a contract phone again.

[The Bottom Brick]

A Motorola razr phnoe here costs $450.00 full retail but you can get them buy one get one for $49.00

Christ.

[Fionntamhnach]

There are companies over here that give you free inbound calls, i used to work for US cellular and they don't charge you for inbound in your home area. Roaming packages can be bought for $10.00 for 100 minutes as well not to mention the national plans that cover the entire country.


Even though Europe is all GSM technology you all still roam all the time and get gouged, that is a shame.

As a rule of thumb in Europe, and almost everywhere else outside the Americas you don't get charged for receiving your call in your own country - that can be as small as Guernsey or as large as Australia. Most operators are now more responsive to customers now roaming in another country. O2 UK charge £2 for Pay monthly and PAYG customers who wish to use their phone in the Republic as normal (except for PAYG bolt-ons or free texts) and have cut roaming charges in Europe. Vodafone have a scheme where you pay a one off free for a roaming call than then there is either no extra charge for receiving a call or it can be used as home for calling. Its becoming more common for network with sister networks in other countries to provide cheap/free roaming calls. 3 is probably the best as any calls, texts and data you have as part of your package can be used on any of their 9 national networks.

The main reason for N.America's difference in mobile phone charging is down to the North American numbering system where phone numbers are allocated standard STD codes relating to cities whereas nearly elsewhere they have their own unique STD code (07 in the UK, 083-087 in RoI).

Checking out some of the American networks, in particular T-Mobile and Cingular, I see that for PAYG you get charged for receiving standard text messages 

[holylandsniper]

On a similiar note, where good place to get a decent mobile phone, cheap enough price.