How to Get Out of Your Cell Phone Contract Without Paying Early Termination Fees

Cell phone companies have done a great job of preventing consumers from switching to other providers when they aren't happy with the quality of service they are receiving. Cell phone providers charge huge early termination fees, often as high as $200 or more, in order to prevent consumers from switching to a competitor. Fortunately there are ways that you as a consumer can fight back and switch out of your sub-par service and move to a better company without having to pay an early termination fee.

The first out that you have for your cell phone contract is if you receive a letter in the mail telling you that the terms and conditions of your contract are changing or that the fee structure is changing, you can get out of your contract without having to pay any sort of termination fee. Usually you'll get a letter full of fine-print telling you what's changing in your contract, and somewhere in there there'll be instructions to cancel your account if you don't want to keep with your contract and accept the new changes.

The first option won't work for everyone though, as contractual terms and conditions don't always change while you're under a contract, and if they do change, they might not be at a time that you want to switch. The other out that you have are new services such as Celltradeusa and Cell Swapper that allow you to get out of your contract and let someone else who wants to start a new cell phone service plan finish out the remainder of your contract. You get out of your plan, and someone else can start a new service without having to pay an activation fee. You'll have to pay a fee of about $20.00 to trade out of your contract, but it's a lot better than paying a huge early termination fee.

Since most customers who want to get out of cell-phone plans want to sign up with another provider, these services also allow you to trade contracts with people of other providers so that you and someone else can get out of your contract without paying a termination fee and sign up with another provider without having to pay any sort of activation fee to speak of. Usually when you trade plans with someone else, you'll pay a much smaller fee than if you just want to get of your contract to begin with. With the Cell Swapper service, you can even get a free cell-phone for your new plan as well.

If you're stuck with a cell-phone provider that you're not happy with, there is hope to get out of your contract without paying a huge early termination fee.