If you're excited that the iPhone is finally on Verizon and you want to switch, that excitement was probably short lived when you realized the cost that switching involves. Here's how to make the switch at no cost to you.
Determining the Cost
If you have an iPhone on AT&T and it's not fairly old, you're probably going to have to pay an early termination fee (ETF) to get out of your contract. This fee can be as much as $325. Fortunately, if you've had your iPhone 4 for even a month, that fee isn't quite that bad. It goes down $10 a month. If you'd like to figure out the exact cost of your ETF, the Consumerist points out a handy iPhone ETF calculator (courtesy of Wolfram Alpha). If you've had your iPhone for less than a month, chances are you can probably return it. That may be a bit of a hassle, since you'll have to figure out some other phone to use while you wait until Verizon actually releases the iPhone on February 10th, but it's better than getting stuck with a several hundred dollar ETF. Whatever your situation may be, once you've determined the cost of leaving AT&T we can move on to avoiding it entirely, or at least in part (depending on your situation and level of ambition).
Making the Switch
Making the switch for free is going to take a little work because you not only have an early termination fee (ETF) to deal with, but the cost of a new phone as well. Nonetheless, a combination of a little Craigslist (or selling online in general) and creative negotiating should get the job done.
Sell Your AT&T iPhone
Presumably you won't need your AT&T iPhone 4 if you're making the switch to Verizon. It won't work on Verizon because the technology is different and you're going to have to buy a new phone anyhow. We've taken an extensive look at how to upgrade to the new iPhone for free, and those principles still very much apply to this situation. You're not really upgrading your phone, but you are upgrading your network. If you have an iPhone 4, you also have the advantage of selling the current model. The resale value of an iPhone drops significantly when a newer model is released, but the iPhone 4 you currently own is likely worth enough to cover both the ETF and the cost of your new phone (or at least come close). Why? Because your iPhone is contract-free. If you really want to up the resale value, you can also jailbreak and unlock the phone. Most people will pay extra for this service because they don't know how to do it themselves (or just don't feel comfortable trying). While the idea of selling your iPhone on craigslist (or through other online classifieds) is pretty straightforward, getting the best price takes a little work and patience. For the full run-down, be sure to read our guide on upgrading to the latest iPhone for free.Circumventing the Early Termination Fee
When you buy your phone hardware, you're probably aware that you're getting a discount at a cost: you're tied, via contract, to the carrier for a certain amount of time (generally two years). This is a legally-binding contract, and carriers currently have the right to charge you a fee if you want out early. This shouldn't be news to anyone who's owned a cellphone in their lifetime, but you may not be aware of how much your ETF actually is. As mentioned earlier, either call AT&T and find out how much it will cost to kill your contract or use this iPhone ETF calculator for a quicker answer. That's the easy part. Getting out of your obligation to finish your contract or pay an early termination fee is where it gets tough.Negotiate Your Way Out
Of all the ways you can get out of your fee, this is my least favorite. You did sign a contract and you did agree to finish it, so you're basically cheating AT&T by trying to get out of it for free. That said, the reason so many have wanted to switch to Verizon is because, for many, AT&T's network performs horribly for them. If you're not getting the service you're paying (likely) upwards of $100 per month for, you're getting screwed. Negotiating your way out of your contract can take some time and it can be stressful, so if you're not ready for numerous calls to customer support and logging every dropped call you get from this day forward, this is not for you.
If you want to take this ethically questionable route and complain your way out of your ETF, here's what you need to do:
* Log every dropped call for the next week. It shouldn't be hard to get a lot of them, but try making calls in areas where you know you'll lose service. If you can manage about 20 a day, that's a lot of dropped calls. On an average day out in Los Angeles, I drop 8-10 calls. Use your phone more and you won't have any problems hitting 20 pretty quickly. Do this for a week.
* Once you have your data, file a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau.
* Complain to AT&T. They won't do anything, so log some more dropped calls and complain again. When they do nothing, let them know you're filing reports (even though you already have). If they offer to send you a free femtocell device to improve your signal, know that's only for a single location and refuse it on the basis that your calls drop just as frequently outside of your home. Let them know you want out of your contract because your service has been so terrible, especially with the latest iPhone. If they won't let you out of the contract, you're going to need to call back again.
* For your last complaint call, you're going to need to go all out. Get to a supervisor or have the call escalated as quickly as you can, because you're going to have a tough time getting out of your contract with just a standard customer service representative. You always want to be as kind as possible during this process, by the way, or nobody will want to help you. It's best to make your situation seem tragic. You want to engender sympathy, not anger. Once you're with the supervisor you should let them know you've filed reports and go over all the dropped calls with him/her. Ask nicely to be let out your contract so you can try other carriers. If you can't get out of the ETF at this point, it's probably not going to happen. If you're a little emotionally manipulative (which is another place this method gets ethically questionable), however, you shouldn't have any problem talking your way out of the fee.
Note: it also helps to be an undesirable customer. If you still have unlimited data on AT&T, use it. Download huge amounts of data on your iPhone. This will be far easier if you jailbreak it, since you can remove the 20MB cap and just let it download endlessly, but AT&T will want to get rid of you if you're hogging their bandwidth. The same goes for phone calls, to a lesser extent, so make use of those unlimited minutes if you've got 'em.
Use Contract Changes as a Way Out
Cellular providers change their contracts all the time and you're pretty much forced to agree to the new terms. Whenever this happens, they're almost always obligated to allow you to break the contract within 30 days of receiving and "agreeing" to the new terms. Keep an eye out for these contract updates and check the latest contract you have. If you've received it in less than 30 days (this may vary, but that's the usual timeframe), canceling your cellular contract fee-free may be as simple as making a quick phone call.
Give Your Contract to Somebody Else
If you can't get out of your contract on your own, you can always transfer financial responsibility to somebody else. If you know someone who will take over your contract, that's a pretty quick way to solve the problem. If you don't, you can use a site like CellSwapper or Cell Plan Depot to find someone. Generally this isn't as simple as just giving your contract to another person—they're probably going to want something for taking on the burden. Nonetheless, it's often cheaper than paying your ETF and you may have the option of trading with someone who has a Verizon contract.
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