3 Reasons to Avoid Long-Term Contracts With Cell Phone Companies
Long-term contracts with cell phone companies are rarely a good fit for anyone. Who doesn’t want the freedom to do as they please, especially when dealing with a service you’re paying for regardless? Typically, when a cell phone company tries to lock you into a certain amount of services for a fixed period, the only one benefitting from the contract agreement is the cell phone service company. With long-term contracts, often, you no longer receive the freedom to do many things, like switching cell phone carriers if you are unhappy with the service of the current one you are using. If you avoid these long-term contracts with cell phone companies, you can switch carriers and much more adjustments as you see fit since you will not lock yourself into any binding contract or agreement.
Here, we look at several reasons you should avoid long-term contracts with cell phone companies. You can still get all the services you seek but do not need to enter into these long-term contracts with cell phone companies that benefit no one but that particular company. For example, using mobile plans that do not require such a commitment is an ideal option. Instead, with this route, your cell phone service can provide you with a plan that gives you the freedom and flexibility you want and should have.
What Is a Mobile Plan?
Mobile plans are agreements involving payment with a mobile carrier that lets your cell phone use its network to make or receive phone calls and text messages and use the internet via cellular data. The agreement typically states the amount of mobile data the customer entering the plan can access, usually per month, for a certain fee. The three primary cell phone plans are pay-as-you-go, prepaid, and postpaid.
1. No Accountability
You might want to avoid long-term contracts with cell phone companies to hold your company accountable for its services. When you agree to a long-term contract, you give up your right to put the responsibility on the cell phone company and switch services if you are dissatisfied and unhappy with your experience. Without this freedom and flexibility, the cell phone company will have no obligation or motivation to improve the services and ensure you are satisfied with your experiences using them.
2. Sneaky, Baked-in Fees, Monthly Payment Raises, and Early Termination Costs
Sneaky, baked-in fees, raises on monthly payments, and early termination fees are all significant reasons to avoid long-term contracts with cell phone companies. The most standard long-term contract you see with cell phone companies is a two-year contract, in which a phone company offers you a new plan with a free phone that they claim is free or a low fee. However, these phones are not genuinely “free” as they claim, since when you sign a service contract for a free or significantly lowered price, you end up paying the total amount for the phone anyways throughout your agreement, usually from baked-in fees. Many of these long-term, two-year contracts with cell phone companies often end up increasing your monthly payments to make up for the cost of the phone they give to you. So, this means that throughout this two-year contract period, you might end up paying hundreds more than just buying your phone in the first place would cost. Also, if you try to opt out of your service and cancel it, you generally still need to pay for the remaining balance on the phone and potentially face early termination costs.
3. There Is Often No Possibility for Changes or a Way Out of It
You should avoid a long-term contract with cell phone companies primarily because you can, as you do not need to make this commitment in the first place. You have no responsibility to agree to any long-term contract with a cell phone company, meaning that if you are not already in a long-term contract, you should avoid doing so. Specifically, in not making this long-term contract, you can avoid making any commitments that you might want to change, yet can’t, later on. Avoiding this will not lock you into a plan or any agreements.
Conclusion
If you are looking for the best mobile plan, you might want to steer clear of long-term contracts with cell phone companies. Mainly, this is because, often, when we enter into these kinds of contracts, the only one who ultimately truly benefits, in the end, is just the cell phone company themselves, and that is it. This type of contract does not help the consumer and can be better. Finding the right mobile plan for you should be easy, and if you avoid long-term contracts with cell phone companies, you are already a step in the right direction. If you want a cell phone service that you can hold accountable, you should avoid mobile plans that lock you into a long-term contract. Specifically, this is because mobile plans that do so are agreements that only benefit the cell phone company and make you pay more in the long run for a dissatisfactory service.
