AT&T Raising SMS Rates...a chance to terminate your contract without ETF?

[gothamm]

on march 30th AT&T is expected to raise the rates of their SMS messages from $.15 to $.20 per messages. MMS will increase to $.30 per message.


Now i have read in several places how people were legitimately getting our of their contracts without paying the early termination fees due to price hikes in SMS messages last year.


check out this thread:

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=0&t=391246

this would be great if it worked (i'd love to get out of my ****** 2 year contract with AT&T). Has any one had first hand experience with this?

 

[hobo]

Mmmm.... tough call. I bet you could get out of the contract.

Never a better time than now to move to unlimited texting, though! Still only $30 on a family plan, whew.

 

[nickspohn]

This kind of sways away from the idea, but just my opinion.

Just pay for a plan if you text a lot. It's kind of stupid.

You get a 200 text plan included in the monthly plan, and then for $10 more, you get 1,500. If you go over, $10 will buy 50 texts. $20 for unlimited would buy 100 texts.

I have unlimited texting and love it. If you text even a little bit, i would recommend upgrading to at least 1,500. But that is just me.

 

[gothamm]

This kind of sways away from the idea, but just my opinion.

Just pay for a plan if you text a lot. It's kind of stupid.

You get a 200 text plan included in the monthly plan, and then for $10 more, you get 1,500. If you go over, $10 will buy 50 texts. $20 for unlimited would buy 100 texts.

I have unlimited texting and love it. If you text even a little bit, i would recommend upgrading to at least 1,500. But that is just me.

yeah, i understand that. But I am trying to get out of my 2-year contract as i am sure many others are. This is kind of a legit, legal reason.

 

[mkrishnan]

How are costs per individual SMS actually going up over time?

 

[Chrispy88]

How are costs per individual SMS actually going up over time?

It's AT&T's way to encourage customers to purchase texting plans (which are extremely economical if you text even a little bit).

In terms of switching away from AT&T, recently more and more customers are switching TO AT&T (mostly from Sprint/Nextel).

 

[JSchwage]

Aww man, and I just got a new phone with AT&T. Oh well. Good thing I got the extra $5 200 text message addon.

 

[aphexacid]

In terms of switching away from AT&T, recently more and more customers are switching TO AT&T (mostly from Sprint/Nextel).

Man, i dont know how you know that, but thats exactly what my situation was. I was gonna grab a N95, and go tmobile about a month ago, but their service to me just sucks.
Then went at&t, got an iphone, AND i got an N95. reception is astounding. I had at&t years ago, and its WAY improved now.

im just happy as a schoolgirl to be the HELL out of the clutches of sprint.

 

[Sobe]

Just think how much money Apple is saving you by preventing you from using your iPhone to send MMS.

 

[deannnnn]

In terms of switching away from AT&T, recently more and more customers are switching TO AT&T (mostly from Sprint/Nextel).

That's me =)

 

[nickspohn]

I hate that these companies are taking advantage of people that don't have a texting plan. What does it cost these companies to send the average text, like $0.03?

 

[ert3]

You do know that with all of the Iphone data plans you get text messages and a discount on the run over.

I don't see how this applies to us at all really.

 

[powerbook911]

20 cents is crazy, for texts. They should rethink that.

 

[cashsimpson]

i do the 1500/month and i text A LOT and i still dont ever go over.

 

[mouchoir]

Just think how much money Apple is saving you by preventing you from using your iPhone to send MMS.

Ooh, you so need to post that in one of the numerous "blah blah no MMS blah" threads

 

[mkrishnan]

It's AT&T's way to encourage customers to purchase texting plans (which are extremely economical if you text even a little bit).

Fair enough... I have a texting plan on T-Mobile....

 

[ibwb]

I hate that these companies are taking advantage of people that don't have a texting plan. What does it cost these companies to send the average text, like $0.03?

Nowhere near that much... maybe three tenths of a cent.

 

[bosxe]

This kind of sways away from the idea, but just my opinion.

Just pay for a plan if you text a lot. It's kind of stupid.

You get a 200 text plan included in the monthly plan, and then for $10 more, you get 1,500. If you go over, $10 will buy 50 texts. $20 for unlimited would buy 100 texts.

I have unlimited texting and love it. If you text even a little bit, i would recommend upgrading to at least 1,500. But that is just me.

I feel the exact same way.

I pay for unlimited text messaging, and it is absolutely worth it. Last month I was on the road for about 3 weeks and sent/received around 10,000 messages total; who can do the math for what that would be if I went over?

 

[pavvento]

the rate increase is if you don't have a plan, not if you go over the txts your plan allows. If you have an iPhone you had to sign up for a txt plan, so this does not apply to your contract, therefore you can not get out of the ETF

 

[legaleye3000]

Pavvento- I respectfully disagree...

Even if you have a (limited) plan, you can still be charged the new rate by going over the amount of texts you have (200 or 1500 texts).

So... If you're still able to be charged for a text/mms, then I would say that it still applies.

On the other hand, its a better argument for ATT for people who have unlimited texts because they can't be charged the $0.20 fee... (however, the people with unlimited texts say that the price increase could be, in a way, forcing them to stay on the unlimited text plan)