ATT no commitment option

[reddogsd]

I talked to someone in the apple store about that possibility and she hardly recommended not to do that, coz canceling a contract will lead to a negative entry in my U.S credit history. Is that true?

Not sure what they are doing as of today, but in 2005, I cancelled my contract with Cingular (AT&T's old name) because I wanted the Palm Treo 650 (the best phone out there before the Iphone came out) and only Sprint had it (when it first launched).

Bottom line, no comments on my credit. I paid them the money they were due and they never mentioned it again.

 

[michaelmaxwell2]

When a person cancels their line nothing happens to their credit, in fact the cellphone line does not even report on your credit report. The only time that the cellphone company will show up on the credit report is A when they send a request for your credit report(ex. credit check), and if you do not pay a collections account.

 

[HeavenDivine]

what about O2 UK? what would it cost to cancel after the first month?

 

[aristobrat]

what about O2 UK? what would it cost to cancel after the first month?

To get that answer, your best bet is to find or start an O2 thread (vs posting in this AT&T thread). Very few of us here in the US know anything about O2.

 

[gkarris]

No it won't that's not even close to the truth. Credit reporting agencies recieve dings for NON-PAYMENT or COLLECTIONS. Technically if you pay the ETF you fulfilled your contract. You are paying to be released...now if you didn't pay it it'll go to collections and you'll have a collection on your credit which will negatively impact it. In this case not even late payments impact it unless they go to collection because if you look on your credit report you'll find no record of an AT&T wireless account on there.

I know this for a fact, check my credit reports religiously and terminated my Sprint contract early last year, paid the full balance and never hit my credit report negatively at all and the account never showed up.

Again if you pay the ETF and your final bill in full there will be no negative impact to your credit. Don't speak if you don't know WTF you are talking about...

Easy now, we all make mistakes! Oops, forgot, that's what the ETF is for - getting out of the contract.

What is the iPhone's ETF? I thought is was to be more to match the the total price of a non-comittment phone.

 

[Vaphoron]

If anyone finds out a solid answer please report back here because I am seriously considering signing up for a contract and then canceling after just over a month. I read somewhere that they were going to force you to return the phone if you canceled after less than a month of service. The only thing i would like some confirmation of is if I can use the iPhone like an iPod Touch after canceling service. I don't plan on using it with another carrier, I just want to have the mic, and camera. I was also wondering if the GPS would work since I wouldn't think its tied to AT&T at all.

 

[ubersalad]

Yes, supposedly, it will as you broke a signed contract.

The no-comittment pricing will be $599 and $699, still locked to AT&T, and still MUST leave the store activated.

You can probably activate it using one of those $15 Pay-As-You-Go cards.

Pure BS! Not paying early terminating fee will result in collection, but if you pay ETF, nothing will show up on your credit report.

 

[TXCraig]

I have broken MANY a cell phone contract before with no problem. T-Mobile was very happy to get my 200.00 for breaking my contact to get an iPhone last year. Now, if you don't pay your last bill, it will show up on your credit report.. but as long as you pay, your fine.

Now, will the phone work as an iPod after you cut off the service? I have no idea....

 

[ubersalad]

I have broken MANY a cell phone contract before with no problem. T-Mobile was very happy to get my 200.00 for breaking my contact to get an iPhone last year. Now, if you don't pay your last bill, it will show up on your credit report.. but as long as you pay, your fine.

Now, will the phone work as an iPod after you cut off the service? I have no idea....

It's confirmed that it will work as wifipod. I have also confirmed that the first generation phone will indeed work as a wifipod.