I have 4 lines, 3 iPhones, 1 iPad. Unlimited talk n text with 6 gab of data for 220/mo. One line is my wife's sisters, she's off my plan when I kick her off. AT&T tells me they can lower my bill with 2 phones and iPad but it'll be around 205 rather than 220. Not really acceptable. Anyone have any tricks or suggestions to have my etf as absolutely low as possible? Any decent prepaid options? Thanks
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Want out of AT&T, options please
- Thread starter southpoleman69
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Well... your ETF drops by $10 each month you fulfill of your contract. So depending on when you got your phones, your ETF might not be as much as you think.
But other than that... you signed the contract... so you agreed to the terms. Pay for the service at the agreed upon price or pay the ETFs.
As far as new service, the cheapest route would be T-Mobile. But you will need to unlock your AT&T iPhones and then you would be without 1700 Mhz HSPA+.
you can "sell" off your accounts to someone who wants them by transferring the account liability to them. that lets them assume your account, freeing you of the burden and wont create a termination fee. however, you may be hard pressed to find someone willing to take over that many lines.
Ha, I don't even want the damn lines.
Obviously I realize I signed the contract, however other things do come up and a cell phone bill that is that high is easier to drop a big amount to get out and have savings overall every month. Wouldn't mind a prepaid, but really don't wanna sell my phones and buy new.
Not sure what OP's usage is, but doubtful. I'm on a Verizon plan with my 5, a 4S, 3G android, a 4th gen iPad, and a dumb phone. We also have 6 gb of data and use most of it.
OP, depending on your area T-Mobile may be your best bet. Unlocking the devices will be a pain in the rear, but T-Mobile can help you with a workaround. You might not get perfect 4G, but they're trying to get more AT&T spectrum to support older idevices. My boyfriend just switched his 4S over in May and still hasn't gotten anything from AT&T about an ETF. He gets decent service in our area but has had issues while traveling. You can also trade in the old iPhones towards the down payments on new ones with T-Mobile (I.e. trade in a 4S for a discount on a 5).
So you're looking at $50/mo for 1st line, $30/mo for 2nd line, and $10/mo for each additional. Each comes with 500 mb/mo data or it's $10/mo/line extra for 2 gb (+ the included 500 mb) or $20/mo/line for unlimited. So you're looking at about $140/mo before taxes and fees for each line to have unlimited talk & text and 2.5 gb data.
One thing to note is that they may treat tablets differently. I wasn't able to find any info on those.
Switch to AT&T GOPHONE prepaid SIM.
$60 per month for unlimited talk/text and 2 GB of data. That would be $120 for 2 phones.
Put the iPad on the month to month which is I think $25-$30 for 2 or 3 GB. I can't remember. Also, you turn the data on and off ass needed.
$120 + $30 = $150 and you don't have to get new phones.
$60 per month for unlimited talk/text and 2 GB of data. That would be $120 for 2 phones.
Put the iPad on the month to month which is I think $25-$30 for 2 or 3 GB. I can't remember. Also, you turn the data on and off ass needed.
$120 + $30 = $150 and you don't have to get new phones.
He has 3 lines plus the iPad, so it's still $210.
OP, unless you're actually planning to drop a line?
Edit: missed the part where he was going to drop a line.
Still with T-Mobile he can keep the phones and all lines for less.
He switched from AT&T to tmobile without an etf? Also lowering my plan would be 205 rather than 220, and really isn't acceptable either.
If his phones are unlocked. There is no mention that his phones are unlocked. Depending on location he may only get Edge coverage, if the area isn't refarmed for AT&T 3G/HSPA+ frequencies.
FInd a location on AT&T's coverage map where there is "partner" coverage (basically, roaming). Go there, rent a hotel room, and spend the day streaming Hulu or netflix on the lines you want canceled. Wait for the letter from AT&T to arrive saying they are cancelling your lines for excessive off-network usage.
You could argue your way out of the ETF by emailing the CEO about the new administrative fee. It might work, it might not. My friend who ported three lines to T-Mobile somehow got out of it that way when they called him back a few days later.
Good luck. I've been trying to get out of my Sprint contract. I moved to an area completely void of Sprint coverage. They offered to waive my ETF if I sent my phones back to them.
I'm not quite sure what your reason for leaving AT&T is. Unless you're going to T-Mobile, why not just sell your phones to cover the ETFs? Even then, depending on your phone, you may sell it for enough to cover your ETFs and most of the new phone on T-Mobile.
You got a discount on a phone with the agreement to stick around for two years. For the past 15 years I've had a cell phone I've never been able to easily get out of a contract without either some major network issue or fraud.
I'm not quite sure what your reason for leaving AT&T is. Unless you're going to T-Mobile, why not just sell your phones to cover the ETFs? Even then, depending on your phone, you may sell it for enough to cover your ETFs and most of the new phone on T-Mobile.
You got a discount on a phone with the agreement to stick around for two years. For the past 15 years I've had a cell phone I've never been able to easily get out of a contract without either some major network issue or fraud.
He hasn't gotten anything about an ETF yet. It just hasn't caught up to him I guess.
Your only options are to
1. Keep the lines on ATT until they expire
2. Pay the ETF and bounce
3. Not pay the ETF and bounce with a mark on your credit score.
1. Keep the lines on ATT until they expire
2. Pay the ETF and bounce
3. Not pay the ETF and bounce with a mark on your credit score.
Or option 4:
Switch to a new carrier like T-Mobile, and talk to them about giving you a credit to help offset the ETF's from AT&T. That's what I did. Covered my ETF's and then some, and my bill is half of what it was before.
I think I remember something on Sprint's site about this too. Can't find it now.
Don't think the OP has mentioned anything about who he wants to switch to and why except for his bill dropping $15 when he dropped a line.
It was this past Friday. Was really surprised they did it too, as I'm not under any contract whatsoever now.
Oh man, now I really gotta make some tough decisions about whether I should switch to T-Mobile.
I'm paying $120~ per month for 2 iPhones, one unlimited data and one 2GB plan. Would it be worth switching?
How long was left I. Your contract as well as how many lines?
I can't see them doing that for many lines or if more than a couple months left of contract
Easy enough to mock up a family plan on Tmobile from the info other website. Just remember there'd be fees and taxes, so compare to AT&T price without fees and taxes.
Other key thing is coverage where you'd use the phone. Unlock your primary phone and get a Tmobile prepaid sim to check it out. There's a $30/mo 100 min, unlimited text, 5GB data plan on TMO website.
It gets cheaper the more lines you have. In you case, the bill would be $70 for first line (unl calls, unl txt, unl data) + $40 (unl calls, unl txt, 2.5 GB data). It isn't until you add lines 3, 4 & 5 that the savings really add up ($9.99 per line for unl calls, unl txt, 500MB data and an extra 2gb data is $10).
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In my case, I had 5 lines I brought over, 3 were under contract on Att for anywhere from 1-1.5 years, and 2 lines from Verizon which weren't under contract. I had $600 in EFT on the 3 contract lines. The tmobile rep I worked with gave me $200 of credit per line that I brought over, so $1000 in total. I had enough to pay off the AT&T EFTs, and $400 leftover. My bill went from $260/mo, to $126 on tmobile, after my 15% corporate discount was included. Plus the leftover credit.
I was able to bring over three phones from att that we unlocked, and we used the $400 credit towards two iP5 purchases.
So far, very happy! But I agree 100% with deeddawg. Try it out first. Make sure the coverage is there for you. I happen to be in an area that gets good 4G coverage, and now starting to see LTE too in some spots, so it works for me (coming from att where I also had LTE 90% of the time).
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