MercuryNews reports that AT&T will be changing up the way it prices contract-breaking fees, making smartphone purchasers pay more to break their contracts beginning June 1.
The fee is currently $175 for breaking a smartphone contract, but that will be going up to $325. The regular phone price, however, is being decreased by $25 to just $150 to break a contract.
Of course, this is a decreasing rate. For smartphones, the rate will decrease $10 for every month the customer stays in their contract, and $4 per month for regular phones.
This news comes on the heels of the report that AT&T's CEO isn't worried about losing iPhone users to another carrier when and if the Apple-AT&T exclusivity agreement ends.
kylerwalker
May 22, 2010 at 9:42am
they just want to get more money out of your wallet because they ether don't get enough money or need more money
MacAddict4Life
May 21, 2010 at 8:10pm
It is only a material change if they are trying to apply it to existing contracts. I suspect this is for new contracts only.
Also, I believe in CA, they are required to pro-rate the charge, so that if you complete one year of a contract and then break it you only pay 1/2 the total fee.
Loup407
May 21, 2010 at 5:43pm
It appears AT&T underestimates the enmity their customer base holds for them. I'd pay more than that to take my iPhone to a different carrier.I still believe the day will come when AT&T 's CEO will be trying to explain how they never expected to lose millions of customers in a day.
And wouldn't this increase constitute a material change in our contracts?
