Ditch Your Cellphone Contract

First number portability and now this!  Today, the Wall Street Journal had a fantastic article on services that let you sell your contract instead of breaking it saving up to $250 in early termination fees.  (Check CellSwapper.com for a breakdown in costs: http://cellswapper.com/swapout.aspx) Here's a great quote: "Roughly 47% of cell customers would switch or consider switching cellphone companies if early-termination fees were abolished, according to a July 2005 survey by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund. However, because of the fee, only 3% of customers go ahead with terminating the contract, the survey found."

The services mentioned in the article include:

• CelltradeUSA.com - $19.99 to transfer a contract and no fee to take over one
• Wirecracker.com - No trading.  Instead $50 flat cancellation fee if you sign up for a new service through their site
• Resellular.com - $14.99 to transfer and no fee to take over
• CellSwapper.com - Transferring for free.
  

These services are a wonderful example of true competitive free market workings.  Hopefully these disruptive services will encourage the big mobile companies to drop or lower this unnecessary charge.  (I know they say it's to cover the costs of "customer acquisition" but I'm skeptical that they're not making a profit with the charge.)

The one thing I find curious is that people would actually want to take over an existing contract.  The promotions offered by the carriers are so good that the people getting out of the contracts must be offering significant discounts.  It makes sense if my choice is between eating $200 and eating $100 that I might be offering a better deal than the carriers.