Cancellation with BYOD

sandblaster....I am in the same situation.  I have a phone I financed for 30 months.  My contract end date is listed as 9/30/23.  On the site they explain that early termination fees for smartphones are $325 minus $10 per month of service I have already paid for.  How is this not an early termination fee?  Can I pay off the phone and not have to pay this if I want to move to another company?

@Mlitt08

Please re-read the previous post from sandblaster. You are not under a contract you are under financing agreement. The amount you owe on your phone is in your online account.  If your phone is not paid off till September of 2023 that means you have 18/19 payments of 30  left and a $xxx remaining of installments 

If you entered into a promotional agreement when you purchased your phone, upgrading or canceling requires that you pay the full amount remaining, any further credit are void

Yes I understand I owe the full amount of the phone. I still owed 13 more months and I paid it off today. 

My confusion lies in the page I found when I searched on my account for  “early termination fees”, which I explained above. Are they in addition to the price of the phone?  They are stated very clearly on the website.  $325 minus $10 for every month I’ve already paid. What are those fees?  

There was something about agreeing to 30 months of service to get the phone at that price. So what happens when I pay off the phone early?  Sounds like I have to keep the plan for the rest of that time.

No you do not need to keep the plan once the phone is paid off. AT&T did away with early termination fees when the did away with contracts. Your ONLY obligation is to pay off the phone. If you were getting credits to pay off the phone, you would need to keep the plan to keep getting the credits.

Once your phone is paid off, you are no longer under ANY obligation to keep any calling plan.

I don’t mean to be difficult but they still have early termination fees on the website.  Like i described above.  Why, if they did away with them? Who would ever have to pay that fee if they don’t exist?

The early termination fee is for people who did receive a phone under contract. Business customers still do and still would have to pay an early termination fee.

You are not under contract you have purchased your phone with installments. There is no contract for you and the only thing you owe is the full final month of service and the cost of your phone.

The cost of your phone is published on your bill as installments xx of 30 and remaining $xxx

Ok well guess I’ll take your word for it.  But AT&T needs to communicate that a little better because it clearly stated I signed up for 30 months of “service” also and it took me directly to “how to figure your early termination fees.”  Did not mention that if I paid my phone off I’d be out of that commitment at all.  But maybe that’s how they like it. 

Thank you for responding. Also maybe don’t tell people there are no contracts any more?  Because clearly there are for some. 

Sorry that was sandblaster. 

Let me make it clear that there are still plans that have early termination fees.

Most plans now fall under the “AT&T Installment plan” (aka Equipment Installment Plan) which pays off the device in 36 mos. If you want to leave AT&T before that time, all that is due is the remaining balance on the device(s) (promotional discounts are forfeited).

AT&T also has 2 and 3 year agreements. These do have the ETFs. When these are offered, I cannot say. If it’s an available option for the customer, it will populate in the end.