Considering I have been a customer for 8 years, you would think that they would’ve offered me a deal on something, right? Especially given that number portability has arrived, right? Wrong! I haven’t been offered a single thing by my current company, which has ticked me off somewhat. So I gave them a call and asked them about it. “Well, since you’re currently on contract, we cannot offer you anything,” was the response I got. And this is utter hooey as well, because the contract means they can’t change anything on my account without telling me. It doesn’t mean they cannot offer me anything, they just can’t do it automatically. Sheesh. Talk about ridiculous.

The rep then proceeded to tell me he could give me all of my extras (voicemail, caller id, etc.) for free, if I qualified. So I told him to go check…surprise! I did qualify. So I now am saving $8 a month with this little manoeuvre. He then proceeded to tell me there’s a different plan that I could switch to once my contract ends that would be better suited to my calling patterns. Again, I thought it was odd that they couldn’t just give me this plan now, but whatever.

Here’s my dilemma then:

To get out of my current contract, I would have to pay approx. $275. Then I would have to purchase a new phone at the new provider (the one I want is $179, but there’s a cheaper one for under $100 I could do in a pinch), and then switch.

Overall cash outlay: $500+
Savings per month with new provider: $25 per month (that’s a savings of 50% per month)
Amount of $$$ I’d pay my current provider waiting for my contract to end: $560
Time to break even and really start saving: 11 months.

So, what do you think I should do? Do I switch now and eat the contract termination fee due to the monthly savings I could have with the new provider now? Or do I wait till my contract is up and then switch?