Today the CRTC rule about phone companies not being allowed to impose penalties for breaking contracts after 24 months becomes a reality! No more 3 year cell phone contracts! Today (June 3rd, 2015), the CRTC’s new rules come in to play:
The CRTC’s Wireless Code (the Code) comes into effect on December 2, 2013.
The final portion is what comes into play today, and that is limiting penalties to any contract for only the first 24 months of the contract (after 24 months, no penalties can be imposed, no more 3 year cell phone contracts), and I quote:
For indeterminate contracts, The Code limits the early cancellation fee as follows:
- the fee cannot be greater than the amount of your device subsidy
- the fee must reduce each month, and reach $0 within 24 months.
This means lots of folks have their contracts “expire” today and they are free agents (i.e. they are free to negotiate as good a deal as possible for their next contract). Previously I have written about A Script for Customer Retention Deals and the like, so remember to try to bargain for the best deal possible. Remember asking for a better deal does not make you an Entitled Spoiled Consumer.
Will I be trading my iPhone 5.0 in? No, I haven’t reached 2 years on the contract yet, and it works just fine by me.
Ever since the CRTC introduced these rules, I found that telecom companies are less likely to offer you a better deal even if you threaten to quit. The current 2 year plans are terrible.
That will need to change, some time, we shall see.