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Cell phone companies fall into a category with cable companies, which I like to call "Swindlers". They offer either extremely discounted products or in many cases free products. Yet to get those products, you're signing a 2 year contract, and often signing the dotted line without knowing you're signing up for a contract. Cell phone companies often leave the details of the contract in fine print, explaining that if you break the contract, then you'll have to pay a $250 early termination fee.

If you're like most people, you don't read the pages and pages of fine print. You hear nothing of a termination fee until you get the bill in the mail the day after you've informed the company that you no longer want their service. Then when you call customer service, they tell you that you knew of the contract and termination fee because it was in the 10 page fine print Customer Agreement.

Cell phone companies know that much of their profit comes off late fees and termination fees. Of course when a customer receives their bill with charges they don't think should be on the bill, the first thing they want to do is cancel the contract. It's at this time that Customer Service reminds the customer, that if they cancel service it will result in a termination fee. You're then stuck because you don't want to pay the extra charges, but yet you don't want to pay the termination fee either.

Now with most cell phone companies, you can opt for a 1 year contract. However, the so called free equipment is no longer free and the discounted equipment isn't quite discounted. You would then be better off buying a phone off ebay.

Some companies, including Verizon, offer a trial period. You try out their service for an allotted amount of days and if you're not satisfied you can cancel without receiving an early termination fee. You have to make sure to get the terms of the trial period because they will certainly not call you and tell you that your 30 days of trial service is up.

Whatever the case, cell phone companies are making a killing by their long service contracts and will continue to make a killing.

Learn more about this author, Spence Spellman.
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