Cell phone plan question...

[Burn]

Anyone ever just quit paying your cell bill? Tell me what happened to you? Did they nail your credit rating? send a collection agency after you? I'm broke as a joke, and in college, thinking about just losing the cell... Not my favorite moment, but you gotta buy gas, and eat sometimes...

[DonP]

I found this out yesterday on the news. If they change anything on your plan, like increasing the price for text messaging, it is "sometimes" you loophole for getting out of the contract. So look to see if they have changed something.

Optionally, just turn in the hardware and explain to them you are just broke and have no money. If they want to be nasty, they can, but they can't squeaze blood out of a turnip.

[Top Jimmy B]

They can send you to collection, and probably will. I'd bite the bullet and pay the damn thing or have someone reliable(good luck) take over the payment. You only get one chance at credit, so I would advise you not to blow it at such a young age.

[Burn]

yeah, I'm trying to find some money resource.... Anyone grow a money tree lately?

[Newc]

Or you could get a job and drop anything not directly related to earning money and getting an education? Do you have time to party? If so, you have time to work.

There will be plenty of time in your life to get drunk/high/laid when you have a real job and graduate college.

Besides, how many people remember the details of the majority of the parties they went to in college? If you don't have memories of them, how do you know you had fun? You could have been sodomized with a plunger and still swear you had fun because you were soooooooooo wasted?

Of course all this is assuming you're a statistical college student. For all I know you may actually be working as much as you can and studying the rest of the time. In which case, the next time you get a credit card offer for a secured card (one where you have to pay to get the card - usually $50 to get a $300 line of credit - Capitol One usually sends those out), then as soon as the card arrives, let the phone go. If it dings your credit rating, you have the new card with which to build it up again as slowly as you can handle.

Then you can get one of those GoPhones at WalMart. Yeah you can't do all the cool stuff with them, but you're not being charged $0.10 for a text message even if it's only one character. Plus those are cheaper anyway: $50 for 3 months vs $50 per month.

[npacheco]

I "co-signed" for a "buddy" on a cell phone a long time ago. Dumba$$ was running up a $700 a month bill. He would pay about $200-$300 per month, but the carry forward balance was eating his lunch. This was AirTouch (now Verizon). They ended up letting him out of his contract if he promised to finish paying them off.

He agreed and paid the balance down to $300. The he decides he's paid enough for a phone he's not using anymore and stops paying. After about 3 months they send it to collections and guess who collections calls after about 2 months of not getting ahold of him?

Yup, I get a call at home saying I need to pay $300 ASAP or my credit rating will take a hit. I figured $300 was a small price to pay to save my credit rating, so I paid it - which really hurt, because I was still in college at the time working a 30 - 35 hour a week job for $8/hour and going to school full-time. Still took the credit rating hit, but it was not so bad because as the co-signer I didn't take the full hit. When I applied for a mortgage about 2 1/2 years later all it took was a letter to explain the mess and my rate was the same as for everybody else. Took 7 years to get it off my record completely.

After I paid the money to collections, I sent his a$$ to collections, my way. I told him he owed me $300 (I wasn't even going to charge him interest). He was telling me $hit like, "Why'd you pay it, man? They can't do $hit to you. Getting sent to collections is no big deal." I about lost it and told him that just because he didn't care about his credit and was such a loser he would never need to worry about owning a house and was probably going to end up being a drain on society that didn't mean I was the same way. He paid me $50 up front and said he'd give me $50 every payday. I thought that was fair enough. Well the $hithead missed the next two paydays. Then the dumb S.O.B. shows up to work about 5 weeks after the whole fiasco started with a fuggin' Lexus. Used, but he was paying something like $385 a month for the thing.

Well, that's when I stopped being a nice guy. I told him, "You owe me $250 now, not $50, but $250!" He tells me, "I don't have that kind of cash on me." I said, " , you have a Lexus right there" Everyday I don't have my money, I'll give you $250 worth of damage. You can decide if you want to pay me $250+, or some mechanic/body shop $250 every visit." I had my money by the next day.

Long story short...pay your bill.

[sully]

your company may report to credit bureus, even if it's not in collections.

[442w30]

1st thing is you should call them. They might let you out or get you into a cheaper plan.
I suggest at the least, do what Noel's friend almost did. Make real small payments until your contract is up. When they start to nag you about the rising balance, call them up and let them know what's up. every once in a while, they would rather work it out, let you out with a promise to pay off over time then flake out and go to collections.