Downgrading mobile phone plans

[MoNk{LAH}]

Does anybody know the cost of downgrading a mobile phone plan after a few months? say i wanna go from a $55 plan to a $33 plan. this is through optus

whats the cost of this after 3months or even 6months?

[tangcla]

can't, AFAIK -- you're paying off your phone, remember?

[Clem]

I reckon <Guess> that they will charge you the $22 for the remainder of the contract, so $22 X 15 or 18 mnths..
Might not tho, but they will want something out of it, I am guessing that is it.

[MoNk{LAH}]

isnt that the cost of discontinueing your connection to the network if u decide to cancel it or something? (paying off the remainder of your contract)

i read on the optus forms that it says a small fee applies to if u want to downgrade plans, i just wanna know if anybody here has done it before

[quote from optus form]

You can change to a rate plan with the same or higher monthly access than you are on now at any time. If you want to change to a rate plan with a lower monthly access fee, a fee may apply.

[/quote from optus form)

[MoNk{LAH}]

i wouldnt think they would want you to pay 24 x whatever price, JUST to downgrade a mobile plan......

[Clem]

Why not, you were on $55 X 24, now you want to go to $33 X the remainder of time.say 18 mnths $22 per month they are losing for the remaining 18 mnths, plus you may gotten a very good phone on that $55 package. They as we all know, dont give anything away.
Will be proven wrong I am sure, but I reckon they will want it this way.
Hope you get out of it for next to nothing to be honest, but if you do and everyone does it on there high end phones, they will lose cash, and they arent in it for that.

[fooey]

I don't know exactly but I think you would pay a fairly decent amount.. otherwise if it was only like $50 then:

People would get the latest/most expensive phones on a $200/month plan then in the 2nd month reduce to $22 (for example).

[callan]

I've done it a couple of times, whilst under contract (with Optus and/or (B) clear and simple. ) - most recently with my wife's Nokia 3310(Optus).
8 months to run in the contract, and she was not getting value for money..
I had no trouble at all - just rang up, explained (politely) that we didn't feel we were getting vfm, and we wanted to change plans. -

We went back through the call history, worked out a plan that is now saving us ~$10.00/month, cancelled the insurance on the phone, and to cap it all off, the operator went back to some calls last year that my wife made to our optus landline phone during freetime, instead of to my MOBILE (which meant that we were paying Mobile > fixed rates, instead of freetime...

He then credited those calls as well.. (!!!)

Can't argue with that.

So feel free to haggle - unless you're with Telstra. I got so pissed with them that I paid out my contract early, and cancelled the connection.

Ooroo
Callan

Edit: I guess also that it depends on how far you are in the contract... and how much you want to saw off it.. it's just a negotiating thing really.. and I've always been able to talk turkey with Optus, and get my way.

[KyocEr@~*]

It's quite annoying when you downgrade, alot of hidden clauses etc and fine print to read through.

It is designed to inflict a penalty, and can be a heavy penalty depending on how you handle the situation.

If you make a big fuss about it, Optus has proven to be more than accomodating usually - call up Optus Solutions Plus, they're there to negotiate with you. =)

On that note, one of them called up two days ago with the 'yes' Thanks offer... yearite, I told them if they wanted to thank me, they'd send me a new phone by now... heheh =)

[tangcla]

Well, it really depends who you talk to on the phone/in the store... some people can be really lenient, whilst others stick to the fine print