Ending Simplicity contract

[Anonymous]

Hi folks, a couple of queries

I've been on a monthly rolling simplicity contract for years on an iphone3GS, but am looking to upgrade to an iphone 5C now as my old phone has become a bit slow and unresponsive.  Anyway, have been looking about at deals (irritatingly there was a really good deal through uswitch, £27 a month, and a free phone, but when you click through to the offer, its actually £49.99 for the handset.  Still decent mind.  Anyway, I digress...) and am probably going to switch away from 02 as they just ahven't been able to offer me good enough deals unfortunately.

My main query is about cancelling my contract - I used the live chat which is so hit or miss, with different info every time.  One person told me that as I was on a month to month contract, I could cancel it immediately.  Asked again about this today and the guy was so vague about things, merely stated i'd get a bill in 14 days - so, my bill comes in on the 6th of the month, if I cancelled now, do we think that i'd just get charged for up until then and that would be it?  And if, say, I cancelled in a week's time, i'd have to pay for the month up until 6th December?

Sorry if these seems straightforward but I find these networks so unhelpful when it comes to this stuff that i'm positive i'll get a far more comprehensive answer on here.

Anyway, any advice would be greatly appreciated as i'm tempted to cancel my phone, or try to PAC over to a new phone but if it meant having to pay for another month (ie. if i couldn't get everything changed over before the 6th), i'd just wait a few weeks until I get a new one.

Cheers folks

[Bambino]

You have to give 30 days notice. If you ask for your PAC, when you use it with your new network, your notice begins. There is bound to be an overlap between your O2 contract and any new one you begin. There really isn't any way around that.

[Anonymous]

Weird. The person online did specifically state that I could end the contract immediately as it was a month to month simplicity thing.

Actually, when I was speaking to the guy most recently on the live chat, he actually gave me my PAC code even though I wasn't actually 100% wanting to cancel my contract right then and there!

So if I got my phone tomorrow, say, and went about the PAC code thing, my contact would be cancelled tomorrow then?

I get what you mean about overlap but my point is merely, i'd rather cancel my contract 28 days into the month than 2 days into it, thereby getting the use out of my final month rather than it just being wasted. I'm more just asking for a layout of how my final bill would be - it just seems really vague, a bit of a lottery

[Bambino]

I'm reasonably certain that it needs to be a 30 day notice. Perhaps someone else from the forum can back me up on this. Having your PAC doesn't mean that your contract is canceled. When you give your PAC to your new provider and they then send it to O2 to transfer your number to their network, that is the start of the cancellation. 

[Anonymous]

I guess i'm just asking, how best to minimise costs when exiting my contract, assuming I need to give the 30 day notice? Does switching your number over by PAC cancel the contract quicker?  Or that just acts as the start of the 30 day period?

You are probably right about the 30 day thing, as I said, just had someone on the live chat tell me it could be cancelled immediately, but frankly, I get new infomation every time i'm on there.  I trust it as far as I can throw it

[Anonymous]

Now i'm being told in another lvie chat that if I use my PAC code before the 30 day notice is up, I will be charged an early termination charge...while also being told that the PAC code runs out after 30 days!

That makes no sense, right?

[Bambino · Accepted solution]

I don't think that switching using your PAC makes it any quicker. It just kicks it off. What you need to make sure of is that you don't cancel any direct debit you have with O2 until you receive a 0 (ZERO) bill.

What Live Chat told you about using your PAC is not correct. Live Chat is very hit or miss, and you're wise to be wary. Definitely not to be trusted when it comes to bills.

[MI5]

You have to give 30 days notice. Period.
If you cancel today you will still pay for the next 30 days usage.
When you use your PAC your contract will end immediately. If that is withing the next 30 days you will be billed for the number of days from using the PAC upto the end of the notice period.
To minimise costs use the PAC at day 28 after you gave notice as it takes a couple of days to port your number to the new network.

[Bambino]

My apologies if I've caused any confusion. I wasn't aware that you could wait until day 28 to use the PAC. if you're unsure about any of this you can call Customer Services tomorrow on 202 from your mobile and confirm what you have been told by us.

[Anonymous]

Yea definitely noticing that about live chat. It's absolutely shocking. There isn't even any kind of consistency. I can understand different interpretations of things but it just appears to be an utter guessing game.

Is customer services on the phone better? Do folk appear to seem at least competent?