Verizon’s New Early Termination Fee Policy Makes You Pay a Full ETF Up to 8 Months

Verizon made a major policy change this morning to its customer agreement that directly relates to your Early Termination Fee (ETF), a change that makes it more expensive for you to cancel service with the carrier in the first 8 months of your a 2-year contract, when compared to the previous policy.

The ETF with a 2-year contract used to decline by $10 for each full month of your contract term that you completed. With the new policy, you won’t see a reduction in your ETF fee until the 8th month of your contract term. In other words, you will pay the full ETF fee should you decide to leave Verizon, even if you have been with the carrier for six or seven months. 

With the old policy, you would see a substantial reduction in your ETF after completing up to eight months, but the new ETF policy lays out a much different schedule. In the new policy, you are stuck with the full $350 ETF on “advanced devices” for the first seven months of a contract. From months 8-18, you will then see the ETF decline by $10 per month. Then from months 19-23, it will decline by $20 per month. In the final month of your contract, your ETF will reduce by $60.

The new policy only applies to anyone who signs a contract on or after November 14. If you signed a contract before November 14, the old $10 per month reduction still applies.

Here is how the new ETF policy reads:

If you cancel a line of Service, or if we cancel it for good cause, during its contract term, you’ll have to pay an early termination fee. If your contract term results from your purchase of an advanced device on or after November 14, 2014, your early termination fee will be $350, which will decline by: $10 per month in months 8–18, $20 per month in months 19–23, and $60 in the final month of your contract term. For other contract terms entered into on or after November 14, 2014, your early termination fee will be $175, which will decline by: $5 per month in months 8–18, $10 per month in months 19–23, and $30 in the final month of your contract term. If your contract results from your purchase of an advanced device prior to November 14, 2014, your early termination fee will be $350 minus $10 for each full month of your contract term that you complete. For other contract terms entered into prior to November 14, 2014, your early termination fee will be $175 minus $5 for each full month of your contract term that you complete.

As you can see, a new tiered approach also applies to devices that fall outside of the “advanced device” tag.

Cheers Aaron!