Breaking a mobile phone/internet contract with O2

The highest sin to be comitted in Germany.Losing or missplacing paperwork a cardinal sin punished by beheading.

Ha ha ha ha

Current contract details can be downloaded from here

I'm in the same boat with my contract too. I scanned the contract website listed above, but I didn't find any language about canceling due to leaving the country. Did I miss it? (which certainly may be possible since my knowledge of German legalese is not great) If anyone can point me in the right direction about which document and section, it would be appreciated!

There is no "clause" about leaving the country. It's part of German common law. If a contract is no longer enforceable then it's no longer valid. It's up to you (or your lawyer) to prove the non-enforceability of the contract as a result of your departure. It's a very moot point. Many companies (Telekom are a good example) accept it without question, others may not give up without a fight. If you have received any subsidised goods (a phone for example) some or all of the value may need to be repaid and you would have to show beyond reasonable doubt that your departure prior to completion of the contractual commitment could not in any way have been foreseen- A mobile provide (unlike a landline provider such as Telekom) could counter-argue that the service they provide is equally accessible abroad, so permanent departure from the country may not be a good excuse.

Info update for anyone still reading this thread. I have also been held to my (SIM card-only) contract even though I am leaving the country after it automatically renewed at the end of the 24-month period. Thought about just closing my bank account, but it only has another three months to run, so will just pay the extra 15€. Still, it leaves me with a bad impression of O2 and Germany's anti-competitive contract practices in general. What's with this automatic renewal of the contract? Surely, 45 months has fulfilled the minimum 24-month requirement and you should be able to leave at will, especially since my monthly fees are not paying off a subsidized Handy or anything like that. Do all Germans organise their lives in 24-month periods?

Nope.. Some Do it in 12 month periods

It's a contract. You were free to sign it or go elsewhere..

On my last contract, I was careful to cancel it at the right time so that it didn't renew. When they got my cancellation, they rung me and asked why I'm cancelling. I said cause I don't want another fucking 12 month contract for nothing. I said if you give me month by month, I'll take it. They couldn't do that. I told them to stick it.

The way everyone sucks you into contracts that auto renew here is ridiculous and at some level of government they should be working to fix this. Unfortunately, it seems people here are just used to it and don't care.

Like I've said a zillion times, it's best to sign up and immediately cancel such contracts. The cancellation won't take effect until the end of the minimum period (typically 12 or 24 months), but at least you know, for sure, it will terminate and when. If you later decide you got a good deal and want to continue, it's easy to withdraw the cancellation, or better start anew with the same supplier and maybe get a better deal as a "new customer".

O f course the asy way around it would have been to buy a phone yourself and get a pay as you go option.

I do have my own phone. Got the contract because the calls are then cheaper than pay as you go. The point I don't like about the automatic renewal is that if you want service for say, 25 months, you are forced to pay for another 11, or change to a prepaid for the last month. It's just not all that convenient.

That is the case when you sign up with the big name providers. If you choose a post paid option with a discount provider (like Simply Postpaid), you don't have to worry about the contract and pay less.

Unless you are a really heavy user then at 8.5cents/min to all networks, pay-as-you go is (much) cheaper than most contracts, with no monthly fee or commitment.

Hi,

I too have an o2 contract and been having it since 36 months. I am on a basic plan since i dont make many calls and all my friends have flat rate and they call me. I took a mobile with the contract extension and i pay 10€ rent per month plus call charges.

From my understanding the 10€ is for the mobile. Is that correct? if i decide to extend my contract and not take a new mobile, then will my monthly rent be 0€ and i just have to pay the amount that i use? or ?

Agree with YL6. there are some effing cheap Pay as you go deals where the minute price is way cheaper than contracts where you have to re-imburse them for the new phone they have you via hyped up call charges and "Mindestumsätze".

As I understand, the 10€ is the monthly fee regardless of mobile, and if you do nothing, you will continue to pay that. If you contact them, you can choose a different plan (one of which is a 0€ per month option), but then you would be locking in for another 24 months, rather than just 12 for the automatic renewal.

@ brendio,

coincidentally, just got off the phone with 02 kundigumsbereich. If i extend the contract and choose not to take a mobile then i will be charged a fee of 5€ per month and get 50 free sms. But on the website i saw that sim only costs 0€ monthly rent. I asked 02 about that and looks like that is only for people who take up a new contract and not for people extending their existing contract.

Are you very particular about staying with O2?

i am particular about holding the same number since i have been having for the last 3 years. anyother option to retaining the number?

You can retain your number even when you sign up with a new provider. This is called "Mobile Number Portability". Some of the discount providers are not offering this service. There is also a chance that your current provider (O2) charges around 25 EUR for releasing their number.

i know that. But the point is to avoid contracts.

Read post 63. Simplytel offers MNP.

ok... let me see how to go about it.. thanks for d info.

I just got asked to pay 100 euros for the handset (??) - probably not correct, but after 6 or 7 letters and numerous phone calls to their Kunden 'service' I just wanted 02 out of my life...

I was an au pair here in Germany - being screwed over by the family, I took out an O2 contract for an internet stick with a mobile tariff attached. First off, the guys assured me that the mobile tariff was not part of a contract and that it was just them putting 5euro on my phone per month and calling it 10, giving me 100 free minutes. I only realized what had happened when I got my bill through and the phone came up on the bill instead of a direct debit pay-as-you-go as I had expected.

Secondly, I terminated my employment with my au pair family due to serious breeches in contract, I have stayed in Berlin for the past three months trying to get visa stuff sorted however I must return to American at the end of the month (flight booked for Nov. 23rd). I have been hearing a lot of different things concerning how easy it would be for me to cancel my contract with them. Has anyone had any recent trouble with this?

If canceling my contract is impossible, how easy would it be to transfer my contract to someone else?

I do plan on returning to Germany so do not want to simply disappear and not pay what I owe. I am about 4 months into a 2 year contract, I don't have a phone from them.

Topics merged by admin

If you can prove beyond reasonable doubt that you were mislead when signing the contract, you can obviously try to have it declared null and void. But based upon what you write I very much doubt whether you would have any success. Therefore, better try one of the following:

- Speak to O2 direct. Explain your position in a friendly and cooperative manner. Your situation isn’t particularly unusual. A competent adviser should have discretionary powers to dissolve/rescind the contract. Be prepared to pay a one-off sum to cover their expenses and/or lost potential earnings.

- You can transfer the contract to somebody else. O2 will [should] provide the necessary application form upon request. Will cost about €25-30.

- Auction the stick and contract on Ebay or similar. You will find that you are not the only one.

HTH

Thanks Heathcliffe,

I am trying to see what it can fetch on Craigslist, I didn't know they were allowed to transfer contracts. Thank you for the advice!!