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No ETFs for Breaking Sprint Contract Due to New $4.99 Monthly Charge

Posted January 29th, 2010 by josh anaya

Effective January 10, 2010, Sprint is charging certain "lucky" wireless customers a $4.99 monthly fee. Why? Because Sprint is afraid that these "lucky" customers will not pay.

The Account Spending Limit Program places a maximum spending limit for your Sprint account. While Sprint markets this as an optional “service,” Sprint enrolls many customers on this program based upon the customer’s credit score. [See Sprint Spending Limit Program brochure.] These customers are not given an option to enroll in the program. [See Sprint Spending Limit Program brochure.] Once enrolled in the program, Sprint demands a monthly $4.99 Account Spending Limit charge for the service from the customer. [See Sprint Terms and Conditions.]

There are two ways to avoid paying the $4.99 fee: (1) enroll in monthly recurring automatic payments, or (2) have 18 months continuous service with Sprint. [See Sprint Terms and Conditions.] However, these are not options for every customer. For example, some customers do not have accounts that are eligible for monthly recurring automatic payments. Additionally, new customers who have been with Sprint for less than 18 months are limited only to the automatic payment option. This is unacceptable.

This is another example of how Sprint takes care of their paying customers--by charging them extra fees on top of their monthly bill. While an extra $4.99 may not seem like a lot of money, you will pay an extra $120 of the course of a two year contract (approximately $5 per month is $60 per year, $120 for 2 years). If your Sprint wireless bill is $60, it is like Sprint is charging you the equivalent of two extra months of service over your two year contract. And for this extra $120 payment, you receive NO additional benefits!

On the bright side, because of this new charge, some customers have had luck breaking their Sprint contract without paying any ETFs (Early Termination Fees). However, you must act quickly, as you only have 30 days from the date you were billed with the new Account Spending Limit Charge. [See Sprint Terms and Conditions.] From an e-mail with a Sprint customer service representative:

"We sent notification out to customers that this fee would impact on December 9, 2009 and January 10, 2010. This notification was to advise the customers of the fee and their options. We advise our customers that the fee would go in to effect after 1/10/2010. Due to some customers having later billing cycles, some customers were not billed until after 1/10/2010. In those cases the customer has 30 days to cancel from when it actually appears as a charge on their bill."

If you have been charged an Account Spending Limit fee, you should contact Sprint as soon as possible.

Are you one of these "lucky" Sprint customers? Were you able to break your Sprint contract? Please leave a comment with your experiences with the Account Spending Limit charge.

Filed Under
Communications: Wireless - contract change -
Tags: ETF - monthly charge - sneaky fees - Sprint -
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I was in contact with Sprint

On March 11th, 2010 George1128 (not verified) says:

I was in contact with Sprint reguarding this matter. I have been a customer with sprint for years. I was told the fee cannot be waived. I contacted them March 4th (being I just found this out). I was told I wouldn't be charged an ETF, and wasn't given a time limit to do this.

I have sprint and want to

On March 2nd, 2010 Anonymous (not verified) says:

I have sprint and want to cancel my contract, and they are charging me the spending limit fee. but it is the 2nd and it expired on the the 1st of march. Am I out of luck?

$5 Charge after expired contract?

On February 27th, 2010 Marco Lopez (not verified) says:

My 2 yr. contract just recently expired with sprint last month and I noticed this $5 charge on my latest bill... should they continue charging me if I'm not in a contract anymore? Somebody please help.

Thanks for the advice

On February 22nd, 2010 Anonymous (not verified) says:

I just got off the phone with Sprint - they totally canceled my contract after I mentioned this BS!

Thanks! (Although I was already going to try to get out of the contract before I found this page, it helped to have it as backup)

Color me gone! From what

On February 21st, 2010 Paul (not verified) says:

Color me gone!

From what I've read, Sprint is supposed to run a credit check when setting up an account and setting a spending limit. I checked my credit report and Sprint did NOT do a credit check on me. I have a very good credit score.

This fee may only be $5, but I find it ridiculous and unneccessary. Sprint has lost this customer over this when my contract is up. If this $5 is so important to them, they can take the pittance and shove it. I will go back to DSL.

Thank you for this info..

On February 18th, 2010 Anonymous (not verified) says:

Great heads up, after reading this I checked my own bill and had the fee on there. I called Sprint and asked for it to be removed and received their typical run around. I was told the "fee" could only be removed by signing up for the recurring payments despite being a customer for the last 6 years. Long story short, I asked for an account rep and inquired about the cost of breaking my contract with them over this, without hesitation I was informed there would be no cost and I had until March 1st to follow through.
Thank you so much for this information, I am now the proud owner of a new AT&T iphone and hopefully a customer of a better company to deal with.

Sprint's $4.99 Acct. Spending Limit Fee

On February 16th, 2010 Anonymous (not verified) says:

I have been trying to get an answer from Sprint as to whether this is a "charge" or a "fee?" The monetary effects are indeed different. Sprint, in fact, lists this program as an add-on feature attached to one's base plan As such, in addition to the $4.99, customers are assessed taxes, fees, and surcharges.

Another point of interest in this regard is the fact that even though the charge took effect on 1/10/10, Sprint adamantly refuses to prorate this charge on a customer's first invoice and charges for the entire bill cycle. For example, charge became effective, 1/1/10. Customer's bill generates on 1/13/10. Yet for the 3 days during which the fee was in effect, customers are charged the full $4.99 as if they'd had the "service" for a full cycle. As this is assessed as an add-on, it should be prorated in a similar fashion as other add-ons.

Re: Sprint's $4.99 Acct. Spending Limit Fee

On February 17th, 2010 josh anaya says:

Thanks for your response.

In the short blurb Sprint put on each bill notifying customers of the charge, Sprint uses the words charge and fee interchangeably.

"Spending Limit Program Charge
Effective 01/10/10, Sprint will charge a
monthly fee of $4.99 on all spending limit
accounts. The charge will be imposed on the
account only and not on each line. The fee is
waived for accounts enrolled in autopay. For
info. on fees & your rights, see Terms &
Conditions at sprint.com/termsandconditions."

However, later in the bill, it is categorized as the Spending Limit Program Charge. We will need to do further investigation to determine the impact of this charge/fee on taxes, fees, and surcharges.

Thank you for raising the issue of Sprint refusing to prorate the charge/fee for January. Have you spoken with a Sprint CSR regarding this issue?

-Josh Anaya

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