One of the greatest things about this country is the availability of choice. Want a breakfast cereal? You can choose from a multitude at your local grocery store. A loaf of bread? White or wheat no longer cut it--now, the more grains you have the better. 5? 10? 15? The grain sky is the limit. The ability for consumers to choose can be a good thing as long as there is actual choice. However, when we look at certain consumer areas--cell phone providers, for example--the actual ability to choose a specific provider is a limited one. The culprit? The early termination fee.

If you are a Verizon Wireless customer, chances are you recently received an email from Big Red discussing changes to its privacy policy. Most of you may have just deleted the email without reading it, but if you took the time to see just what changed you'd be in for a big surprise.

And now, for T-Mobile's next trick, making an entire prepaid cell phone plan disappear! But where did the plan really go? Was it a trick or all part of another devious plan? Time to put on our sleuth hats, boys and girls, for this is the case of the missing plan.

Here's quick tip: use a phone forwarding service to make switching cell phone providers a breeze!

What's worse than paying a $200 ETF with Sprint? Paying a $350 ETF with Sprint! 

Here at UCAN, we get lots of calls asking for advice on the best consumer services. Sometimes it's landline service, 
other times it's an internet service provider, but lately, the most frequently recurring request is about prepaid phone 
service. Maybe it's due to the economy or maybe it's due to consumers tiring of the pain of being in the clutches of a two- year service agreement. Whatever the reason, more and more people are thinking about switching to prepaid phones.

We love posting success stories on our site of consumers we've helped get the resolution they deserve. This success story we can't take credit for (we can try, but then we'd be just as bad as those utility companies) and it's a great example of how persistence can pay off in a big way. 

Tired of the same old ball and chain you fall asleep to every night and wake up to every morning? Fed up with the monthly recurring burden you pay the ball and chain just to be able to talk when and where you want? No, this isn't about an over-protective parent or significant other.  We are talking about your cell phone contract. A pre-paid cell phone plan might just provide you with an escape from the monthly  burden.that some refer to as a wireless bill.