Verizon Wireless New $350 ETF Fee

November 12th, 2009. By AbiK

I’d been focusing on November 16th—the day the Arbiter 6 report is due on Zetia and Niaspan—but November 15th will be quite a day for Verizon Wireless customers. It’s the day their new Early Termination Fee (ETF) goes into effect.

The old Verizon Wireless ETF fee: $175

The new Verizon Wireless ETF fee: $350

Now, according to a Verizon spokesperson as reported by PCMagazine online, it’s only on “advanced devices”. What’s that mean? Well, “a combination of advanced capabilities that combined increase the cost of the device.”

Now in English:

“These capabilities can include a premium HTML browser; high-resolution MP camera with optical zoom; dual processor chipsets; WiFi; very high display resolution, and operating systems such as Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Palm, or Android.”

I was ok until we got to the “Blackberry, Windows Mobile….” part. Who doesn’t have any of those operating systems these days—particularly if you’re lugging around that PDA for business (which note, the Verizon ETF will apply to both consumer and business accounts).

Be that as it may, the new ETF will apply to one- and two-year contracts—though as with all ETFs now the fee will be pro-rated $10 per month—so the fee will go down $10 each month that you continue to keep the contract in place.

Last I checked, PCMag was getting a fair amount of reader comments on this one—and the vast majority were from folks who weren’t too thrilled with the new ETF going into effect. As reader im_a_dope put it, “I would just stop paying my bill and make them terminate me for free :)” Good luck with that one, im_a_dope…

Tags: ETF Fees, Verizon, Verizon Wireless

This was posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 11:12 am and is filed under Emerging Issues . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.