Leisure

The Great Escape

Getting Out of Your Cell Phone Plan

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You just want to be free.

It's not a lot to ask for, but when it comes to your suffocating cell phone plan that's standing between you and your next shiny object of addiction, you could use a little help.

Enter Cell Swapper (not the prison-bunk dealer its name implies). Cell Swapper is like an eBay for phone plans, an online middleman helping you sever ties with your mobile provider without paying a termination fee. Its user-friendly (if overly Jetsonian) website allows you to quickly post the details of your current plan and offer an incentive for someone to take over your contract. You can sweeten the pot with almost anything: your undamaged phone, a small amount of cash or your vintage Bee Gees LPs (maybe think twice about that).

Once posted, your cellular package receives national exposure until an interested party, lured by the shorter contract and no activation costs, agrees to pick up your payments. All CS charges to broker the transaction is a $14.95 "success fee."

And don't feel too bad about passing on your problem to somebody else. You know what they say: One man's outdated Nokia with shoddy reception is another man's treasure.

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