FCC pushes to ban cable cancelation fees

In this age of “cutting the cord,” you may have found that canceling cable isn’t always easy or cheap.

Cable providers often make customers pay an extra fee if they want to cancel the service early. According to Get Bill Smart, the early termination fee for Xfinity cable is $110 to get out of a 12-month contract.

The fee is $230 to get out of a two-year contract. According to the fine print, the only way to avoid the fee is to be in the military or to die.

Now, the Federal Communications Commission has voted in favor of a proposed rule that would prohibit cable companies from charging “early termination fees.”

However, it appears that cable companies aren’t going quietly on this. The rule is also facing resistance and millions of dollars in lobbying against it. And that’s getting a strong response from consumer watchdogs like Liz Zelnick at Accountable.

“CEOs chasing profits would rather make excuses for junk fees than consider it’s a big reason why so many of their customers are cutting the cord,” Zelnick said. “Americans should have the power to end services they don’t want without being price-gouged with hundreds of dollars in termination junk fees.”

Putting a stop to cancelation fees will require making changes to the “fine print” of most cable contracts agreements. As of now, the fees are written into those contracts, and there’s not much getting around it.

If you call to complain or call the company out on social media, it’s possible you might catch a break on the fee, but there’s no guarantee. WTTV