US Cellular: ‘Four Free Phones and Four Lines for $90’

If you are a family of four or have three friends you trust enough to enter into a phone plan with, US Cellular has an offer for you. The company advertises in a national TV commercial:

At US Cellular, you don’t have to choose between a great deal on the phone you want and the phone plan that’s right for you. You can get both: four free phones of your choice and four lines for just $90.

But if you’re thinking of making use of this deal, you first need to read the fine print (which US Cellular makes nearly impossible to do as it only appears at the bottom of the screen for four seconds of the 30-second ad):

New line(s)/new account, eligible smartphone purchase(s) via 36-month installment contract, eligible postpaid service plan, credit approval, Auto Pay and Paperless Billing required. Device credit paid via 36 monthly bill credits up to $23.06 per device. Introductory service credit paid via 12 monthly bill credits of $7.50 per line. Trade in may be required. Taxes, fees and additional terms apply.

So despite what the ad may lead you to believe, US Cellular isn’t just gifting you four free phones. Rather, the company says that it will award bill credits each month for a period of 36 months to help pay for the phones. Another way of looking at it is that US Cellular is locking you into a 36-month commitment.

What happens if you break this so-called rental installment contract (RIC)? The commercial’s fine print doesn’t say but according to additional terms and conditions on the company’s website, cancellation of services after the second billing cycle results in the customer being “responsible for the entire remaining RIC balance.”

But wait, there’s more.

Yet another set of terms on the website indicates that your new phone options may be limited because they depend on the plan you sign up for and whether you are trading in an old phone, despite the company’s claims that you can choose “the phone you want” and that there is “no trade-in needed.”

These terms also reveal that “[r]egular plan pricing applies” after 12 months, meaning the company’s claim that you can get “four lines for just $90” is only good for a year (provided you pick the right phones).

All of which is to say it’s not as simple as signing up with US Cellular and getting “four free phones and four lines for $90.”

In response to a request for comment, US Cellular provided the following statement:

We believe in being transparent with our customers, and we follow all disclosure guidelines in our advertising.

The bottom line? Before you get trapped in a long-term contract you can’t get out of, make sure you read all the fine print and terms associated with an offer.

Find more of our coverage on smartphones.