Liability for Stolen Cellular Telephone Calls

At&T Wireless (formerly Cellular One).

I have read several stories about consumers who were held liable for phone calls made on their stolen cell phone. To limit my liability in case my cell phone is stolen, I called Cellular One and told them that I want my phone to have a maximum monthly chare of $200. If calls exceeded that amount, I told them they should immediately cut off service. This seemed like a reasonable request. My credit cards all have a credit limit. I want my cell phone to have a credit limit.

Cellular One refused my request. They told me the solution is to guard my phone so it is not stolen. But they insisted that I cannot put a credit limit on my phone. This is totally unfair. I am potentially liable for thousands of dollars which I do not have. Cellular One claims they are not set up to put a credit limit on my account. Maybe so but they could be quite easily if they wanted to. When I threatened to cancel, Cellular One said I would be liable for a $250 early cancellation fee.

I contacted all of the other Cell Phone companies. None would let me put a credit limit on my account. The only solution is to use a pay as you go phone, but they cost twice as much. I contacted all of my representatives in the US Congress and the state legislature. They were no help at all. The cell phone lobby pays big bribes (aka campaign contributions) to block any legislation that might help consumers.