Vivint
If you wish to cancel your agreement with Vivint, call 1-800-678-2635 for assistance.
If you purchased your equipment in full at the time of your Vivint installation, you own the products and equipment. If you financed your equipment, you own the equipment once you have fully paid the remaining balance.
Do I need a contract with Vivint? Vivint offers month-to-month payments for people who buy their equipment outright. That means you won't need to sign a contract. Since we financed our equipment, we needed to sign a contract for the length of our financing plan.
FTC sends payments to compensate people for Vivint's misuse of their credit reports. The FTC is sending 470 checks totaling nearly $500,000 to people who had their credit reports misused by home security company Vivint Smart Home.
A contract for a home security system can be as short as a year or stretch up to a whopping five years. But don't let those numbers scare you! The industry standard is about 36 months.
Vivint is the most expensive home security system we've reviewed. Aside from the equipment cost, monthly fees start at about $30 per month for monitoring on a system with no cameras, and around $40 per month for a system with cameras or smart home equipment. For each camera added, that cost goes up by $5 per month.
Some sales reps for Vivint may help pay to buy out a contract from another company, but this comes out of their personal bank account. For example, if your buyout fee is $200 dollars and the Vivint sales rep makes $350 commission they will offer to pay you \$200 so you can sign up with them.
ADT and Vivint rank neck-in-neck for their professionally installed systems. However, Vivint's contracts are more flexible, and the company earns better customer reviews and has a better privacy record.
Penalties and fees if you cancel your Vivint contract
Vivint requires you to pay 100% of the remaining time in your contract if you choose to cancel. That can be hefty, especially because Vivint's contracts are longer than most. Vivint's average customer is tied to their contract for 60 months (that's five years!).
Once your 24 or 36-month contract ends, ADT automatically signs you up for a monthly package. A month-to-month basis package allows you to cancel your contract any month with only a month's notice. You can choose to stick with ADT services until the end of the contract if you don't want to pay any cancellation charges.
Monitoring & Pricing Overview for Vivint
Vivint's monitoring service can cost anywhere between $30 to $50 per month, which is about the same range as ADT but a little more expensive than SimpliSafe.
As far as equipment goes, Vivint is the clear winner. Vivint offers a more well-rounded selection of sensors, and even though Ring offers more security camera options, Vivint's cameras are some of the best we've tested. On top of that, it's great that Vivint's touchscreen hub offers advanced controls.
There are several options for terminating a home security contract: Cancellation: Terminating the contract outright, which may involve paying a cancellation fee. Pros: Ends the contract immediately, allowing you to move on. Cons: May be expensive due to cancellation fees.
It might be a challenge, but you can get out of a Vivint contract. Vivint security will review your situation, and in the case of an extenuating circumstance, it will let you out of your security system contract for free. Vivint offers examples of extenuating circumstances: Death.
You can negotiate with Vivint before signing a contract with the company. For instance, you might be able to negotiate a month-to-month contract rather than a 60-month contract if you pay for the equipment up front instead of having it financed.
Vivint Smart Home, Inc.
an NRG company, is United States-based smart home and security provider delivering an integrated smart home system with in-home consultation, installation and support, and monitoring.
“Vivint's sales staff stole people's personal information to approve others for loans,” said Daniel Kaufman, Acting Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. “For misusing consumer credit reports and other sensitive data, and harming people's credit, this company will pay $20 million.”
Fees Associated with Cancellation
However, once you speak with a customer service agent you will find that the fee is $300 if you cancel during the first year of your contract + You will have to pay for your service in full.
How you cancel your home security contract depends on what brand your system is. However, the options are typically either calling, emailing, or live chatting the company, or cancelling within your online account.
Let's recap – ADT packages start at $269. The monthly fee for professional monitoring ranges from $24.99 to $49.99. The installation fee is optional, but starts at $100. There's also a three-year contract if you get your system installed by a technician.
What is the ADT cancellation policy? Security system customers pay up to 75% of the remaining monthly charges when canceling early. ADT security service has a 36-month contract (24 months in California).