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Cancel Your Phone, Internet, TV and Gym Contracts on Relocation Orders — No Early Termination Charge

North Carolina’s own Servicemembers Civil Relief Act lets you end a telecommunication, internet, television, satellite radio or prepaid entertainment contract when orders relocate you for 90 days or more to a place the contract does not reach. The provider may not charge an early termination fee, and must refund prepaid service within 60 days. Dependants have the same right.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

What it's worth: No early termination charge, plus a refund of prepaid service within 60 days

The statute says the service provider "shall not impose an early termination charge" on a contract terminated under this section, so the saving is whatever that provider’s fee would have been.
It also requires a refund, not later than 60 days after the termination date, of any fee paid for a service that extends beyond the termination date.
No dollar figure is quoted because the statute sets none — early termination charges vary by provider and by contract.
The trigger is a military order to relocate for a period of military service of at least 90 days to a location that does not support the contract, as determined by the service provider.

Who is entitled to it

You are in military service as the Act defines it.
A member of the North Carolina National Guard is a servicemember under the Act in their own right.
The right belongs to the servicemember.
§127B-29 gives a dependant of a servicemember in military service the same rights under §127B-30.
Your home is in North Carolina.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

Deadline: On receipt of the relocating order

1Check the order first. The section needs a military order to relocate for a period of military service of at least 90 days, to a location that does not support the contract as determined by the service provider. A shorter move is outside this section.
2Work out whether your contract is on the list. The section applies to a prepaid entertainment contract as defined in N.C.G.S. §66-118 — which is the category health and athletic club memberships sit in — and to contracts for telecommunication service, internet service, television service and satellite radio service.
3Send written or electronic notice of the termination that states the effective date, together with a written or electronic copy of the military order. Both are required by the statute.
4Expect the provider to tell you your rights. The statute requires the service provider to give the servicemember written, electronic or oral notice of the servicemember’s rights once a contract is terminated.
5Refuse an early termination charge. The statute forbids one outright on a contract terminated under this section.
6Chase the refund at 60 days. Any fee already paid for service that runs past the termination date must be refunded not later than 60 days after that date.
7Settle anything already owed. Tax, liability or other obligations due and unpaid at the time of termination stay yours.
8If you come back and resubscribe, watch the bill. The provider may not impose any charge or fee beyond the usual and customary installation or equipment charges any other subscriber would pay.
9A dependant can do this too. §127B-29 gives a dependant of a servicemember in military service the same rights under §127B-30.
10If the provider refuses, the Act has teeth: a knowing violation is an unfair or deceptive trade practice under Chapter 75, the Attorney General may sue, and you may sue in your own right and recover attorneys’ fees and court costs if you win.
11Where you are a Guard member relying on state active duty, give the provider a written or electronic copy of the order no later than 30 days after the military service ends, or the remedies and penalties do not attach.

Form: Written or electronic notice of termination stating the effective date, with a copy of the military order
File with: The service provider under the contract
No renewal: Once granted it does not need renewing.

CorrectionThis is not the federal SCRA’s telephone-service provision. North Carolina’s section is wider — internet, television, satellite radio and prepaid entertainment contracts are named alongside telecommunications — and it bans the early termination charge outright rather than leaving it to negotiation.

Worth knowingThe 90-day threshold is about the length of the military service the order relocates you for, not the length of the contract. And whether the new location "supports" the contract is determined by the service provider, which is the soft spot in the section.

Worth knowingGym and health club memberships reach this section through the prepaid entertainment contract definition at N.C.G.S. §66-118 rather than by being named. That definition covers contracts paid for before the service is received.

Known gapN.C.G.S. §66-118 itself was not read this session, so exactly which club and studio contracts fall inside the prepaid entertainment definition is not established here. Ask the provider to identify the statute their contract is written under.

Known gapncleg.gov refused retrieval again this session. The statutory text quoted here was read in full from the General Assembly’s own Article 4 statute PDF as republished by the UNC School of Government, and every section number and provision in it is independently corroborated by the North Carolina National Guard Staff Judge Advocate’s bulletin.

Sources

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