Vivint Buyout and Cancellation: Contract Payoff, the Switch Reimbursement, and Penalty-Free Exits

By the Home Security Systems & Alarms editorial team · Research-based (no hands-on testing) - see how we evaluate · Last updated August 14, 2026

Cancelling Vivint has two distinct parts, and most of the frustration comes from mixing them up. The first part is the service contract: you cancel by calling 1-800-216-5232, ext. 5020, after which Vivint sends you a Notice of Cancellation to sign and return, with at least 30 days' notice before your cancellation date. The second part is the money: Vivint does not charge a named "early termination fee" the way ADT does, but if you are still inside your term you generally owe the remaining balance on your agreement - and at minimum the remaining balance on any financed equipment. On a 42-to-60-month contract, that number can be substantial. This guide walks through the exact steps, what you will actually owe, and every documented way to leave without paying it.

Why Vivint cancellation works differently

Most Vivint customers do not just buy monitoring; they finance $1,000 or more of equipment through a payment plan that runs 42 to 60 months, longer than the roughly 36-month industry norm. The monthly bill bundles two things: the equipment loan and the monitoring service. That structure is why there is no simple percentage-based termination fee. When you cancel, Vivint's position is that the equipment loan still has to be paid, and depending on your contract version, some or all of the remaining monitoring charges may be owed too.

One consequence worth knowing before you sign anything new: if you pay for equipment upfront, Vivint does not require a long-term contract at all. Vivint's own financing page now says as much, describing an upfront purchase as month-to-month with no long-term commitment and financing as spreading equipment costs over 36 to 60 months, which is the trade our guide to no money down home security takes apart before you sign rather than after. And paying off your equipment early does not necessarily end a service term you already agreed to - the contract can still run to its end date. For how these bundled contracts compare across the industry, start with our cornerstone guide to security system costs, contracts, and cancellation.

How to cancel Vivint, step by step

1. Find your agreement first. You want your service number, contract start date, term length, monthly rate, and remaining equipment balance (visible in the Vivint app or your online account). This lets you check Vivint's payoff math instead of taking a number on faith.
2. Call 1-800-216-5232, ext. 5020. This reaches Vivint's cancellation department, which is the route Vivint itself recommends. Say plainly: "I want to cancel my service. Please confirm my remaining balance and email my Notice of Cancellation." Expect a retention pitch - a lower rate, free equipment, or a promotion in exchange for staying (sometimes in exchange for a new term; ask before accepting).
3. Ask for the exact payoff figure, itemized. Have the agent separate the remaining equipment balance from any remaining monitoring charges, and state which of the two you are being asked to pay. Get it in writing.
4. Sign and return the Notice of Cancellation. Vivint processes cancellations on a signed written notice, which the agent typically emails. Include (or verify it includes) the date, your service number, your intent to cancel, a brief reason, and your signature. Written notice can also go by mail or fax.
5. Give 30 days' notice. Vivint asks for at least 30 days before your cancellation date, so expect one more billing cycle rather than same-day shutoff.
6. Watch your next two statements to confirm billing stopped, and keep the signed notice and any confirmation emails until it does.

What you will actually owe

There is no single published number, and reports from documented customer cases differ, so treat this as the honest range rather than a quote:

Because the answer genuinely varies by the contract generation you signed, the single most useful thing you can do is make the agent read your own agreement's cancellation clause back to you, then confirm the itemized figure in writing before you decide between paying it, transferring, or waiting out the term. To compare what staying versus switching really costs over time, run both scenarios through our five-year cost calculator.

The other Vivint buyout: the reimbursement for leaving another company

Search "Vivint buyout" and roughly half the people doing it mean the opposite of everything above. They are not leaving Vivint. They are leaving somebody else, a salesperson has told them Vivint will cover the exit fee, and they want to know whether that is real.

It is real, it is a formally documented promotion rather than a salesperson's improvisation, and it has its own website. The Vivint Alarm System Buyout Promotion is sponsored by Vivint Inc. of Provo, Utah, and fulfilled by a separate company, Trencent, LLC, trading as Elite Fulfillment Group. Its published terms describe reimbursing "the amount of the early termination fee associated with terminating their existing alarm system monitoring agreement with another residential alarm system company," capped at $1,000.

That is worth stating plainly because several consumer sites still say flatly that Vivint does not buy out contracts from any company. Vivint's own promotion terms describe exactly that, so treat the blanket denial as out of date. What is true is the more specific and more useful point: Vivint does not pay your old provider. You do, first, out of your own money, and then you apply to be paid back.

How the reimbursement actually works

Support for the promotion runs separately from Vivint's main customer service: 888-521-4919 (Monday to Friday 9am to 9pm Eastern, Saturday 10am to 6pm Eastern) or help@vivintbuyout.com. You will need your Vivint account number, which the FAQ says begins with "A-" followed by eight digits and appears on your Vivint agreement.

What it means if you are leaving ADT

"Will Vivint buy out my ADT contract" is one of the most common versions of this question, and the terms are provider-neutral: any "other residential alarm system company" counts, so ADT qualifies, and so do the rest. But two things follow from the structure above that a sales conversation is unlikely to dwell on.

First, you have to be able to front the money. ADT's termination charge is calculated as a percentage of your remaining monthly charges rather than a flat fee, so on a long remaining term it can land well above the $1,000 ceiling, and whatever it is, it comes out of your account before any card arrives. Our guide to cancelling ADT without the termination fee works through that arithmetic and the exits that avoid it.

Second, the reimbursement is a one-off and the agreement it buys is not. A Vivint contract commonly runs 42 to 60 months. Setting a capped, card-based, revocable $1,000 against a term that long is a different sum from setting it against the fee it cancels. That is not an argument against taking the offer - free money to leave a contract you already wanted out of is a real benefit, and the program pays out. It is an argument for pricing the whole term rather than the fee. Put both providers' full terms into our five-year cost calculator before you sign, and if the thing you actually want is out of long contracts altogether, our comparison of no-contract security systems covers month-to-month options where the question never arises.

Before you accept a buyout offer, ask these four things

• "Is this the documented Vivint buyout promotion, or you personally?" The formal program runs through vivintbuyout.com with written terms. Anything offered outside it is a private arrangement with a salesperson, with none of those protections.
• "Will you email me so my claim can be opened?" Accepting the offer from an authorized representative and supplying your email is step one in the terms. Without it, there is nothing to submit.
• "What is my exact termination fee with my current provider?" Get it from that provider in writing before you cancel, so you know whether it clears or exceeds the $1,000 cap.
• "What happens to the card if I cancel Vivint?" The published answer is that it is rescinded within the first 60 days, and that a cancelled account cancels the remaining funds. Better to hear that now than after installation.

Keep copies of your old agreement and your payment receipt before you upload them, since the terms state the originals you submit become Vivint's property and are not returned. And diarise the 60-day deadline on the day the installer leaves, because that clock starts at installation rather than at signature.

The documented penalty-free exits

Vivint's contract and public statements recognize several situations where the payoff is waived. All of them go through Vivint's Exceptions Review Team, all are case-by-case, and all require documentation - so gather the paperwork before you call.

1. The three-day rescission window (right after installation)

Vivint's agreement includes a three-day right to cancel after installation. This mirrors the FTC's Cooling-Off Rule, which gives you until midnight of the third business day to cancel most sales of $25 or more made at your home (Saturday counts as a business day; Sunday and federal holidays do not). The seller is required to tell you about this right and give you two copies of a cancellation form at signing. It is strictly a buyer's-remorse window - it does not help months later.

2. Vivint's listed extenuating circumstances

Vivint publicly lists circumstances it will consider for a fee-free release:

• Death of the account holder (family members can request the waiver).
• Bankruptcy, with records to show the Exceptions Review Team.
• Transition to an assisted living or retirement home.
• Military circumstances: deployment of six months or more, permanent change of station (PCS) orders, medical discharge, or military retirement. Active-duty service members also have Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) protections; Vivint's dedicated Military Support line is 1-855-368-8568, and its military program allows payment deferral of up to 12 months during a temporary assignment.

3. A qualified takeover (often the cleanest mid-term exit)

If a friend, family member, or the buyer of your home qualifies and agrees to take over your agreement, Vivint will transfer it into their name, and you stop owing anything going forward. Expect a transfer fee of about $99, and note that any equipment financing must be paid off before the transfer - but the remaining monitoring term moves to the new person rather than being owed by you. Vivint's Customer Loyalty team handles this at 1-800-216-5232, ext. 5025. If you are selling your house, an installed smart-home system the buyer takes over can be a genuine selling perk.

Moving? That is a transfer, not a cancellation

Moving does not end a Vivint contract, and Vivint services most of the United States, so "I'm moving" alone will not qualify for a waiver. The standard path is Vivint's moving program: Move Specialists coordinate taking your system to the new address, with a moving fee that starts around $149 and options ranging from full technician reinstallation to moving the equipment yourself. Contact them about two weeks before the move. Vivint does not offer service outside the country, which is worth raising with the Exceptions Review Team if an international move is forcing your hand.

What happens to your equipment after cancelling

Once paid off, the hardware is yours. What it can still do without Vivint service surprises people in both directions:

• Still works: the panel arms and disarms locally, and the siren still sounds. Basic local operation does not require a subscription.
• Stops working: app control, remote access, camera cloud features, and of course professional monitoring - nobody is called when the alarm goes off.
• Mostly locked in: Vivint's panel and cameras generally cannot be monitored by other companies. Some standard wireless door and window sensors can be reused with compatible systems, so do not bin everything on day one.

If self-monitoring your paid-off hardware sounds like enough protection, read our honest breakdown of security systems with no monthly fee and what you give up before you decide - the gaps (no cellular backup, nobody calling 911) matter more for some households than others.

One piece of history worth knowing

If you are researching a cancellation because you suspect your original signup was not entirely above board, you are not imagining that this has happened. In 2021 Vivint paid $20 million to settle FTC charges that some sales representatives misused consumer credit reports to qualify customers for financing, including using an unrelated person's credit history or adding cosigners without permission; the FTC sent redress checks to affected consumers in 2024. That case involved specific practices and does not describe your contract, but it is a good reminder to pull your own credit report if anything about your financing paperwork looks unfamiliar, and to dispute anything you did not authorize.

Before you call: a short checklist

• Know your numbers: service number, start date, term length, monthly rate, and remaining equipment balance from your Vivint account.
• Check the exits first: within three business days of an at-home signing, a qualifying military situation, bankruptcy, an assisted-living move, or someone willing to take over the agreement.
• Decide your goal in advance: a cheaper bill (retention will offer one) or fully out. Ask whether any retention offer restarts or extends your term before accepting.
• Get the payoff itemized in writing: equipment balance versus remaining service charges, stated separately.
• If a competitor is offering to cover your exit fee, read how that kind of buyout is actually paid first. Vivint's version reimburses you on a card after you pay, not before, and other providers structure theirs differently.
• Line up your replacement before the 30-day notice period ends so you are not without coverage. Whatever you choose next, our free home security checklist covers the low-cost basics that protect your home regardless of which system, or no system, you run.

The bottom line: a valid in-term Vivint agreement usually costs real money to exit early, and the amount depends on paperwork most people have not looked at since installation day. Read your agreement's cancellation clause, make Vivint itemize the payoff, check whether one of the documented waivers fits your situation, and compare the payoff against simply riding out the remaining months. An informed call beats an angry one, and it is frequently several hundred dollars cheaper.

Sources

• Vivint Alarm System Buyout Promotion - Terms and Conditions (official promotion terms): sponsorship by Vivint Inc. and fulfilment by Trencent, LLC d/b/a Elite Fulfillment Group, $1,000 cap, eligibility requirement to pay and terminate the prior agreement yourself, the 4-to-60-day claim window, the authorized-representative offer precondition, debit-card fulfilment in 8-10 days, rescission on cancellation or 30-day delinquency, non-transferability, sole-discretion eligibility, and submitted documents becoming Vivint property (accessed 2026-08-14)
• Vivint Buyout - Frequently Asked Questions (official): definition of the buyout as a reimbursement, 60-day redemption limit, $1,000 reimbursement cap, 10-14 business day processing and shipping, prepaid card usable where Visa/Mastercard is accepted but not for ATM withdrawal or bank deposit, six-month funds availability, cancellation of card and funds if the Vivint account is cancelled, repayment condition, Elite Fulfillment Group data handling, and program contact details (accessed 2026-08-14)
• Vivint Support - Cancellation Policy (official policy page) (accessed 2026-07-15)
• SafeWise - How to Cancel Your Vivint Contract: cancellation phone extension, remaining-balance payoff, extenuating circumstances, transfer fee, military deferral (accessed 2026-07-15)
• SafeHome.org - Vivint Contract Length, Cancellation Policy, Terms & Renewals (updated July 7, 2026): 42-60 month terms, Notice of Cancellation contents, 30-day notice, penalty-free exceptions, moving fee (accessed 2026-07-15)
• YourHomeSecurityExpert - How to Cancel Vivint: NOC signing process, equipment payoff, local operation after cancellation (accessed 2026-07-15)
• FTC - Cooling-Off Rule, 16 CFR Part 429 (three-business-day cancellation right for at-home sales) (accessed 2026-07-15)
• FTC - Vivint to Pay $20 Million to Settle Charges It Misused Consumer Credit Reports (April 2021) (accessed 2026-07-15)
• FTC - Payments Sent to Consumers Harmed by Vivint's Misuse of Credit Reports (December 2024) (accessed 2026-07-15)