Cell Phone Plans

AntM1564

AntM1564

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I had a scare with my phone today. To make a long story short, I had to factory reset my phone, but I went to my local Verizon store just in case. We were discussing an upgrade since I'm due for one, but if I had to upgrade, I would have to go under Verizon's new plan.

From what he was telling me, one no longer pays a monthly rate for a two year contract. Instead, the price of the phone gets factored into the cost of the monthly charge and you pay for the phone, or something along those lines. This would increase the amount of my monthly bill.

My question is, are all cell phone companies getting away from the 2 year plans? Do any still offer it? I like Verizon, but don't want to increase my bill, when I decide to upgrade.
 
tyga tyga

tyga tyga

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Loop hole;

Buy your phone through Best Buy and keep the 2yr plan. It's exactly what I did and I'm with Verizon as well
 
vujade

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you can also buy your phone from Verizon and pay for it in full and keep your old plan as well.
 

youngandfree

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To answer your original question, I think most carriers follow the same type of plans regarding new phone purhases.
 
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To answer your original question, I think most carriers follow the same type of plans regarding new phone purhases.
They no longer carry 2 year plans from major retailers its all through device payment. I work for verizon and here is why

1) Cheaper up front cost. Instead of you paying 200$ for your device you pay the sales tax
2) Line Access goes from $40 a month on a 2 year agreement down to $20 a month on Device Payment
3) Device payment is flexible. Lets say 8 months into your payment plan you break your phone and you have no insurance. You could pay off your phone and upgrade.
4) At anytime you can upgrade, most new smart phones you are eligible to upgrade after 1 year with device trade in (allowing you to upgrade early at the sacrifice of trading in your phone)
5) No early termination fees on phones, tablets etc..
6) Does not put you into a contract.

Lets take for example if you were in a 2 year agreement and you broke your phone. Your SOL and can't do anything until that 2 years is up. If you were to try and do anything you would terminate your line and lose your number unless you bought a phone outright. Where as on DP if you have paid for the phone say 8-12 months, then half the device is paid off. Therefore you only have to shell out half the cost to upgrade your phone by paying it off instead of paying full retail.

If you really want to work the system. Make 2-3 payments on Device payment and then pay off the phone (remaining balance) you get to keep a 20$ line access discount and the price of the phone drops off the bill. That is what most customers do who like to not have payments, and like to lower their bill keeping the Line access discount offered through device payment.

Unfortunately you won't be able to lower your bill moving into latest and greatest smartphones all the time. The only thing that could help lower your bill depends on your plan and data usage. Some people I see daily are on very old nationwide plans that are overpriced. The newer Verizon plans offer Carryover data & Safety mode which will prevent data overages, and its cheaper. Some of the old More Everything plans are like 10GB for 100$ where the newer Verizon Plans you can get 12GB for 80$ (Just an example). There is 20$ you could put towards your device payment, then when the phone is paid off the bill would lower.

While there are great promo's we had Galaxy 7's and Iphones as low as 10$ a month around black friday and Christmas where a lot of customers who were already on DP (Device Payment) or formerly known as "Edge" lowered their bill. Most of the phones when they come out range from 20-27$ per month on DP. Some people were paying that, paid off their phones and upgraded to lower their DP price to 10$ a month which saved them money. Currently the Moto Z and Z force are 50% off so you could get a phone that is usually 26-30$ per month for 13-15$ and the latest and greatest motorola.

Plus if you have a work discount all the base plans are allowed to be discounted as long as your plan is over $34.99 in price.
 
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you can also buy your phone from Verizon and pay for it in full and keep your old plan as well.
You can.. but if you purchase through device payment they knock off 50-100$ of full retail.

For example the Iphone 7 32GB is $749 if you outright purchase it
When you purchase through the device payment program its $649 retail
So make a few payments (2-3) .. call customer service and buyout the phone. the $27.08 would fall off your bill, and you just saved yourself $100

Also when you purchase full retail your line access does not get the discount (will stay at $40 a month) compared to getting the discount via Device Payment where your line access would drop to $20

So like stated... buy the phone via DP (Device payment) make 2-3 payments and then pay off the phone.. = Saving you money. and your line access per month gets cut in half.

If you guys have any questions on your Verizon plans, or want me to look into them. I would just need one of the cell phone #'s on your account and your account/billing pin # (Usually 2-5 characters/digits). I can pull up your plan and figure out your best option depending on upgrades etc. Ive done it for plenty of my friends and others on social media to help them out with their bill.
 
vujade

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You can.. but if you purchase through device payment they knock off 50-100$ of full retail.

For example the Iphone 7 32GB is $749 if you outright purchase it
When you purchase through the device payment program its $649 retail
So make a few payments (2-3) .. call customer service and buyout the phone. the $27.08 would fall off your bill, and you just saved yourself $100

Also when you purchase full retail your line access does not get the discount (will stay at $40 a month) compared to getting the discount via Device Payment where your line access would drop to $20

So like stated... buy the phone via DP (Device payment) make 2-3 payments and then pay off the phone.. = Saving you money. and your line access per month gets cut in half.

If you guys have any questions on your Verizon plans, or want me to look into them. I would just need one of the cell phone #'s on your account and your account/billing pin # (Usually 2-5 characters/digits). I can pull up your plan and figure out your best option depending on upgrades etc. Ive done it for plenty of my friends and others on social media to help them out with their bill.
I was specifically speaking about people still on Legacy Unlimited Data Plans.
Purchasing the phone outright would allow you to keep you plan.
I used for rep for Verizon a few years back.
 
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I was specifically speaking about people still on Legacy Unlimited Data Plans.
Purchasing the phone outright would allow you to keep you plan.
I used for rep for Verizon a few years back.
You can keep the plan via Device Payment as well. I do is almost every week for people on unlimited plans. Device Payment works with unlimited plans or even old nationwide plans with unlimited.

Again... make 2-3 payments, pay off the phone, and saves you up to 100$ off full retail instead of outright purchase.
 

Heavychevss

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Overall cost of phone and service works out almost the same if you net out the new and old style plans. Removed rebates, lowered service cost, and tacked on a device fee.
 
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Overall cost of phone and service works out almost the same if you net out the new and old style plans. Removed rebates, lowered service cost, and tacked on a device fee.
No it does not
For example Iphone 7 32GB:

Outright cost = 749.99
Device Payment outright cost = 649.99

If you came into a store and just wanted to buy the phone outright you would pay the full retail. Payment plans give the overall cost of a phone a discount. If you want to pay off the phone you can at any given time and you would still save money. Most people make 2-3 payments and then do a buyout to get the payment off their plan. So the 27.08$ payment for the IP7 32GB would then fall off once the buyout is complete, and they would retain their 20$ line access discount.

If you were to outright purchase a phone your line access would jump to 40$ a month.

I would personally rather pay 39$ upfront for a phone (Sales tax) instead of the full retail + Sales tax
PLUS with device payment you get to keep a 20-25$ line access discount instead of it staying at 40$ per month when phones are out of contract (that have not been upgrades via Device Payment).

So no it wont be cheaper in both scenarios.
 

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