Keeping unlimited on Verizon

[Plutos Mommy]

We upgraded my sons phone last month and even though we are on a family plan he lost the unlimited portion on his phone, but I got to keep mine.

Another thing I discovered is you now have to pay a fee for upgrade, even if you are eligible for an upgrade.

 

[buckeev]

For the amount I spend each month with Verizon, I could drive ANY American made-and probably ITALIAN made- vehicle out there. WAY TOO MUCH $$$!

4G is an absolute data hog.

 

[luvdisney00]

Just left the Verizon store and this is what I was told.....There is no way to keep your unlimited with Verizon now and get a new phone upgrade from them. That also goes for buying it from a 3rd party like Best Buy or Apple. The only way to keep it is to buy it or get it from a person (or I guess from ebay) and just go in and change your device. I have a Samsung Galaxy (facinate) that I bought from them 2 years ago with unlimited data that is on a tiered family plan with 3 other smart phones and 1 regular phone . There is nothing wrong with my phone I just wanted to get an iphone5 with my upgrade . Well I cannot roll into another contract with unlimited (no matter what phone I chose) and could not pre-order the iphone without changing my data to 2G limit. I looked into their new share everything plan, but it isn't worth it for me. I gave up unlimited and went to 2G (my max use in 2 years is less than 1 GB but STILL....) so I could order the phone. By staying on the tiered paln DH and oldest DD get to keep their unlimited BUT only until they decide they want to upgrade their phones. Verizon really has us as no one else has good service in our area.

Even BETTER is this one......Verizon charges a $30 upgrade fee to renew your contract with them now. No loyalty for the fact we have used them since our 1st cell phones in 2004 just a fee to renew and pay through the nose for another 2 years UGH. Like I said, they have us.

 

[scrapquitler]

I currently have unlimited data with Verizon. If I just never upgrade my phone with them any more and maybe just get them off of Ebay will I be able to keep my unlimited data package.

According to my friend who works for Verizon, YES. As long as you don't get an upgrade/subsidized phone from Verizon or make any changes to your paln, you can keep the unlimited data.

However, I assume that at some point in the future, they will decide to stop honoring the unlimited data for customers with expired contracts.

 

[vicki_c]

That's interesting about Verizon. Because with AT &T you can keep your unlimited data plan when you upgrade your phone. I did it once already and when I was doing a mock shopping cart for the new iPhone, it showed up right in my plan info as unlimited data at $30 for each of our phones next to the iPhone 5 listing.

 

[RachaelA]

Just left the Verizon store and this is what I was told.....There is no way to keep your unlimited with Verizon now and get a new phone upgrade from them. That also goes for buying it from a 3rd party like Best Buy or Apple. The only way to keep it is to buy it or get it from a person (or I guess from ebay) and just go in and change your device. I have a Samsung Galaxy (facinate) that I bought from them 2 years ago with unlimited data that is on a tiered family plan with 3 other smart phones and 1 regular phone . There is nothing wrong with my phone I just wanted to get an iphone5 with my upgrade . Well I cannot roll into another contract with unlimited (no matter what phone I chose) and could not pre-order the iphone without changing my data to 2G limit. I looked into their new share everything plan, but it isn't worth it for me. I gave up unlimited and went to 2G (my max use in 2 years is less than 1 GB but STILL....) so I could order the phone. By staying on the tiered paln DH and oldest DD get to keep their unlimited BUT only until they decide they want to upgrade their phones. Verizon really has us as no one else has good service in our area.

Even BETTER is this one......Verizon charges a $30 upgrade fee to renew your contract with them now. No loyalty for the fact we have used them since our 1st cell phones in 2004 just a fee to renew and pay through the nose for another 2 years UGH. Like I said, they have us.

Are you sure the $30 wasn't an early upgrade fee? Verizon lets (or at least did as of earlier this year), the main phone line upgrade after 1 year, but you were charged an early upgrade fee. As long as it had been 20 months since your last upgrade, there were no fees.

 

[Debbie7452]

No, the $30 upgrade fee is new this past summer and everyone pays it! Even if you are eligible for a "free" phone. It's not really free anymore. Also, the phones are getting a lot more expensive than they used to be. Even the non-smart phones. We had heck finding a non-smart phone that still had a slide out for texting and a desired touch screen. I had to pay $99 and then the $30 fee on top.

 

[disney1990]

Do you realize how much you have to use your phone in order to hit the data limits? If you are just a casual user (i.e. not using it for business), you're not going to hit the minimum data limits. I'm a casual user and think I'm on my phone a lot and I never even get near 1 gig, let alone the 2 gig limit. I have unlimited, but my DH bought his iphone after unlimited went away and he was worried about data. That's when the salesperson told us it's hard to hit the limit for a personal user. At my max in the last six months, I hit 1.25gb and that was over Spring Break when I was using it all day long and had to use my trent to keep it charged during the day.

Should be interesting to see what they do with the new iphone and the 4g. They have 4g droids right now and they didn't change plans for them (beyond getting rid of unlimited). Hopefully they won't mess with it when they release the iphone.

The new iPhones are DATA HOGS. Suri especially eats data for lunch.

You can keep your plan if you purchase a new phone for the price of the telephone (not the Verizon discounted price).

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

That's interesting about Verizon. Because with AT &T you can keep your unlimited data plan when you upgrade your phone. I did it once already and when I was doing a mock shopping cart for the new iPhone, it showed up right in my plan info as unlimited data at $30 for each of our phones next to the iPhone 5 listing.

You are correct. If you have the unlimited AT&T plan, it transfers to your iPhone 5. Another plus for AT&T.

 

[maggiew]

Our Verizon contract ends this December and we are GETTING OUT!! The kids want smart phones and it is just WAY too expensive with Verizon. Currently I am the only one who has a smartphone and I have the unlimited data. But the loss of the unlimited data (sooner or later) is just another reason to leave!!!

Maggie

 

[mieuxmew]

Verizon grandfathered unlimited data and iPhone 5.

If you have an unlimited data plan and want an iPhone 5 you have two choices. Use you upgrade (subsidized) and sign a new contract. You will lose your unlimited data plan and will be changed over to a Share Everything plan. $199 16 GB/$299 for 32 GB / $399 for 64 GB.

OR

Pay full price for iPhone 5 (from Verizon, Apple, eBay etc). Phone will cost $450 MORE than the published price ($649 for 16 GB/ $749 for 32 GB/ $849 for 64GB). You will then be allowed to keep your unlimited data plan (read sales contract VERY carefully). Over 24 months, the extra $450 equates to $18+ per month. For some this is worth it, others it is not.

 

[mieuxmew]

duplicate

 

[yeahdisney]

DH gets our phones thru Verizon. He has unlimited. He was told around 2 weeks ago if he brought thru them through our plan (free upgrade earned) he would loose the unlimited plan. He paid full price for the phone. Then he got to keep his unlimited plan.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

Three iphone family here. Up until this summer we had unlimited data and one phone had tethering. Between 3 phones we rarely went above 1.2 gb per month and we are all heavy users (no streaming, though). I switched us to unlimited phone, texts and shared data of 6 gb. Our bills are $70 less and now all three phones have tethering. once we switch over to iphone 5's we will eliminate the insurance and save another $36 a month and keep our current phones for back up.

 

[WantToGoNow]

When my dd phone died and she replaced it with a newer version of the same phone she lost her unlimited. We have 2g data now that we share (5 ppl on the plan but only 2 uses the data). Our plan starts over tomorrow and we are at 1.6g - we use it a lot.

 

[mermaidwannabe]

Our Verizon contract ends this December and we are GETTING OUT!! The kids want smart phones and it is just WAY too expensive with Verizon. Currently I am the only one who has a smartphone and I have the unlimited data. But the loss of the unlimited data (sooner or later) is just another reason to leave!!!

Maggie

I'm thinking of doing this, but where will you go?

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I'm thinking of doing this, but where will you go?

Good question. I don't know of any phone company which offers decent plans with significant savings over others.

 

[starry_solo]

Good question. I don't know of any phone company which offers decent plans with significant savings over others.

It also depends on where you live. People like Sprint but where I am at (Southern California) there are LOTS of dropped calls, missed calls (where the phone doesn't ring and all you get is a notice that you've got a voice mail), failure to connect, and other problems. I had Verizon, went to Sprint because it was cheaper, and dropped Sprint at my first opportunity and went back to Verizon.

Where I live, Sprint and AT&T has horrible service. One person I carpool with loves AT&T and it works fine where she is. Another person I carpooled with also had AT&T and it only worked if she was standing outside her house.

I think that if I ever do go to upgrade my phone to a smart phone, I will stick with Verizon and do the share everything plan with my sibling (so just 2 on the plan) and our parents will get Tracfones or Net-Zero phones.

I do have to figure out how Straight Talk with WalMart works in Southern California. Which carrier is it?! Because if it's anyone other than Verizon, that won't work for me.

 

[pintamino]

Upgrade your phone and you lose unlimited data.

Not true. You can upgrade your phone and keep the 3G unlimited data -- IF you don't also take the phone subsidization. What most people don't realize is that the iPhone, etc actually costs about $600 -- the only paying $199 is the carrier subsidizing. They're no longer doing that. So if you want to keep the unlimited plan, which I don't believe includes the new 4G/LTE networks, you have to pay the full cost of the phone.

 

[maggiew]

I'm thinking of doing this, but where will you go?

I am thinking about going to Tmobile. They have the following plans:

Me: $50 with unlimited data (4G up to 100MB), unlimited text, unlimited calls
Girls: $30 unlimited data and text with 100 minutes talk (girls never TALK on the phone)
Mom: $30 with 1500 text and talk and 30 MB data

DH's company is buying him a phone and contract this week, so we are dropping him from the plan.

Currently we pay $180 for one smartphone and 4 dumbphones
I figure with Tmobile we can pay $140 for 4 smartphones. Even if we had to pay for DH, it would only be $190. So not much more than we pay now but we would all have smartphones.

But you do have to purchase your phones.

Maggie