Need help from the cell phone experts

[jcano]

My DD's grandparents are getting her an IPhone for her birthday. Sam's has the IPhone 4 about $50 less than the Verizon store. If we buy it there and are only getting her a new one, how does this week? Sorry, I'm not a techie...cell phone plans just make my eyes glaze over with all the fine print. We usually all go into the Verizon store and renew the 3 phones at the same time, so I have no idea what to expect doing it one at a time. Help.

 

[kerplop]

The most important thing to ask here I think is whether the price of the new phone is on its own or will it require a new line/contract with Verizon? It's fairly safe to say that if the cost is MSRP ($600-700ish) then you can likely just replace her current phone with that one without renewing or adding a line. If it's at a discounted price of say $150-200 then it's very likely that you will have to renew for 2 years on a contract or sign up for another 2 year contract on a new line. Another thing to keep in mind is that supposedly the iPhone 5 should be announced any time now and that may drive the MSRP of an iPhone 4 down to reasonable prices without a contract!

 

[jcano]

Our contract is close to being up, and we are planning to renew with Verizon. The salesperson that we spoke with (quickly) at Sam's the other day said that we could do 1 phone without doing the rest on the plan.

We've always just gone through the Verizon store. How does it work when you purchase from an out source like Sam's?

 

[kerplop]

Oh if you were planning to do a renewal anyway then there's no problem with that. I just wanted to make sure you understood that the cheaper price was due to needing to do that

I'm not 100% sure about how they do it at Sam's, but I know that other phones I've bought I've had to provide my Verizon information and activate/get approval from Verizon before it would work. They will probably do that at Sam's as I'm sure they're an authorized retailer. It should be about the same process as if you did it at the Verizon store - simpler too because you have existing service and would just be extending/renewing that contract.

 

[jcano]

Oh if you were planning to do a renewal anyway then there's no problem with that. I just wanted to make sure you understood that the cheaper price was due to needing to do that

I'm not 100% sure about how they do it at Sam's, but I know that other phones I've bought I've had to provide my Verizon information and activate/get approval from Verizon before it would work. They will probably do that at Sam's as I'm sure they're an authorized retailer. It should be about the same process as if you did it at the Verizon store - simpler too because you have existing service and would just be extending/renewing that contract.

Thx! I hate walking into something not knowing what to expect. DH and I are paying off our up-coming trip to WDW before dealing with new cell phones. Ours are still in good shape, and we aren't the type that have to have the "lastest and greatest" tech stuff. Of course DD wants to upgrade now. She's saved up the money over the past few months, but then the grandparent's offered. I hate to make her wait. Of course we can use hers for all the disney apps, too.

 

[Sadie22]

We have a family plan with AT&T. We've never renewed everyone at one time because DH is harder on his phones and he needs a replacement phone more often than anyone else. (He's finally gotten a contractor grade phone or something like that which is coated in rubber and is supposedly more rugged.) So when he needs a new phone, the "upgrade to a free or low-price phone" capability of someone's number is transferred to him.

We did look into doing an upgrade at Best Buy once when the AT&T was out of stock on something he wanted, but there seemed to be a higher fee charged for doing it there. He ended up ordering online from AT&T to avoid a higher fee, then walked into the AT&T store with DS's phone to get the upgrade worked out. It wasn't as simple as transferring a SIM card to get all the "paperwork" straight.

 

[SalandJeff]

One other thing to remember, is that you will have to have a data plan for the iPhone. I'm not sure what Verizon's lowest price data plan is, as I have ATT. Hopefully the salesperson mentioned this to you.