Right now I'm paying Verizon $80 for 24 GB of data for 4 of us

[mjkacmom]

and DH, ds14 and dd14 share a small amount of data on their AT&T plan. Dd14 needs a new phone, so I'm switching her to Verizon, and thinking of upgrading to unlimited for $110, and then when DH and dd need a new phone, switch them over to Verizon (both of their phones are almost 3 years old). The only downside I see is that I can't downgrade later, and I don't plan on having my kids on my ohone plan forever. As of now, I do end up paying overage charges to AT&T every now and again. It would be nice just to deal with one plan, and not worry about going over.

 

[DawnM]

Is there a question in there or just a statement?

 

[Nohal]

I'm confused with your post.

 

[wenrob]

Is the question, should you change the plan? From what I've read about Verizon's new unlimited is that you can't use company discounts. I've been following a thread on another site and many with multiple phones find it cost effective. I hadn't heard you couldn't downgrade. How would that work? AT&T brought back unlimited but you can't tether which is a deal breaker for me. I've found moving to a family plan has been the best bang for my buck. Oldest DD considered moving to her own plan but it doesn't make financial sense. Two plans are always going to cost more than one.

 

[MillauFr]

So you are paying $80 per month for 4 lines? That seems like a good deal. Can you add another phone for an extra $20 per month?

 

[DawnM]

So you are paying $80 per month for 4 lines? That seems like a good deal. Can you add another phone for an extra $20 per month?

I am thinking that $80 is just for the internet and that there is a charge per phone as well????

Each company prices differently, which is one reason it is hard to compare.

We have ATT. It is $100 for the plan itself (no phones) and then $15 per phone on the plan. So, for 5 phones, the total is $175.

(We don't actually pay that, DH's work pays a large portion of it, but that is an example.)

 

[SharonZ]

Why can't you downgrade?

 

[Fire14]

I've thought of upgrading our plan myself, For me it would cost about 8.00 more but I haven't done comparison as of late. I do get employee discount with current plan

 

[DawnM]

and DH, ds14 and dd14 share a small amount of data on their AT&T plan. Dd14 needs a new phone, so I'm switching her to Verizon, and thinking of upgrading to unlimited for $110, and then when DH and dd need a new phone, switch them over to Verizon (both of their phones are almost 3 years old). The only downside I see is that I can't downgrade later, and I don't plan on having my kids on my ohone plan forever. As of now, I do end up paying overage charges to AT&T every now and again. It would be nice just to deal with one plan, and not worry about going over.

Quoting so you see we are all trying to communicate with you. Where are you?

 

[mjkacmom]

Quoting so you see we are all trying to communicate with you. Where are you?

I'm back! It looks like the base charge would be around the same, right now I pay $107, it would go up to $110, plus $20 per line, plus the cost of the phones. I thought I saw something yesterday that I couldn't downgrade, maybe it's because 12 of my GB's are a bonus? Now I'm looking at employer discounts. I submitted DH's work email, and was notified he would be getting an email. That might be a better option, one I didn't even know about. Thanks!

 

[kymom99]

I get a small work discount from Verizon

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I have Verizon with 30 GB of data for $130. I got that deal when they were running a special two years ago. Each line is then $15 per line for 3 lines. I get 22% off with my employee discount. I pay an extra $5 a month so I can control my son's data allowance. I cap him at 17 GB a month. Once he hits that he can only get on the internet if he's connected to Wifi. This is much cheaper than getting him his own separate line with a different carrier. I looked into the unlimited data plans but it would raise our bill by a lot. For us the family plan works best. I use maybe 2 GB a month and my SO uses about 10 GB.

 

[scrapquitler]

and DH, ds14 and dd14 share a small amount of data on their AT&T plan. Dd14 needs a new phone, so I'm switching her to Verizon, and thinking of upgrading to unlimited for $110, and then when DH and dd need a new phone, switch them over to Verizon (both of their phones are almost 3 years old). The only downside I see is that I can't downgrade later, and I don't plan on having my kids on my ohone plan forever. As of now, I do end up paying overage charges to AT&T every now and again. It would be nice just to deal with one plan, and not worry about going over.

If there's no contract or term agreement, there's no reason you couldn't downgrade later.

 

[tjmac11]

If there's no contract or term agreement, there's no reason you couldn't downgrade later.

Keep in mind that if you upgrade to the "unlimited" plan that any "bonus" data will be lost and you cannot get it back it you downgrade. I'm sure Verizon did this purposely so that people would not want to downgrade back down to 8GB. you can downgrade at a later date, but you potentially may not be able to get back what you had.

 

[Albort]

Is the question, should you change the plan? From what I've read about Verizon's new unlimited is that you can't use company discounts. I've been following a thread on another site and many with multiple phones find it cost effective. I hadn't heard you couldn't downgrade. How would that work? AT&T brought back unlimited but you can't tether which is a deal breaker for me. I've found moving to a family plan has been the best bang for my buck. Oldest DD considered moving to her own plan but it doesn't make financial sense. Two plans are always going to cost more than one.

att's highest Unlimited plan actually comes with tethering. I think its unlimited too.

i heard no corp discounts will work on these plans... i heard military discounts still do though. One reason why its keeping me off the unlimited. I did do a retention follow up, but im still paying $160 for 4 lines. :\ The OP's plan seem like a good choice to go into for me.

 

[wenrob]

att's highest Unlimited plan actually comes with tethering. I think its unlimited too.

i heard no corp discounts will work on these plans... i heard military discounts still do though. One reason why its keeping me off the unlimited. I did do a retention follow up, but im still paying $160 for 4 lines. :\ The OP's plan seem like a good choice to go into for me.

That's with a DirectTV subscription and only 10GB per line for a hotspot plus lots of wording about how they can slow you down or cut you off in certain circumstances. No thanks and I say that as an AT&T customer since before the were Cingular. The thread I'd been following had people thinking about going over to AT&T because they could still use corporate discounts but then they got to reading the fine print. The time is coming where I'm going to need to bump up my data but it won't be one of those plans.

 

[mjkacmom]

Keep in mind that if you upgrade to the "unlimited" plan that any "bonus" data will be lost and you cannot get it back it you downgrade. I'm sure Verizon did this purposely so that people would not want to downgrade back down to 8GB. you can downgrade at a later date, but you potentially may not be able to get back what you had.

I think that's my issue, 12 are bonus. With 4 of us on the plan, we use all 24 each month, and usually have a data free day or two at the end of the cycle. With my plan on moving three of them over to Verizon eventually (i.e. When their phones die), we will need unlimited. I just moved dd14 over (and they totally messed everything up, I spend many continuous hours on the phone with support, still isn't 100% fixed), and I'll hold in to what I have for now.

 

[Mickeyluver37]

We switched to unlimited on AT&T the day it was available, and are much happier. No matter what, it seemed we were consistently having to get on the kids for being over, or up the data we were paying for. This is much better, and it doesn't seem throttled in any way once we go over 25gb. Today, we have used 28.3 gb, and have 17 days left.

If I take out all the equipment charges and nonsense fees and taxes, it looks like we are paying this- 1st phone, $60 for unlimited data plan, $40 for the phone, and then a discount of $10.20, for a total of $89.80. That's the only discount I see on the bill, 2nd and 3rd phone are $40 each, and 4th phone is free. Even with all 4 phones having equipment charges, we are under $300, and I hadn't seen a bill that low in awhile.