verizon and att cell phone

buzz2400

<font color=teal>The TF waves to buzz2400's DS
Joined
Feb 14, 2001
Messages
3,474
Just wanted to tell everyone who has verizon or att for the cell phones: call them and ask if they can do anything better. I had to call both companies for family members and lo and behold they gave me better deals than what I already have (and I check on these annually).
 
Good reminder for all of us! I can tell you Verizon is very worried about folks that are currently "off plan" and want to keep you happy. I had received an email from them last week - so I went in there today (I'm old - I prefer face to face) - anyway, they dropped our bill by $50 a month. Whenever we decide to upgrade our phones ( we could have last June - and now they have a quicker than 2 year upgrade plan) - we'll see what is being offered for us to sign another 2 year service agreement with them - but for now I'm paying $50 less (and got more data).
 
We're stuck in a strange situation. We are grandfathered into an unlimited data plan with AT&T but if we upgrade our phone we lose the unlimited data. Our phone is about five years old now so the phone is good for almost none of the things we want to do with the data plan! We just lost another service which is now incompatible with our phone and our phone's manufacture hasn't issued an update for three years. So we wonder if being grandfathered into an unlimited data plan is really worth enough to not upgrade to a newer phone.

We looked into other providers but T-Mobile, Sprint and the rest don't serve all the places we need service, and Verizon is no less expensive than AT&T.
 
We're stuck in a strange situation. We are grandfathered into an unlimited data plan with AT&T but if we upgrade our phone we lose the unlimited data. Our phone is about five years old now so the phone is good for almost none of the things we want to do with the data plan! We just lost another service which is now incompatible with our phone and our phone's manufacture hasn't issued an update for three years. So we wonder if being grandfathered into an unlimited data plan is really worth enough to not upgrade to a newer phone.

We looked into other providers but T-Mobile, Sprint and the rest don't serve all the places we need service, and Verizon is no less expensive than AT&T.

Since when do you lose a grandfathered plan when you upgrade your phone with AT&T? We've been with them years and years, even before they were AT&T and never had that happen. To the best of my knowledge you only lose the grandfathered plan if you change plans. Once you do that, you can't go back. Unless this is a very recent thing?

We kept my DH's unlimited forever and upgraded phones like clockwork every two years. The problem was that he'd get to a certain point and they'd start throttling his data, so then he wouldn't use it. Because he is the main account holder and had unlimited none of us could use mobile hotspot to tether. So here we were paying $30 for unlimited and then $30 apiece for DD and I to have 5GB each and we weren't really using it because it wasn't usable. Then of course you're paying separately for texting, the minutes etc.

When I sat down and really looked at it we were paying all this money to stay in a grandfathered plan that we couldn't really utilize. In Sept I went to a 10GB mobile share plan and because none of us were on contract my bill went WAY down. Unlimited talk and text and 10GB is plenty and a half for three of us. When they were running the double your data plans of 15GBs or more I called them, asked for retention and got them to double my plan to 20GBs for no extra charge. Just had to be firm but nice.;) I've since upgraded DD and myself on the Next plan. If and when DH finally caves for an upgrade, my bill will only be $5 more then I was paying for the grandfathered plan we didn't use and I now have a very usable plan. We don't come anywhere near 10GBs let alone 20 plus I can tether now and that's come in handy more than a few times. Oh yeah and this month they are starting to roll over data from one month to the next. It doesn't accumulate like minutes did but you do get leftovers from one month to the next which is nice.

So, if you're not using your unlimited and you keep losing features, what's the point in keeping it? Sit down and really look at your bill, see what you use and compare it to one of newer mobile share plans. For me there was no downside. I have a plan I can actually use now. If you go Next for an upgrade versus a two year contract your bill will be less as well. People misunderstand that plan thinking you never own your phone but that's not true, you pay it off just like you do in a contract then it's yours. Even better, you can pay it off any time you want and it yours.

eta: When I went in to change my plan I made the guy write everything down in detail, in columns-old plan, mobile share plan, share plan with next and share plan with contract. Then I went home and went over the pros and cons for each before I decided.
 

We're stuck in a strange situation. We are grandfathered into an unlimited data plan with AT&T but if we upgrade our phone we lose the unlimited data. Our phone is about five years old now so the phone is good for almost none of the things we want to do with the data plan! We just lost another service which is now incompatible with our phone and our phone's manufacture hasn't issued an update for three years. So we wonder if being grandfathered into an unlimited data plan is really worth enough to not upgrade to a newer phone.

We looked into other providers but T-Mobile, Sprint and the rest don't serve all the places we need service, and Verizon is no less expensive than AT&T.

Like the poster above mentioned you absolutely DO NOT loose your grandfathered in data plan if you upgrade your phone.

DH was also grandfathered in and whenever a new iPhone came on the market he had to have it. He's since gotten rid of his Iphone 4s and I convinced him to go with an android phone and we dropped his unlimited data and we went with a family plan, that dropped our monthly payment by $40 a month.

So by all means, if your happy with your current plan upgrade your old dated phone and enjoy!
 
Since when do you lose a grandfathered plan when you upgrade your phone with AT&T?
When the grandfathered plan is an employee discount plan for a company you don't work for anymore. You can keep it as long as you don't change anything but if you change anything you have to requalify as an employee.
 
When the grandfathered plan is an employee discount plan for a company you don't work for anymore. You can keep it as long as you don't change anything but if you change anything you have to requalify as an employee.

I guess it depends on your employer's plan. The plant my DH works for gets traded from company to company every couple of years. We still get the discount from the first company from 15 years ago. It's carried over through numerous upgrades and plan changes. We still have it and he hasn't worked for that company for 12 years. Same plant but different company.

I would still look into other options to see if they now fit you better. Hanging onto a plan that you can't utilize to its fullest may be costing you more in the long run.
 
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When the grandfathered plan is an employee discount plan for a company you don't work for anymore. You can keep it as long as you don't change anything but if you change anything you have to requalify as an employee.

Could you just buy new phones out of pocket? Most providers have phones that can be bought at cost with no impact to your contract or plan. They are pricey but the savings difference might make it worth it.

In addition, you can buy even them off slightly used off ebay. My parents have done this for years (well over a decade). They had this crazy plan that they got in the 90s that was costing them @$11/month with something like 500 minutes which was way more than they could use in any month (they don't use data). No way were they upgrading the phones and being forced into a new contract that cost way more money.
 
Buy your phone on your own (for example go to the Motorola or Apple site and buy your phone unsubsidized). You are allowed to change hardware at any time without any change to your plan.... I know... I've been doing it with Verizon for a while (I don't want to lose my unlimited data plan either!).

As long as you only change the hardware you are using without changing the plan (meaning you are bring a phone to them unsubsidized) they will change your hardware with no contract issues!

The best way to go!

---Paul in Southern NJ
 
We're stuck in a strange situation. We are grandfathered into an unlimited data plan with AT&T but if we upgrade our phone we lose the unlimited data. Our phone is about five years old now so the phone is good for almost none of the things we want to do with the data plan! We just lost another service which is now incompatible with our phone and our phone's manufacture hasn't issued an update for three years. So we wonder if being grandfathered into an unlimited data plan is really worth enough to not upgrade to a newer phone.

We looked into other providers but T-Mobile, Sprint and the rest don't serve all the places we need service, and Verizon is no less expensive than AT&T.

Why not buy an unsubsidized phone? There are a lot of phones, under $200, which are a lot better then your current phone. You're not going to be able to buy the new "flagship" phones (iPhone 6, Galaxy s5) for that price but you can get phones like the Moto G. Does your data allow LTE data? If so make sure you buy a phone which supports it.

I think you can buy an AT&T Go-Phone with your current
SIM card.

You might even find a phone which meets your needs for under $100
 
Why not buy an unsubsidized phone? There are a lot of phones, under $200, which are a lot better then your current phone. You're not going to be able to buy the new "flagship" phones (iPhone 6, Galaxy s5) for that price but you can get phones like the Moto G. Does your data allow LTE data? If so make sure you buy a phone which supports it.

I think you can buy an AT&T Go-Phone with your current
SIM card.

You might even find a phone which meets your needs for under $100

I saw on slickdeals.net today you can get a Moto X phone that will work with all carriers for $200! Actually a very good price for that unsubsidized phone. Get that, walk into your Verizon store and put in online! You are then good to go for no a lot of $!

---Paul in Southern NJ
 
I guess it all depends on what type of phone you want - but there have been promotions with the Iphone 6's for $199 - of course you do have to get a 2 year plan at least with Verizon and AT&T from what I have read - but those two seem eager to keep up with Sprint - so you could probably do pretty well (if that is the phone you want). Verizon now has a new plan where you can upgrade in under 2 years.
 
i got rid of my unlmited data because it was cheaper to switch to limited data. i had an older phone and i think they were throttling me too. i got a good deal on an iphone as i hadnt upgraded in a while.

just know your plans, for some reason 1GB was more expensive than 2GB. i cant use my phone at work so since i only use it when i commute on data, its cheaper to go down to the more limited data than it was to stay on my grandfathered plan.
 
You can buy any of ATT Go-phones or unlocked gsm phones . They will work with out changing your plan.

I have not bought a phone from ATT in years.
 

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