Phone upgrades are available & want to keep unl data, what are my options?

[mostdope]

I'm on Verizon obviously and I was lucky enough (at the time) to have been grandfathered into that 1400 minute plan with unlimited data. We have two phones, HTC Rezound(mine) and a Motorola DX2(wife), both do for upgrades in August. I'm probably going to wait until some new phones come out, nothing I see entices me right now.

Down to the point, how can we upgrade without losing our unlimited data? What are our options, any way to get around this? No way a VZW rep lets me slide and gives me the upgrades? My wife is dying for a new phone, here DX2 is 2 years old and falling apart plus I'd love to get away from HTC. I appreciate any help with this.

 

[Cares]

Are all 3 lines on unlimited right now? If so, the only way is to open a 4th line and get a subsidized smart phone on it. Revert that 4th line to a dumb phone. Do Alternate Upgrades on that 4th line to get more smart phones.

 

[BabyBlues]

You can buy a new/used phone and put it on the line as well. That way you aren't losing unlimited.

 

[RIPMLGNades]

I'm on Verizon obviously and I was lucky enough (at the time) to have been grandfathered into that 1400 minute plan with unlimited data. We have two phones, HTC Rezound(mine) and a Motorola DX2(wife), both do for upgrades in August. I'm probably going to wait until some new phones come out, nothing I see entices me right now.

Down to the point, how can we upgrade without losing our unlimited data? What are our options, any way to get around this? No way a VZW rep lets me slide and gives me the upgrades? My wife is dying for a new phone, here DX2 is 2 years old and falling apart plus I'd love to get away from HTC. I appreciate any help with this.

If both lines currently have unlimited data, The only thing you can really do is buy a new phone outright (Full retail) or purchase the phone using the device installment plan. This is where you spread the price of the phone out over your bills for X amount of months, Which allows you to keep unlimited.



As mentioned in an above comment smeone said add a new line and upgrade blah blah. That would not work.


If your upgrade is getting used, your unlimited will be lost. Simple as that.

 

[AntimonyER]

As mentioned in an above comment smeone said add a new line and upgrade blah blah. That would not work.

Not true. Adding a new line does work, I have done it three times. You buy the phone you want on the new line, then put an old dumb phone on it (if you don't have one, get one cheap on ebay), so you can cancel the data plan on it. Then switch the new phone to the unlimited line. You aren't using an upgrade on the unlimited line, so you won't lose unlimited data.

Now with taxes and fees, the extra line will cost you $15 per month. Times 24 months, is $360 or pretty close to the device subsidy. It's not going to save you money really, but it allows you to spread out the cost over the contract period.

 

[mostdope]

Are all 3 lines on unlimited right now? If so, the only way is to open a 4th line and get a subsidized smart phone on it. Revert that 4th line to a dumb phone. Do Alternate Upgrades on that 4th line to get more smart phones.

I have 2 lines.

 

[mostdope]

You can buy a new/used phone and put it on the line as well. That way you aren't losing unlimited.

I'd like a new phone, S4, Moto X, etc.

 

[dirkbonn]

I'd like a new phone, S4, Moto X, etc.

Pay full price for you new phone(s) and activate on the line of your choice. Or, open a 3rd line and then put a dumbphone on it so you can cancel the data requirement and transfer the smartphone to your line of choice. These are your only choices (as mentioned above) that allow you to keep your unlimited data. Of course, as mentioned above, the opening of the 3rd line will incur a cost for the included 2 year contract, so the result is it's very similar to paying full price for the phone.

Best of luck whatever you decide to do,

 

[mostdope]

My pops said he would use the 3rd line. How would work? Am I able to buy him a phone at the 2yr price, get him a free phone. Would that work?

 

[mostdope]

Would I need two dummy lines? I'm so confused.

 

[GandalfTehGray]

Would I need two dummy lines? I'm so confused.

Moto X is $150 dollars off tomorrow off contract at Motorola.com
But for the other way to do it add another line to your plan and get a new smartphone on it. Once it is activated transfer your number to brand new smartphone. Cancel data plan on the new line and put a dumb phone on new line.

 

[Jus10]

Pay full price for you new phone(s) and activate on the line of your choice. Or, open a 3rd line and then put a dumbphone on it so you can cancel the data requirement and transfer the smartphone to your line of choice. These are your only choices (as mentioned above) that allow you to keep your unlimited data. Of course, as mentioned above, the opening of the 3rd line will incur a cost for the included 2 year contract, so the result is it's very similar to paying full price for the phone.

Best of luck whatever you decide to do,

So you know, Verizon no longer is accepting dummy lines as an option. You might get lucky if you go to an authorized retailer at the very the of the month and they'd do it to hit one of their goals or something, but once a line is activated with a smartphone then immediately moved to a basic phone Verizon and the store takes a heavy chargeback.

Unlimited data is truly a thing of the past. The bigger the 4G coverage gets, the more likely the unlimited data will be taken away. Look at Sprint, they took away Unlimited on tablets and mobile broadband, and their unlimited data is restricted to their network (which isn't great). The second you start to roam on another companies data network you have 300mb and that's it.

T-Mobile throttles you down to 2G once you pass up 2-5gb of data, whichever you're paying for.

Truth of the matter is their are people out there who take advantage of unlimited data and this bogs down the network. What the carriers are doing is finding ways to keep those people on Wi-Fi so that way the average users can experience a good, solid signal.

For the small networks, they limit where you can use unlimited or throttle you. For the big carriers, choose a plan that suits your needs or get Wi-Fi.

My advice to anyone trying to keep unlimited data, buy a phone off contact or buy a router for your ISP.

 

[njjayt82]

What about using an upgrade from a different contract (i.e my moms and sisters acc) they're both on non unlimited plans. I have 2 smart phones 1 unlimited one tiered but don't want to/wont risk the chance of a mishap, and loosing my unlimited.
My mom has iPhone5 x2 and she has an upgrade. Could I do what most people are doing with the having in tiered plans and transferring phones after activation? I've been salivating over the note3 for some months now and am getting antsy with my phone. I've looked on swappa but no phones are under 475 (so if I COULD pull it off i'd MUCH rather pay the 299.99 for the subsidized phone brandy new) than going the swappa route and buying a used phone.

 

[Jus10]

What about using an upgrade from a different contract (i.e my mom

It will only work of its on a different account. And I would make sure it's done at a corporate location. A retailer might ask you to return the phone if they see it move off of the account.

 

[njjayt82]

It will only work of its on a different account. And I would make sure it's done at a corporate location. A retailer might ask you to return the phone if they see it move off of the account.

Oh that royally sucks! oh well back to the drawing board.....

 

[Jus10]

Seriously though, I have my employees go onto Craigslist and trade their devices in for different devices. For example, Jorge traded his RAZR and old iPhone in for a Galaxy S4. So if you don't want to blow $649 on a new device with Verizon check out what you can get for your device on Craigslist.

 

[njjayt82]

Yeah I thought about going that route, although people aren't exactly lining up for this phone (nor do I think they were when it came out). so idk about that. most I've seen the phone go for is $80 (which does't exactly help me in the big picture). I'll keep hunting for a fix for this, or just start saving up the $$ to purchase it from somewhere.