[BREAKING] Verizon Closing Major Loophole For Legacy Plan Users Today

[DroidModderX]

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When smartphones first arrived unlimited data was common place. The net didn't use as much data then, far fewer people actually had smartphones. In fact it seemed like a huge waste of money to actually spend $30 a month to access email and the internet from a phone which at the time was primarily used for talking to people and occasionally texting. The browsing experience wasn't so hot on the first "smartphones", and we mostly just used our laptops and home wifi to access the internet then.

The smartphone experience really changed after the Iphone was released. The Droid featured a huge (at the time) 3.7" display which was great for browsing the internet. The Android Market began to catch up with the Apple App Store which gave us even more incentive to use our unlimited data plans. Pretty soon we were using our phones nearly primarily to access the internet. The use of smartphones spiked and now it seems like most cell phone users use smartphones.

With the increasing use of smartphones Verizon decided to kill unlimited data plans. Unlimited data was no longer needed to incentivize the use of smartphones. Call it bait and switch if you like. Tiered data plans were released in the Summer of 2012. The only up side was the fact that Verizon also decided to allow those with unlimited data plans to keep those plans as long as they never upgraded their device again. As long as you were willing to pay full price and never extend your contract you were allowed to be "grandfathered" into unlimited data.

Verizon has finally decided to get rid of the Legacy plans for good. Last week we talked about Verizon's plans to throttle the top 5% of data users starting in October. As it turns out the top 5% of data users includes anyone who uses about 5GB of data a month. For Legacy users who normally use upwards of 10GB of data a month this means that once they reach the threshold their speeds will be slowed to a crawl and will be virtually unusable. Verizon has said that they will throttle smartly, meaning they will only throttle when on a congested tower.

Today they have decided to add another nail to the coffin. According to an inside source Verizon will be closing a widely used loophole for Legacy users. The Loophole has allowed those users to add a dumbphone to their plan for $9.99 a month. When upgrades were available on this extra line you could upgrade to a new smartphone at the reduced price then take the new phone off the extra line, and add it to your Legacy Plan line. The data charges would then drop off the dumbphone line, and it would return to the $9.99 a month. This would save tons of money since you would be paying $199 for the phone and $240 for the dumb phone line. Meaning you would be paying $440 for a new phone that could cost upwards of $699. The inside source told me that starting today this will no longer work. If you upgrade to a new smartphone on the dumbphone line you will be stuck with the data charges for the length of the two year contract, even if you switch that phone over to an existing Legacy line. This will be enough for most Legacy device users to consider going elsewhere. It will be easy enough considering that most Legacy users are no longer in a contract.

What are your thoughts? Is it worth sticking to the Legacy Unlimited Data plan if you will be throttled at 5GB or less, even if you now have to pay full price for every phone you buy? Let us know in the comments below.

UPDATE: The loophole will be closed on 8/24 not today! Verified by inside source.

 

[Jeffrey]

The greed factory widens.. Mass exodus anyone?

 

[spc_hicks09]

Today they have decided to add another nail to the coffin. According to an inside source Verizon will be closing a widely used loophole for Legacy users. The Loophole has allowed those users to add a dumbphone to their plan for $9.99 a month. When upgrades were available on this extra line you could upgrade to a new smartphone at the reduced price then take the new phone off the extra line, and add it to your Legacy Plan line. The data charges would then drop off the dumbphone line, and it would return to the $9.99 a month. This would save tons of money since you would be paying $199 for the phone and $240 for the dumb phone line. Meaning you would be paying $440 for a new phone that could cost upwards of $699. The inside source told me that starting today this will no longer work. If you upgrade to a new smartphone on the dumbphone line you will be stuck with the data charges for the length of the two year contract, even if you switch that phone over to an existing Legacy line. This will be enough for most Legacy device users to consider going elsewhere. It will be easy enough considering that most Legacy users are no longer in a contract.

DMX, I misread your post at first and responded incorrectly on twitter. Wanted to post here to clarify what I meant.

Although I've never heard of that particular loophole, I do have one that will work every time. Before doing this trick, make sure you already have a feature phone that can be activated on Verizon's network. The loophole is to ADD a line and purchase the smartphone of choice for that line. Then you switch the new phone to your line. Now you activate a feature phone (dumbphone) onto the new line and suspend it. Yes you'll have a line that you are paying $9.99 a month for, that you're not even using, however, let's do the math:

$9.99 per month for 24 months = $240
New phone, on newly added line = $199
Switching new smartphone to your line = $0
Activating feature phone on new line = $0
Suspending new line = $0

$240 + $200 = $440 for a brand new smartphone that costs $600 - $700. Because of the fact that you are ADDING a new line, this "loophole" can never be eliminated. You will only be able to do this every 2 years though. Once the contract runs out on the new line with the feature phone, drop the line. Want to upgrade 2 years later? Do it again. You also will not be losing your unlimited data by doing this (if you still have it).

 

[kodiak799]

Or just wait 6 months and buy a phone for $450 off EBAY.

 

[spc_hicks09]

Or just wait 6 months and buy a phone for $450 off EBAY.

True but not too many people have $450 at one time to spend on a phone. Which is why I posted the loophole I know of.

 

[rhcp011235]

Personally, I think this is a huge scare tactic by verizon wireless and people will not even notice anything. TBH, I think people using 40-50G over 5 lines. Should be kicked off the network. thats PURE ABUSE

 

[rhcp011235]

True but not too many people have $450 at one time to spend on a phone. Which is why I posted the loophole I know of.

Personally, I buy ALL my devices FULL retail and I own just about every device their is to date So, For me, I feel I deserve full respect from the company for not using these stupid loop holes. Also, I've always wanted to be fully off contract.

 

[cr6]

I'll continue to wait and see how the whole "throttling" issue effects me once it kicks in. Personally I have no problem paying full retail for a device as long as I can continue to keep my unlimited plan. Most people complain that they don't have 6-7 hundred dollars to drop on a new device, yet they can come up with 2 hundred to upgrade "on contact". I think that if you can come up with 200 for a new device, the majority of people should be able to save up 6-7 hundred over the course of 2 years to upgrade your device at full retail. (at least those folks that are buying flagship devices)
That's just my 2 cents on the matter.

tap'n on my S5

 

[rhcp011235]

I'll continue to wait and see how the whole "throttling" issue effects me once it kicks in. Personally I have no problem paying full retail for a device as long as I can continue to keep my unlimited plan. Most people complain that they don't have 6-7 hundred dollars to drop on a new device, yet they can come up with 2 hundred every 2 years to upgrade "on contact". I think that if you can come up with 200 for a new device, the majority of people should be able to save up 6-7 hundred over the course of 2 years to upgrade your device at full retail.
That's just my 2 cents on the matter.

tap'n on my S5

Pretty much bro, sums it up.

There is no throttle at all, it's not like on AT&T if you hit 5G they will drop you to 3G, It just depends on tower congestion, I have a feeling people in larger cities may notice this? or hey? Maybe no one will notice anything, Where in fact they will just not let us use XLTE (100 MEG down) and just give us normal LTE 8-10 (which is fine for me!)

No reason to get all crazy about something no one knows about. Just wait out and see and use your devices as you always do.

 

[bkdodger]

@spc_hicks09 ...I believe that loophole will be closed as well..Verizon plans to make you keep the data on the line for the 2 yrs...full retail or bust ...

M8 tap'd

 

[TOMMYBOT]

moto x on sale up to 125 dollars off.
i jumped to T-mobile. dont miss verizon.

 

[StupidGenius]

Funny that it's the day before the new Moto X (and possibly 360) is rumored to launch on their network.

 

[npro1464]

I'm on my parents plan still. My brother is blind and will forever use a flip phone. I was using his upgrades under this method, but unfortunately it doesn't look like I'll be able to do that anymore. My share of the plan cost like $60/month (my parents have an employee discount) and I get unlimited data and texts and more minutes than I could ever ask for (we're still on Friends & Family).

How do the new VZ plans look for 3 smartphones + a dumb phone? I use a ton of data, my parents use very little.

 

[cybertec69]

I have no issues with what Verizon is doing, all it was was a loophole that now is closed, you can still keep your unlimited, but will have to buy the phone outright, like all the rest of the unlimited data users, go cry a river somewhere else.

 

[HarvesterX™]

Yeah there's nothing inadvertently wrong with what Verizon is doing. It makes perfect sense and is the way it always should have been. BUT at least in the past Verizon seemed to somewhat care about keeping customers. Now they've reached a point where they can feel like "you take it OUR way or the HIGHWAY...WE own you"

Idk