upgrade day! losing unlimited, next best?

[jacobbones]

Im in the same boat.

If you sit and do the math it actually makes sense to buy the phone at full price.
Your bill will go up when you upgrade, and I found that it all evens out over the 2 years. So basically if you upgrade or buy retail your going to spend the same money.

Just put it on a credit card and pay it off over time if you cant afford like I am doing and keep unlimited

 

[lisalisa13]

Just checked my husbands plan he's getting 4gig for $29. No idea how he got that, must've been the special they had when he upgraded last year. guess I'll have to see what they offer me when i go in next week. Definitely want the sg4, that much is decided, so waiting impatiently for launch day!

 

[Sal R.]

Im in the same boat.

If you sit and do the math it actually makes sense to buy the phone at full price.

Yup. For the amount of data my family uses per month, I'd definitely be paying more out of pocket over the span of 2 years versus buying a phone at full retail.

 

[lisalisa13]

Yup. For the amount of data my family uses per month, I'd definitely be paying more out of pocket over the span of 2 years versus buying a phone at full retail.

Not the case for me, we never go over, so wondering what best plan would be for us.

 

[BLeClair12]

I agree with the general consensus that, when possible, it's most cost effective (in the long term) to buy the phone outright and keep your unlimited data, especially if you're a heavy streamer. I was strongly considering going that route, until I got the word that my father's company would hand me a $70 check each month, so long as he had unlimited minutes. That brings the cost of our plan down dramatically, still gives me plenty of data to work with, and saves me money right out of the gate.

My two options looked like this...

KEEP UNLIMITED:
$238 (give or take depending on tax) per month - 1400 shared minutes (which my father could wipe out in 15 days), unlimited texting, unlimited data on 1 line, 2gb on each additional line

SHARE EVERYTHING:
$200 (plus tax), minus $70 (company input) - unlimited minutes, unlimited texting, 6GB of shared data

Nearly $100 a month in savings because of the money from the company. It was a no brainer for me, but I know it's certainly not the norm for most people. I would have never considered share everything until that check came into play. They were hesitant to contribute any money if he didn't have unlimited minutes because they could have put him on a corporate plan for less, but he'd have to ditch his phone number. His job involves a lot of phone communication, and he's built such a wealth of contacts over the years that they actually considered his phone number an asset and were willing to pay a little extra to let his phone stay independent.

 

[jseah]

Just checked my husbands plan he's getting 4gig for $29. No idea how he got that, must've been the special they had when he upgraded last year. guess I'll have to see what they offer me when i go in next week. Definitely want the sg4, that much is decided, so waiting impatiently for launch day!

That was the double data promo. He got it if he upgraded to an LTE smartphone. So instead of paying $30 for 2 GB, he got 4 GB for the same price.

 

[lisalisa13]

That was the double data promo. He got it if he upgraded to an LTE smartphone. So instead of paying $30 for 2 GB, he got 4 GB for the same price.

Oh gotcha thanks that won't be an option then

 

[lisalisa13]

I agree with the general consensus that, when possible, it's most cost effective (in the long term) to buy the phone outright and keep your unlimited data, especially if you're a heavy streamer. I was strongly considering going that route, until I got the word that my father's company would hand me a $70 check each month, so long as he had unlimited minutes. That brings the cost of our plan down dramatically, still gives me plenty of data to work with, and saves me money right out of the gate.

My two options looked like this...

KEEP UNLIMITED:
$238 (give or take depending on tax) per month - 1400 shared minutes (which my father could wipe out in 15 days), unlimited texting, unlimited data on 1 line, 2gb on each additional line

SHARE EVERYTHING:
$200 (plus tax), minus $70 (company input) - unlimited minutes, unlimited texting, 6GB of shared data

Nearly $100 a month in savings because of the money from the company. It was a no brainer for me, but I know it's certainly not the norm for most people. I would have never considered share everything until that check came into play. They were hesitant to contribute any money if he didn't have unlimited minutes because they could have put him on a corporate plan for less, but he'd have to ditch his phone number. His job involves a lot of phone communication, and he's built such a wealth of contacts over the years that they actually considered his phone number an asset and were willing to pay a little extra to let his phone stay independent.

That's the info i was looking for thanks. So it looks like i could even upgrade my son to a smart phone with this plan for the same price I'm paying now, hmmm

 

[logan197612]

I checked with my local Verizon store and they said the 12 month financing only applies to their tablets and can't be used on phones.

 

[Speedy3]

I agree with the general consensus that, when possible, it's most cost effective (in the long term) to buy the phone outright and keep your unlimited data, especially if you're a heavy streamer. I was strongly considering going that route, until I got the word that my father's company would hand me a $70 check each month, so long as he had unlimited minutes. That brings the cost of our plan down dramatically, still gives me plenty of data to work with, and saves me money right out of the gate.

My two options looked like this...

KEEP UNLIMITED:
$238 (give or take depending on tax) per month - 1400 shared minutes (which my father could wipe out in 15 days), unlimited texting, unlimited data on 1 line, 2gb on each additional line

SHARE EVERYTHING:
$200 (plus tax), minus $70 (company input) - unlimited minutes, unlimited texting, 6GB of shared data

Nearly $100 a month in savings because of the money from the company. It was a no brainer for me, but I know it's certainly not the norm for most people. I would have never considered share everything until that check came into play. They were hesitant to contribute any money if he didn't have unlimited minutes because they could have put him on a corporate plan for less, but he'd have to ditch his phone number. His job involves a lot of phone communication, and he's built such a wealth of contacts over the years that they actually considered his phone number an asset and were willing to pay a little extra to let his phone stay independent.

Couldn't you just upgrade to unlimited minutes? I too have 1400 minutes and just went to my account and added unlimited minutes and the site said I would be paying $209.96 per month. You still will get the $70.00 credit from your dad's company which will put you in the $130.00 range right?

 

[lisalisa13]

Decided I'm gonna go with share anything. Going to upgrade my son to a smartphone as well. He doesn't want to spend money on a phone so think the incredible is the best freebie?

 

[HutRU01]

Get the Galaxy S3. There are some great deals on it right now. Plus there is a ton of custom development, roms, and theming for the S3.

 

[k1ngr4t]

With my family we have 3 smartphones. Not sure what the final bill is, I believe it's about $240 a month though. (I still use my mom's plan and just pay her my share monthly since she has a corporate discount), but we have the share family plan now and it doesn't matter at all. We now have 6gb of data to use per month, my mom is....well, a mom, so barely uses data stuff when not on wifi, my brother and I use about the same amount, so we're usually pushing about 2gb a month, give or take...which leaves more than enough room to spare.

I think what it comes down to is if you are around wifi a good bit, basically work and/or home, unlimited data means nothing anymore. If you don't ever have wifi and want to stream a bunch of stuff, then unlimited is the only way to go. But it sounds like your family is in the same boat as mine, so you shouldn't have any trouble with family share.

A lot of people dislike family share because it's not unlimited, but in 97% of those cases people don't even reach the alloted 2gb for single use. Moreso than usage it comes down to wifi availability though....

 

[BLeClair12]

Couldn't you just upgrade to unlimited minutes? I too have 1400 minutes and just went to my account and added unlimited minutes and the site said I would be paying $209.96 per month. You still will get the $70.00 credit from your dad's company which will put you in the $130.00 range right?

I can no longer see the "old" plans because I've already made the switch, but my new bill was sitting at roughly $230 before tax (the extra $8 I had figured in originally was a miscalculation) when I activated my mom's iPhone (not including her upgrade fee - I paid that out of pocket, didn't tack it onto the bill). That was with 1400 minutes. I don't recall what the jump up to unlimited minutes was, but it would have had to have put me well over $250 before tax.

Adding in the 3rd smartphone is what pushed me over. I was at $100 for basic access, plus $9.99 for each line, and another $90 for data.

 

[Dusty]

No way I'm giving up my unlimited data. At the rate I use data (especially when I travel) paying for the share plan data would cost an extra $80-$100 per month. If I just buy a phone off contract I'll make that money back within months by not switching plans.