upgrading and keeping unlimited data

[s_cuttic]

I don't want to beat a dead horse so I'm gonna keep this to the point...

I've read about the loophole for keeping your unlimited data.

I just have a few questions for anyone who has done it very recently...

I want to get the S5 and retire my droid razr maxx and I'm looking at purchasing the phone on Amazon for $49.99. Best Buy has it in store only so they're not an option and VZW wants $199 for the phone (after a $50 mail-in rebate) plus a $30 upgrade fee.

When I select the phone and start the checkout process, I select "keep my current plan" and pick the generic 2GB data plan (only because they make me) but I'm kinda unsure about the next part where it makes me pick one of two messaging options... "Pay per use messaging starting at $0.20 per message and $0.25 per video/picture message for $0" and "1,000 Messages for $10"

If I select the $0 plan, will I still keep my current messaging plan when I switch SIM cards or will it change me to the $0 plan?

Also, there's no option for me to keep my current equipment protection. I can't add any equipment protection. The only option is "No device protection for $0".

If I select this, will I lose my current equipment protection plan?

The reason I'm asking is because I've read about how sometimes swapping SIM cards puts a "pending activation" on your account and if I get switched to the pay per message plan and no equipment coverage plan, will I be able to switch back to what I have? Or is that all pointless because I'm "keeping my current plan".

I guess I just want to know what all stays on your "plan" when you upgrade but select "I want to keep my existing plan"





Also, when I swap SIM cards, I know I don't power up the S5 until I put my old SIM card from my razr into the S5 but do I have to go online to vzw.com and do anything or is it basically plug and play...swap SIM cards and I'm good to go...nothing else needs to be done?

I'm just trying to get everything right so I don't get stuck on a 2gb plan.

I was chatting with a vzw representative today and she said that they're offering 10GB of data for the price of 6GB and 15 for the price of 12GB but $80 for 10GB is too much. I could possibly squeak by with about 5 - 6GB but nothing less.

 

[s_cuttic]

If anyone is following this, the upgrade worked fine. I paid $50 and upgraded through Amazon.com. I turned the old phone off, took out the sim card that was installed in the new phone, put my old sim card in and powered up the phone. I didn't have to activate it or anything. I just had to set up the phone and sign in to Google. That's it. I kept my current plan, protecting and unlimited data.

 

[grenefroggie]

If anyone is following this, the upgrade worked fine. I paid $50 and upgraded through Amazon.com. I turned the old phone off, took out the sim card that was installed in the new phone, put my old sim card in and powered up the phone. I didn't have to activate it or anything. I just had to set up the phone and sign in to Google. That's it. I kept my current plan, protecting and unlimited data.

Congrats!! I am happy to hear that worked out for you!!

 

[FoxKat]

I have only one comment or recommendation, and the reasoning behind it... Watch your pricing plan carefully, especially over the next two billing cycles. I've heard from some horror stories where this buy and swap comes back to haunt them. In some of these reports I've heard how this eventually gets caught by the Verizon servers and the members' pricing plans changed without any warning.

The reason Amazon.com is selling you the $599.99 phone at a deeply subsidized price of $50 is they have an arrangement to share in revenue that Verizon receives from the new pricing plan and/or new line of service contract that you agree to when you purchase the phone. Amazon (and Verizon), depends on receiving that revenue to offset the subsidy and still make a profit. They are looking to recover the $549.99 over the coming 24 contact months of the new data plan.

As part of the agreement you "sign" electronically with Amazon, Verizon reserves the right to enforce the new pricing plan based on the agreement. If Verizon won't let you do the same deal with them directly, and I know personally that they won't, then they wouldn't be very smart to let a direct competitor use them to back-door their own restrictions. Amazon.com makes no money on the phone, all the profits for them comes from the new activation or qualified upgrade.

Some have said that it would take an audit of each individual new purchase plan to catch this and reclaim the revenue by dumping you out of the unlimited plan and into a tiered plan. Truth is computers are capable of tracking, backtracking, catching and triggering pricing plan changes without human intervention and with no emotion.

Verizon has been trying to prevent customers from keeping the unlimited data plan, or getting customers to drop that plan in exchange for a tiered plan for a couple years now. They've systematically closed loophole after loophole, and the last two big loopholes were just closed. First, you cannot upgrade a non-data phone line to a smartphone under the subsidized pricing, move that smartphone to an unlimited phone line and avoid the addition of a data plan on the line that was upgraded.

Second, you can no longer assume an unlimited data line from another subscriber and retain the unlimited data plan. Prior to that change which took place only a couple months ago, people were selling unlimited data pricing plans under the Assumption of Service (AOS). Now it forces you onto a tiered pricing plan after the line transfers. Some were sold on eBay for literally $1,000 or more.

I've been a customer of Verizon for 21 years and over that time I've seen lots of things done that people said they would never do. I don't doubt that the reports of pricing plans changing without notice are true.