Best deal for a Verizon S4?

[rover95disco]

Wife is ready to replace her Stratosphere with an S4 and I would like to save a little money, any suggestions?

 

[Erikbal]

I saw Walmart had them for $148 I believe it was. Worth checking into anyways.

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[reybie]

Are you on a shared plan already? My wife had the stratosphere also and I had to go through hoops to be able to keep the promotional 4GB/$30 plan she was on.

I also saw that ~$150 Walmart pricing, which is the reason I asked about the plan.

 

[dezymond]

Is she due for a new contract or looking to get it outside of signing a new contract?

If for new contract, Amazon had a great price a few weeks back. Make sure to check that her data plan isn't promotional so that it doesn't change if she does opt into a new contract.

If for used device, Swappa is a great site to buy from. You'll pay more as you're not buying at subsidized prices, but Swappa has some good deals and all phones on sale have to be verified with their IMEI #.

 

[rover95disco]

Her phone is the second on a family plany and the contract has been up for a while. I didn't even think about the data plan, she has 4gb for $19.95.

 

[dezymond]

Because of her plan I would recommend you contact Verizon regarding that promotional data plan. Otherwise you may be bumped down to a 2gb plan

 

[reybie]

Yeah, that is going to be a tough one to keep. I went to Costco but their system will not let it go through without changing the plan to a 2GB shared. Went to corporate store and they didn't even try.

 

[Lars]

Check Target. It's usually not a place I would get a phone but I could not pass up the deal (snagged mine for about $65). Price was $139.99, minus $69.00 for trading in my OG Droid Razr, and used an additional $5 off coupon. They were running a trade-in promotion where you would get an additional $25 credit for trading in your phone. My Razr was valued at $44 (+$25 = $69), so I opted to go for it. I am sure I could have made more money on Craigslist but this was hassle free.

Regarding the unlimited data, the salesman suggested I contact Verizon and essentially request to get my unlimited back and see where it gets me. He advised I would likely have to be extremely persistent and potentially threaten to cancel my service, but we will see. It's not a huge deal to me because I am almost always connected via WiFi, but it's worth a shot.

 

[WisconSIN68]

Not likely that you will keep unlimited. Any subsidized phone negates your being grandfathered.

 

[chadwick108]

It is still possible to keep unlimited data but Verizon reps are difficult to find that will pull strings to do it. Needless to say it was worth the 100 miles out of the way in order for me to keep my unlimited and get S4

 

[dezymond]

It is still possible to keep unlimited data but Verizon reps are difficult to find that will pull strings to do it. Needless to say it was worth the 100 miles out of the way in order for me to keep my unlimited and get S4

This is true.

However, it's from other people's experience that leads me to believe that an authorized retailer may be more open to helping customers keep their unlimited data plan. Usually the employees at these retailers tend to be younger and more willing to help out and sorta "stick it to the man" by helping a customer retain something as precious as unlimited data. I noticed this before I stepped into a Verizon corporate store that the sales team were more willing to help me keep my unlimited data than actual Verizon employees. Verizon themselves can help retain unlimited data using the same methods, but they'll try everything to tell you that it can't be retained before "checking" to see if it'll work.

 

[Lars]

Regarding the unlimited data, the salesman suggested I contact Verizon and essentially request to get my unlimited back and see where it gets me. He advised I would likely have to be extremely persistent and potentially threaten to cancel my service, but we will see. It's not a huge deal to me because I am almost always connected via WiFi, but it's worth a shot.

Edit - never mind

 

[bbtkd]

Just be sure not to tell anyone...

 

[zebo51]

Back on topic
Fry's $95 for new or upgrade. Just picked one up last night and liking it so far. Bionic converted.

 

[luddy]

I was able to get the phone for $149 at Amazon and Verizon waived the upgrade fee of $30 for me. I never had unlimited data so nothing I could do there.