The New Verizon Plan

[king3pj]

Has anyone here switched to "The New Verizon Plan"? I'm currently on something called the More Everything Loyalty Talk and Text 4GB Plan. My current plan has 4GB of data with unlimited calling and texting with 5 lines.

The base price is $50. We have two dumb phones at $20 each instead of the normal $30 because they are out of contract. We also have one out of contract iPhone 5 at $25 per month and two iPhone 6 that are under contract for $40 per month. This brings the total to $195 before taxes.

Our current plan has worked pretty well but we went over our data last month for the first time and paid a $15 overage. We have gotten the text messages informing us that we have used 90% of our data a couple days before the billing cycle ends 3 or 4 months in a row now.

If I switched to the new 4GB plan it would be $5 cheaper per month and I would have the benefit of rollover data. This might be enough to keep us from going over in the future. Another option would be to step up to the 8GB plan for an extra $15 per month.

I'm wondering what the catch is here. It seems like there has to be a downside to this. Does anyone know how phone upgrades would work under the new plans? All of our upgrades have been under the old model where they subsidize the cost of the phone and you sign a 2 year contract. I'm guessing this is gone now and you either have to pay full price or lease phones for an extra monthly charge. That could be the way it works under my current plan too now. Has anyone with experience with the new upgrade model worked out how much more it costs you to upgrade?

 

[mdram]

new phone upgrades are a cost per month
no more subsidizing.
cost goes from @ 10 a month to 30, varies by model
website has the actual numbers
i typically buy my phones used from swappa or craigs list

oh and iirc the data only rolls over for 1 month, after that its gone

 

[king3pj]

new phone upgrades are a cost per month
no more subsidizing.
cost goes from @ 10 a month to 30, varies by model
website has the actual numbers
i typically buy my phones used from swappa or craigs list

oh and iirc the data only rolls over for 1 month, after that its gone

I just checked the website and a 16GB iPhone 6S would cost $27 per month under the new upgrade method. The old way with a 2 year contract is still available to me though. Assuming this is still an option on the new plan I prefer doing it this way. Instead of paying $27 per month for 2 years for an iPhone 6S you pay $200 and sign a 2 year contract. We aren't looking to upgrade right now but this is good information to have.

You are right about the roll over data only going forward one month. It's still better than nothing on our current plan though. The option I think I will actually go for is the 4GB plan with the $5 "Saftey Mode" add on. This add on allows you to go over your data limit with reduced speeds instead of paying the normal $15 per 1GB overage fee. Between that and the rollover data we shouldn't have to worry about our data every month anymore. If I find that we are going over the 4GB cap regularly I will pay the extra $10 for 8GB without Safety Mode.

Switching to the new plan with Safety Mode add on will bring our total to the exact same price we have now. The benefit seems to be not having to worry about data overages.

 

[mdram]

when you change to the safety mode plan, you may not have the old $200 upgrade option

im still on 2 lines with unlited data, if i choose any upgrade option, i lose it

 

[Juan]

when you change to the safety mode plan, you may not have the old $200 upgrade option

im still on 2 lines with unlited data, if i choose any upgrade option, i lose it

U can buy a phone with installments now

 

[harshness]

Our current plan has worked pretty well but we went over our data last month for the first time and paid a $15 overage. We have gotten the text messages informing us that we have used 90% of our data a couple days before the billing cycle ends 3 or 4 months in a row now.

If I switched to the new 4GB plan it would be $5 cheaper per month and I would have the benefit of rollover data. This might be enough to keep us from going over in the future.

If you're averaging 4GB/month, there won't be anything left to roll over so that's not a win. I'd be willing to wager that data usage will go up rather than down going forward and if a little overage is the same cost as twice as much data, you might as well not worry about it.

 

[king3pj]

If you're averaging 4GB/month, there won't be anything left to roll over so that's not a win. I'd be willing to wager that data usage will go up rather than down going forward and if a little overage is the same cost as twice as much data, you might as well not worry about it.

Well I would say that we use about 90% of our 4GB but we have only gone over once ever. That last 10% being rolled forward might be enough of a buffer that we don't go over.

Plus I am also thinking about getting the $5 Safety Mode add on that basically lets us have unlimited data at 128Kbps once we go over our 4GB. This only saves us $15 versus just going up to the 8GB plan without Safety Mode but since we have only gone over 4GB once it seems like a waste to pay an extra $15 for 8GB every month.

I'm also aware that 128Kbps is a massive speed decrease from the LTE speeds we are used to but that would only kick in if we go over 4GB and it's still probably fast enough for most of what we do on our phones. That's even fast enough for the normal quality (96 Kbps) mobile streaming for Spotify. It's almost enough for their high quality (160 Kbps).

 

[harshness]

If you are warned every month and have to think about it, then you're paying one way or the other.

You don't seem to be contemplating that your collective usage will ever do anything but stay the same and you will come to rue that omission.

 

[mdram]

also, the actual totals they use for the warning a several days behind, just an fyi

 

[king3pj]

If you are warned every month and have to think about it, then you're paying one way or the other.

You don't seem to be contemplating that your collective usage will ever do anything but stay the same and you will come to rue that omission.

I do understand that. That's why I was on the website looking to make changes today. I originally planned to just move up to the next size data package but I saw the new plans while I was doing that.

The point I was trying to make is that with the Safety Mode feature I won't have to think about us going over anymore. I will just get reduced speeds on the portion that is over 4GB if I do. Like I said, most of what we do on our phones probably won't have a big impact from slower speeds and even if it does we have only gone over 4GB once and only by 200MB when we did. Is that last 200MB at 128Kbps really going to be that big of a deal? I don't think it will for us.

Of course I will upgrade to 8GB for $15 if we start to go over 4GB on a regular basis and we end up getting bumped down to 128Kbps for more of our usage. I just think it's a waste to pay the extra $15 every month now just because we went over our data limit by 200MB one time in all the years we have had service with Verizon.

 

[Neutron]

I just swapped our old 10gb plan to the new 16gb plan for an $8 a month increase. I like the carry over option.


Sent from my iPad using the SatelliteGuys app!