Cell phone/service advice - legacy Verizon unlimited data iPhone 4

[mattkime]

>>current bill ranges between $133 and $140.

take a careful look at what you use. you might be able to get to half that with a month by month plan.

I save $40-50/month with my month by month plan. Thats about $600 i can put toward iphones.

[timg]

rgG wrote:
[quote=timg]
I'd love to know how to get an upgrade without losing my unlimited data.

My current plan is 450minutes talk, no texting (use google voice) and unlimited data.

I never come close to using the talk time, but my data usage has been over 2GB routinely. The last 3 months were 2.3GB, 2.9GB and 2.2GB.

The last device "upgrade" I did, I paid full price for the phone in order to keep the plan.

How much do you pay per month for the unlimited data plan.
If you run the numbers, you still might be better switching to a different plan, getting a subsidized phone, and just paying for the overages, when you go over.
When I ran the numbers for my mother-in-law last year, it made a lot more sense just to switch plans.
I'm paying $30 for the unlimited data and $30 for the minutes. plus all those extra fees they always tack on brings the total to around $65 monthly.

[rgG]

timg wrote:
[quote=rgG]
[quote=timg]
I'd love to know how to get an upgrade without losing my unlimited data.

My current plan is 450minutes talk, no texting (use google voice) and unlimited data.

I never come close to using the talk time, but my data usage has been over 2GB routinely. The last 3 months were 2.3GB, 2.9GB and 2.2GB.

The last device "upgrade" I did, I paid full price for the phone in order to keep the plan.

How much do you pay per month for the unlimited data plan.
If you run the numbers, you still might be better switching to a different plan, getting a subsidized phone, and just paying for the overages, when you go over.
When I ran the numbers for my mother-in-law last year, it made a lot more sense just to switch plans.
I'm paying $30 for the unlimited data and $30 for the minutes. plus all those extra fees they always tack on brings the total to around $65 monthly.
That is a good deal, for unlimited data then, and perhaps you should just buy a phone or phones outright to keep it, since you say you don't need more minutes or texting. If you switched to any other plan, you would get more minutes and more texts, but you would not come close to that price for data.
You could go with Straight Talk and get Verizon phones, but the latest iPhone they have right now, that runs on Verizon, is the iPhone 5, for $400. For $45 a month, you would get unlimited talk and text and they say unlimited data, but realistically it would be at least 2GB and then you might get a warning about excessive data usage.

Straight Talk has other less expensive smartphones, too, and it is rumored that they will be getting LTE in October, but right now all Verizon data on ST is 3G. Going with ST could save you a fair amount of money, per year, but you would have to decide if giving up the unlimited data is worth it.

If you want to check out Straight Talk and want to make sure you see only the Verizon offerings, since they also sell phones and service on ATT & TMobile, plug in zip code 30673, which is a Verizon only service area, and it will only show you Verizon compatible phones.

[silvarios]

$133-$140 is pretty pricey for two lines, especially with the lack of messaging and paucity of minutes. If you are using less than 2GB/month, you should switch plans. T-Mobile gives me four lines for $129/month (I have high taxes on cell phones where I live). Unlimited calling, unlimited messaging, 2.5GB per line until 2016, then reverts back to 1GB per line. After I hit the cap, the data gets throttled. No overages. Even a new Verizon plan is likely to be better than your current plan. Probably about the same amount of money, but more minutes/messaging/little bit of data.

[onthedownlow]

bazookaman wrote:
[quote=Gareth]
[quote=onthedownlow]
Stick around a little while - there will probably be some loophole that will allow you to keep your unlimited plans - always has been.

In the past, the way you keep an unlimited plan with Verizon has been to buy the phone at full price (and thus, no 2 year contract either).
My brother has upgraded his phone a couple times and never lost his unlimited data.
As well as I - Unlimited data with Verizon still with an iPhone 5s.

Yes, the only true option they will tell you (and always works, for now) is that you just have to pay full price for the phone, that's all.

Not only that, but there are ways to do it if you have multiple phones on your account (just by upgrading one of the phones eligible for an upgrade and then switching out SIMs, etc....do a search, easy stuff). Some people even keep a secondary phone on the account just for this purpose and every other year (or two) upgrade like that.

[rgG]

Just read this over at Slick Deals:

For those who still have their UDP and will be losing it with this upgrade; Verizon will give you a 6GB plan for the same $30 price when you upgrade. It's not unlimited, but I think the majority of us won't use more than 6GB/month.

[timg]

rgG wrote:
Just read this over at Slick Deals:

For those who still have their UDP and will be losing it with this upgrade; Verizon will give you a 6GB plan for the same $30 price when you upgrade. It's not unlimited, but I think the majority of us won't use more than 6GB/month.

you got a link for that? If it's really 6GB for the same price, I think that might be enticing enough.