Verizon Wireless New Plans August 2015: Existing Customers Should Compare Prices

September 7, 2015 By Jonathan Ping 7 Comments
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In August 2015, Verizon Wireless announced that it was ending 2-year contracts for new customers. Before, you got a ~$450 discount on a new phone but also got locked into a 2-year contract with an inflated monthly plan price. Now, you have to buy your own phone, but the monthly plan is cheaper. The basic monthly breakdown is that you pick a shared data size below and add $20 per phone line. Unlimited talk and text. Data overages are $15 per GB.

verizon_new1

It was supposed to be simple, but there was still a bit of confusion. Here are some clarifications. Verizon customers with grandfathered or legacy plans can keep their plans if they want to. But if they switch to a new plan, they can’t switch back. Verizon customers currently in a 2-year contract can even keep and renew their existing plan with another 2-year contract if they want to (and get a subsidy).

With the previous structure, folks who finished their 2-year contracts and frugally kept their old phone were still stuck paying the inflated monthly plan price. Reader CJ tipped me off that such post-contract customers should try switching to the new plans with lower monthly prices:

Not sure if you saw it, but Verizon finally got rid of 2-year contracts, which means anyone not currently under contract should switch to the new “Verizon Plan” and save a bunch of $$ instantly. I just did, and for 3GB of data my plan went from around $140 for 2 phones down to $80.

If you are currently still under a Verizon contract, you can also switch over to the new plans. If you are currently under a 2-year contract you will have a $40 per phone access fee instead of the new $20 per phone access fee. (That $20 a month is the baked-in subsidy payback. Notice that $20 x 24 months is $480 and the upfront phone discount was ~$450.) Depending on your data plan size, most people will probably see not net change in price, but some may discover a semi-hidden discount.

Bottom line: Verizon has new plans. All customers (on or off contract) should check to see if switching over will save you money. You may or may not discover any savings, but Verizon won’t automatically check for you.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers, Frugal Living
Last updated: September 7, 2015
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Comments

  1. Michael C. says
    September 8, 2015 at 7:37 am

    After 2 years on a contract at Verizon, I discovered their prepaid plans:
    http://www.verizonwireless.com/prepaid/

    For one phone, I pay $45 for unlimited talk and text and 2 GB of data (data hotspot functionality included). I don’t have the option of a family plan and I already had Verizon hardware, so it was the best deal I could find to stay with Verizon. When I went to the store to set it up (unnecessary trip FYI), I found out they also had an unadvertised $45/mo plan for people who have completed the 2-year phone pay-back period. Same deal but post-paid instead of prepaid.

    I hear AT&T now has a similar plan as well.

    Anyhow, it’s another option to consider, if you don’t need a ton of data and have 2 or fewer phones on your plan.

    Reply
    • k says
      March 18, 2016 at 10:54 pm

      beware of prepaid plans. a few features may not be available. both AT&T and Verizon don’t allow wifi calling with them. with verizon there is no talk and surf and att will drop from LTE to 4G on calls.

      Reply
  2. Jeremy says
    September 8, 2015 at 10:05 pm

    Thanks! Just dropped from about $120 for 2 GB to $85 for 3 GB.

    Reply
  3. Andy says
    September 9, 2015 at 6:45 am

    Nice. I just switched us from a 4 GB per to 3 GB shared plan. We rarely use more than 1 GB per month. I would have done the 1 GB, but the 3 GB plan was only $6 more with our corporate discount. Anyway, we now get unlimited texts (paid $.10 per before) which will save us a few dollars per month, and the monthly charge is $5 less until March, when our 2-year contract expires, at which point we will be saving $45 to $50 per month.

    Thanks!

    Reply
  4. John says
    January 11, 2016 at 12:33 am

    Nice. I just Switched from 12 GB per to 6 GB shared plan.

    Reply
  5. marc bergeron says
    August 17, 2016 at 5:27 pm

    been paying big money each month for my daughter and my phones she has a iphone 6s i have a cheapo flip phone well i lost my flipphone now they want to charge me another 40 bucks for a replacement thats even cheaper looking and will probably break if i sneeze on it so i can pay large monthly bills wow nice customer loyalty

    Reply

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