Carrier [Confirmed] Verizon Unlimited Loophole

Hello, I've read through a lot of the thread and I believe that what I want to do should work fine, but I want to confirm the steps.

I currently have a family shareplan with 1 line with a smartphone with UDP and upgrade available and 2 other lines with dumbphones, one which has an upgrade and one that doesn't. In order to properly transfer my upgrade from my UDP line, I have to transfer the upgrade to the dumbphone line through the website and order it through the website at that time, correct?

Then when the phone comes, I activate it on the dumbphone line, and then wait a few minutes and activate the old dumbphone back onto it, right? Then I wait a day and activate the brand new, de-activated phone onto my UDP line?

AppleFanatic10 said:

I heard that it isn't a good idea to do *228 on the iPhone 5 because of the LTE network. Not sure why though, so I'd call them back and ask them about the *228 thing.

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Thanks. That could be. The *228 on the 5 was redundant anyway. I was just trying to clear all the pending activations shown online. I should have just been more patient because today all is well and all pendings are gone. So the moral of the story is you can indeed purchase the 5 on a dumbline upgrade, then activate on the UDP line and everything will eventually work out. I don't know if my extra *228's had any effect, but at least they had no negative effect.

koolkal said:

Hello, I've read through a lot of the thread and I believe that what I want to do should work fine, but I want to confirm the steps.

I currently have a family shareplan with 1 line with a smartphone with UDP and upgrade available and 2 other lines with dumbphones, one which has an upgrade and one that doesn't. In order to properly transfer my upgrade from my UDP line, I have to transfer the upgrade to the dumbphone line through the website and order it through the website at that time, correct?

Then when the phone comes, I activate it on the dumbphone line, and then wait a few minutes and activate the old dumbphone back onto it, right? Then I wait a day and activate the brand new, de-activated phone onto my UDP line?

Click to expand...

That's not quite right. You can never transfer or use an upgrade from your UDP line or you will lose unlimited. Just order the upgrade on your existing dumb line (online), then activiate on your UDP line. You may have some bogus pending upgrade warnings online on the dumb line for a day or two.

EDIT: Turns out this is incorrect. See later posts.

mdavej said:

Thanks. That could be. The *228 on the 5 was redundant anyway. I was just trying to clear all the pending activations shown online. I should have just been more patient because today all is well and all pendings are gone. So the moral of the story is you can indeed purchase the 5 on a dumbline upgrade, then activate on the UDP line and everything will eventually work out. I don't know if my extra *228's had any effect, but at least they had no negative effect.

That's not quite right. You can never transfer or use an upgrade from your UDP line or you will lose unlimited. Just order the upgrade on your existing dumb line (online), then activiate on your UDP line. You may have some bogus pending upgrade warnings online on the dumb line for a day or two.

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This is Not accurate.... I transferred the upgrade from my UDP to my dumb line... Activated the new iphone 5on my dumb line... Then removed iphone 5 from dumb line... Thus returning dumb line to dumb status..... My unlimited line - - - - where the upgrade came from is intact..

bsbuggs said:

This is Not accurate.... I transferred the upgrade from my UDP to my dumb line... Activated the new iphone 5on my dumb line... Then removed iphone 5 from dumb line... Thus returning dumb line to dumb status..... My unlimited line - - - - where the upgrade came from is intact..

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Sorry, I was restating what others have said. You are correct. I just tried it, and it worked fine. Thanks for the correction.

What I just did was transfer my unlimited upgrade to another line. When I used the upgrade, there was no changed to the donor line's unlimited plan (besides 2 yr extension).

mdavej said:

Sorry, I was restating what others have said. You are correct. I just tried it, and it worked fine. Thanks for the correction.

What I just did was transfer my unlimited upgrade to another line. When I used the upgrade, there was no changed to the donor line's unlimited plan (besides 2 yr extension).

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But did you do this online? I want someone to sya they did this at a non-verizon owned place like bestbuy or walmart.

i did one upgrade online, I did another at the apple store.

bsbuggs said:

i did one upgrade online, I did another at the apple store.

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So what was the actual process of transferring an upgrade (and not simply upgrading a line and then moving its phone to another one) from a line to another line, online or otherwise?

Did mine online as well. I think the key is to not upgrade the unlimited line directly. You can transfer its upgrade to another line or activate a phone on your unlimited line that was upgraded on another line. There seem to be a lot of conflicting posts regarding transferring the upgrade FROM your unlimited line to another line, but it worked fine for me.

Log into my verizon number under the transfer /upgrade to tab click that the move the upgrade to another line.

Sorry to ask this but I just want to clarify.

Right now, I have a family share plan where all the phones are up for upgrade.
Primary phone = unlimited
Second and Third phone = feature/dummy phones

1) Upgrade the second phone to iPhone5 on verizon website.
2) After I receive it, activate it on the second phone.
3) Cancel it the next day and switch back to the original feature/dummy phone.
4) Wait a day, and switch my primary phone to new iPhone5.

Reason I ask is because I log into my verizon account to try and upgrade my second phone and see this:

Full Retail Price $649.99
2-Year Contract $199.99
PRICEwith 2-Year contract $199.99

Please let me know if I am going about it correctly. Much appreciated.

spliu said:

Sorry to ask this but I just want to clarify.

Right now, I have a family share plan where all the phones are up for upgrade.
Primary phone = unlimited
Second and Third phone = feature/dummy phones

1) Upgrade the second phone to iPhone5 on verizon website.
2) After I receive it, activate it on the second phone.
3) Cancel it the next day and switch back to the original feature/dummy phone.
4) Wait a day, and switch my primary phone to new iPhone5.

Reason I ask is because I log into my verizon account to try and upgrade my second phone and see this:

Full Retail Price $649.99
2-Year Contract $199.99
PRICEwith 2-Year contract $199.99

Please let me know if I am going about it correctly. Much appreciated.

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That sounds right and also if you feel uncomfortable doing it on your own you can go to third party verizon dealers who will do it if you explain to them how you want it done. Plus if you need a new sim card they can give you one too as you are buying the phone. I asked the guys at best buy mobile if they can do what you are trying to do as I am looking to do the same thing next month and they said they can do it in fact they knew how to do it.

comptr said:

That sounds right and also if you feel uncomfortable doing it on your own you can go to third party verizon dealers who will do it if you explain to them how you want it done. Plus if you need a new sim card they can give you one too as you are buying the phone. I asked the guys at best buy mobile if they can do what you are trying to do as I am looking to do the same thing next month and they said they can do it in fact they knew how to do it.

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Thanks. To clarify my question, the online checkout says pricing under 2 year contract even though I am upgrading the second phone and not the primary phone. Does that mean I have to commit for 2 years? Or do I just check-out and ignore this as this is my 2nd phone and not my primary phone?

confirmed

LONG POST, BUT I DID SOME OF THE HOMEWORK FOR YOU ALL SO ITS ALL GOOD!!


I can confirm that the loophole still exists. I just upgraded on January 11, 2013.

- I had an upgrade available on one of my UNLIMITED DATA lines
- I had a 9.99 add a line with a dumbphone on it that didnt have an upgrade
- I have a ANY MOBILE TALK & TXT SHR 700 which is an old plan

NOTE: I stressed over trying the loophole bc i chatted on chat with a few verizon reps. About half of them said i would STILL lose my UNLIMITED data even if i transfered the upgrade and upgraded through a dumbphone line. About half said i wouldnt lose it, and were ready to take my order. The thing is, how can you trust the online system?? If they were wrong, you lose UNLIMITED DATA forever. So my SUGGESTION is to go to a corporate VERIZON store. That is what I did. That way you have a person/manager held accountable if they gave you bad info.

He transfered my upgrade to my moms line(dumbphone) and did the upgrade. He placed the order and said I would receive my phone in 2 days. So I went to my online acct - -
One of the posters is correct, for about 2 days my your online account will show your UNLIMITED DATA line has upgraded, and instructs to activate the phone on the UNLIMITED DATA line when it arrives. 2 days later when my phone arrived, the instructions disappeared. At this point, it seems like you have a good esn phone to use on any line you want or to sell.

* Just to be sure, I took my phone in the box back to the Verizon corporate store and told them about what it said online and asked him to do it himself. He was more than happy to...He activated the SmartPhone on my moms line and put it on the 2gig plan.

* 2 hours later, I called Verizon Customer care and told them I wanted to put the dumbphone back on the line and drop the data plan. They may ask why youre doing that. I just said my mom couldnt get used to the phone and wanted her old phone back.

End of story...I now have a new clean esn smartphone, my UNLIMITED DATA line is still good. THE CONTRACT IS EXTENDED FOR ANOTHER 2 YEARS ON THE UNLIMITED DATA LINE.

So have at it....but do it through your local Verizon Corporate Store. Just dont say that your plans are to remove the smartphone later and drop the data plan on the dumbphone line.

I need clarification on this

Ok, I know it was probably explained earlier in the forum but I'm really stupid with this stuff so I need exact details on what to do.

Right now, me and my family have a family plan:
Me and my 2 sisters all have iPhone 4's with unlimited data.
My mom has an old enV3 with no data,
And my dad has a crappy old Samsung with no data.

What do we need to do exactly for me and my sisters to retain our unlimited data when we upgrade to iPhone 5's? (The 5 of us are all eligible for upgrade in March)

so it's pretty much an extra $9.99 month per phone? Since you have to have the dumb phone line active. right?

Tried this today at two Verizon stores, one corporate, one premium, they said no-go. If you try and use an upgrade from a line with unlimited data in any way, ie transferring it to a dumb line, the original line loses its unlimited data. It would appear they've closed the loophole, but if anyone can confirm this is still working, would love to hear it as I can't seem to find a place that will do it.

billku said:

Tried this today at two Verizon stores, one corporate, one premium, they said no-go. If you try and use an upgrade from a line with unlimited data in any way, ie transferring it to a dumb line, the original line loses its unlimited data. It would appear they've closed the loophole, but if anyone can confirm this is still working, would love to hear it as I can't seem to find a place that will do it.

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Just do it online. The reps are clueless.

They don't seem clueless, they seem adamant that the loophole doesn't work anymore. Maybe they're wrong, but I'm afraid to do it online and risk my unlimited plan going away. Do you have any advice that would protect it? Thanks if you do...

billku said:

They don't seem clueless, they seem adamant that the loophole doesn't work anymore. Maybe they're wrong, but I'm afraid to do it online and risk my unlimited plan going away. Do you have any advice that would protect it? Thanks if you do...

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You can try this: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/16647486/.

I ended up finding a Verizon rep on chat on their site who guaranteed I could do it and said he would notate my file to that end, so I ordered the phone online. Interestingly, he said to order the upgrade on the original line, then, when it arrives, activate it instead on the line I want it to go to (my wife's), and in doing so I would not lose unlimited on the original line. Flies in the face a little of what people are saying here, but maybe the key is the initial activation. I pray to god he's right when I call to activate the phone. I do have a copy of the chat I can send to the activation rep if he disagrees, fingers crossed...

billku said:

I ended up finding a Verizon rep on chat on their site who guaranteed I could do it and said he would notate my file to that end, so I ordered the phone online. Interestingly, he said to order the upgrade on the original line, then, when it arrives, activate it instead on the line I want it to go to (my wife's), and in doing so I would not lose unlimited on the original line. Flies in the face a little of what people are saying here, but maybe the key is the initial activation. I pray to god he's right when I call to activate the phone. I do have a copy of the chat I can send to the activation rep if he disagrees, fingers crossed...

Click to expand...

so how dod it go?

Phone is arriving tomorrow, I will report back...

billku said:

I ended up finding a Verizon rep on chat on their site who guaranteed I could do it and said he would notate my file to that end, so I ordered the phone online. Interestingly, he said to order the upgrade on the original line, then, when it arrives, activate it instead on the line I want it to go to (my wife's), and in doing so I would not lose unlimited on the original line. Flies in the face a little of what people are saying here, but maybe the key is the initial activation. I pray to god he's right when I call to activate the phone. I do have a copy of the chat I can send to the activation rep if he disagrees, fingers crossed...

Click to expand...

I would advise against that. Activate it first on the line you don't mind losing unlimited data on. Then:

1) wait till next morning before activating on the line you want OR
2) go to apple store and get a new nanosim so you can activate right away

So activated the iphone I received today using this method. The first rep I called said it absolutely couldn't be done. Referred me to upper management and wanted me to FAX in the chat transcript from the rep that guaranteed I could do all this. So I called back, got another rep, and she activated the phone on my dummy line (as the prior poster suggested), no problem, and I still have my unlimited data. Going to switch it to my wife's line (which has unlimited data) tonight or tomorrow. Sometimes I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that this giant company is so all over the map when it comes to their policies and how they enforce them. I guess it's a good thing as it allows us to skirt some policies, but it's frustrating having to deal with reps who insist opposite things are true...

One more question to complicate things...

I have 5 lines on a family plan...ALL 5 with unlimited data. I don't mind sacrificing unlimited data on one line.

Do I simply:

1) transfer upgrade to whichever line will lose the data.
2) Activate new phone on line losing data.
3) Activate dumb phone on line losing data.
4) Activate new phone on unlimited data line.
5) Lather, rinse, repeat on additional 3 unlimited data lines.

Thanks for your help. This thread has been VERY informative!