Anybody else get caught up in this? I would have been shocked to hear that I had a $100 deposit. $500 had me running out of the store to check to see if someone had stolen my identity. Of course, they hadn't, and my credit is more than fine. I'm still not really sure what the problem is, and NO ONE else is charging me a deposit. Somebody up there doesn't want me to have an iphone.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
$500 Deposit!?
- Thread starter tucker3434
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Welcome to the last 10 years this is not new with cell phones
It is to me. VZW never made me pay a deposit, but I have been a customer of theirs for about 6 years.
And the thing that really bothered me is that I took my lunch break to go get it today. After 30 min someone came to sell me one. After about 15 min of processing in the final step, bang, $500 fee. What a waste of time. No way in hell I'm letting AT&T hold on to my $500 unless they are very competitive with their interest rates.
It could be your credit scores or it could be your payment history. However, you can call verizon and kindly ask them to re-evaluate based on your long history with Verizon. Most of times, they will say yes. However, if it still shows deposit, then sorry. Dump that carrier.
When I turned 18 I started a phone line with AT&T. I had "no credit" so they decided to charge me a $500 deposit.
Long story short, after fighting with AT&T for a good hour, I had to break down and call my mother to start it for me. Thanks Mom
Long story short, after fighting with AT&T for a good hour, I had to break down and call my mother to start it for me. Thanks Mom
It isn't my scores or my payment history. My report is about as spotless can be expected. I probably just have the wrong type of debt. VZW isn't the problem. I can stay with them with no deposit. I was trying to switch to AT&T.
Same thing happened to me. I put up with it and paid. Letting them hold on to the money for a year isn't all that bad, I suppose. Plus I learned my lesson about the value of credit. About 2 weeks after that, I finally got approved for my first CC.
The dumbest thing about it though, is that AT&T doesn't report to credit bureaus, so every single on-time payment never gets reported to build your credit. But as soon as you miss a single payment, all hell breaks lose and you better believe they run to the credit reporters.
The dumbest thing about it though, is that AT&T doesn't report to credit bureaus, so every single on-time payment never gets reported to build your credit. But as soon as you miss a single payment, all hell breaks lose and you better believe they run to the credit reporters.
Length and variety of creditlines are two of the key factors. You could have a 700 credit score but if you only have 4 years of history (CCs, Mortgage, student loan, etc.) it make it harder to judge creditworthiness and companies are skiddish, especially now.
It's because ATT does not grant credit. The only companies that report regular payment history are companies that loan or advance you money. No utility notes payment history on your credit report. However, if you don't pay a bill then they or the credit collection agency they sell your bill to may report non-payment
Either way, there's something in your credit report that fired off a red flag which is causing the 500 dollar deposit. You'll get it back after one year of paying your bill on time.
1st check you credit score make sure there are no issues.
att has the right to request a deposit if they wish.
you have a right to pay or not to pay the deposit and take your money / business else where.
att has the right to request a deposit if they wish.
you have a right to pay or not to pay the deposit and take your money / business else where.
Were your payments on time with VZW? I was pretty young(20) and had to pay a $200 deposit with VZW because AT&T wanted $500. So I changed to get the iPhone 3GS to AT&T 2 years later and AT&T did not require me to have a deposit at all.
I can promise you it's something on your credit report. They don't charge you a deposit for the hell of it. I would guess it's the length of your credit history. How old is your oldest credit account (loan, credit card, etc.)?
Of course Verizon's not going to ask for a deposit from a current customer, but don't be sure they wouldn't if you were trying to open a new account today. The financial world is a very different place now than it was six years ago.
Can you imagine how much wasted data that would transmit, people who were faulty in payments would get lost in the "good boy/good girl" payment transmissions. Generally they don't go running at a missed payment, they have policies with warnings etc that go out first. Then after a period of time you would take a credit hit. It's like the banks. People would never do business with companies if they got hit for EVERY late payment.
Also, might be good for you to know that every time a credit check is done on you without some sort of loan or payment being arranged it shows as a mark on your credit history, so if you are going to check your credit, find out how you can do it without being faulted.
It amazes me how many ppl have no clue how credit works. So many ppl actually believe that they earn credit by paying their utility bills on time. Clueless.
This is how it SHOULD be, but it isn't always so. The gas company here reports payment history; I filed a complaint with the watchdog agency but they wanted me to jump through a bunch of hoops to get a complaint rolling through the machinery. I've also seen the electric company report payment history too.
No, I'm not on a payment plan, before someone asks. I get billed for the month and pay.
I have VzW service for work, so that's not billed to me so I don't know if they report. I should check to see what AT&T does...
Oldest account is 20 years. I am a recent college grad, so most of the meat of my history has been made up over the last few years. I never pay late and I pay my cc off every month. It's been at least two years of that. I thought it would be enough.
If your oldest credit account is two years old, that would definitely be considered a short credit history.
Not sure how you'd have an account that old, but anyways...
I agree that, based on what you've said, it should have been enough. Two things, one, you might consider getting your credit score from FICO (myfico.com) and just make sure it's still decent. Secondly, you may ask AT&T why they're denying you credit. Normally I'd say that they have to tell you, but I'm not sure if a subsidized phone strictly counts as credit or not.
Or get your free credit report at annualcreditreport.com (NOT free credit report, those scum). There won't be a score in there (you have to pay for that from FICO) but it's a quick way of checking all 3 sources of credit info.
You do have to check all 3, AT&T pulls from one of those 3, and the information between the 3 isn't totally sync'd up. You could have 2 great reports and think you're OK when the 3rd has red flags on it.
I don't honestly know either. It's just what my report showed. But, like I said, over the last few years I didn't miss payments on anything. I checked on equifax, which is who at&t told me they use. I guess my history just isn't good enough yet. Maybe I should buy a car and a house?