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Are there "hidden" rate plans for the iPhone?

L

Lord Sandwich

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 29, 2005
131
0
Just wondering if anyone's tried calling AT&T to see if they could negotiate for a non-standard rate plan.

I'm an SMS+email kind of guy (as are all my friends) and as such hardly call anyone; 450 minutes with rollover is absolute overkill for me. I'd much rather have, say, 200 minutes and unlimited text messaging.

If anyone can save me a potentially futile call to customer service, I'd greatly appreciate it. :)
 
I have 39.99 1000 anytime w/ unlimited nights & weekends, unlimited m2m. (But no rollover)

I had my media works plan with the iphone (don't ask but I did) which gave me 1500 text messages instead of the standard 200.

However my voicemail never worked correctly, and so opted to add the regular iphone data plan and pay the extra $10 a month for the 1500 text.

Still have my voice plan though. :D
 
"Hidden" plans are more of a Sprint thing than an AT&T thing.

Typically, they'll keep old plans active for people who haven't changed to a newer plan, but they won't sell (or give) them to anyone else.

If you're already a customer and call them threatening to cancel, there's a chance they might give you an additional bundle of minutes / messages, or give you a credit... but there's just as much chance that they'll let you cancel.

Pushing around their CSR's isn't the same as with most other carriers. And as a new customer, you can negotiate phone price all day long (assuming it isn't an iPhone), but there's not a whole lot of wiggle room on the plans.
 
Twinkie said:
"Hidden" plans are more of a Sprint thing than an AT&T thing.

Typically, they'll keep old plans active for people who haven't changed to a newer plan, but they won't sell (or give) them to anyone else.

If you're already a customer and call them threatening to cancel, there's a chance they might give you an additional bundle of minutes / messages, or give you a credit... but there's just as much chance that they'll let you cancel.

Pushing around their CSR's isn't the same as with most other carriers. And as a new customer, you can negotiate phone price all day long (assuming it isn't an iPhone), but there's not a whole lot of wiggle room on the plans.
Click to expand...

Very true... I'm currently with Sprint and have an amazing family plan with 2 thousand minutes for $100
 
Twinkie said:
Pushing around their CSR's isn't the same as with most other carriers. And as a new customer, you can negotiate phone price all day long (assuming it isn't an iPhone), but there's not a whole lot of wiggle room on the plans.
Click to expand...

Ah, that's what I figured. :( Wish I could sell these minutes to somebody else!
 
jolton said:
I have 39.99 1000 anytime w/ unlimited nights & weekends, unlimited m2m. (But no rollover)

I had my media works plan with the iphone (don't ask but I did) which gave me 1500 text messages instead of the standard 200.

However my voicemail never worked correctly, and so opted to add the regular iphone data plan and pay the extra $10 a month for the 1500 text.

Still have my voice plan though. :D
Click to expand...

How did you get that plan? Were you an AT&T customer before and just had them transfer your plan to the iPhone?
 
here is an option. when you sign up for iPhone and you are an existing AT&T customer, they keep your voice plan and only add a $20 a month data plan. so go to AT&T sign up for the cheapest voice plan you can find (do they even have a 200 minute plan?), then register the iPhone so you only add the $20 extra. thats an option, but i dont know if the $20 extra makes it too expensive.
 
wPod said:
here is an option. when you sign up for iPhone and you are an existing AT&T customer, they keep your voice plan and only add a $20 a month data plan. so go to AT&T sign up for the cheapest voice plan you can find (do they even have a 200 minute plan?), then register the iPhone so you only add the $20 extra. thats an option, but i dont know if the $20 extra makes it too expensive.
Click to expand...
The cheapest plan they offer is $39.99/month for 450 minutes.
 
plan

jolton said:
I have 39.99 1000 anytime w/ unlimited nights & weekends, unlimited m2m. (But no rollover)

I had my media works plan with the iphone (don't ask but I did) which gave me 1500 text messages instead of the standard 200.

However my voicemail never worked correctly, and so opted to add the regular iphone data plan and pay the extra $10 a month for the 1500 text.

Still have my voice plan though. :D
Click to expand...

I think this is pretty much the same plan I have. how did you get it to sign up just the data? I called ATT and they said, no you have to get a new plan.

I'd like to get an iphone and just ADD the 20$$ data plan that everyone talks about. how is this done?
 
tivoboy said:
I think this is pretty much the same plan I have. how did you get it to sign up just the data? I called ATT and they said, no you have to get a new plan.

I'd like to get an iphone and just ADD the 20$$ data plan that everyone talks about. how is this done?
Click to expand...

I think what is being said is that if you are already an AT&T customer you can simply use your existing phone number and add the $20 data plan to it. Or if you have a family plan at AT&T then you can add another line for anywhere from $10 to $15 per month plus activation cost plus the $20 data plan.

I had / have a family plan with AT&T so I just switched an existing number to use the iPhone and the total cost is $20 per month. Plus taxes of course.

With all plans though you must agree to a new 2 year contract when you activate the iPhone.

I hope this helps.
 
managed it

I managed to get ATT to give me a new orange account, with about the same as I had. 1200 minutes, M2M, N&W for the 39.99$ I was paying, so it only cost the extra 20$ to sign up. Had to do it over the phone though, on the itunes activation, it said "plan not compatible" But, I called and got a good CSR and told them, I would just return the phone. So, she signed me up for the 39.99$ plan for 450 minutes and poped in 750 extra minutes.
 
Wirelessly posted (MOT-Q9/01.04.35R Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; Smartphone; 320x240) Opera 8.65 UP.Link/6.3.0.0.0)

TurboSC said:
yea I know my family has some funky old plan that still is active for them.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I still have a plan from way back when they first were merging the Cingular and ATT stuff. They peobably never updated their plan because they didn't need to. Some of the older plans are actually better, but to the OP - you probably won't be able to negotiate. Atleast none of my friends have been able to talk them into less minutes more texts. Sorry
 
There really needs to be a plan like this. If I didn't have a shared plan with my wife I would only need about 200 "anytime" minutes, maybe 1000 nights and weekends on my busiest months, and the 200 texts with unlimited data would be a perfect iPhone plan for me. Should cost like $40 or so.

You could look into a prepaid plan, though. All the ones they advertise for the iPhone are more expensive than the regular plans, but if you call and ask you might find there's a good deal on a low number of voice minutes and the unlimited data plan.
 
I've got the Family Plan...

that includes one iPhone and three other phones. We have 1400 Anytime Minutes with Rollover of about 6,000+ minutes, I removed all $9.99 400 Text Msg & 1MB Data plans and replaced them with Family Unlimited Text Plan at $29.99, and though my iPhone plan states 200 text msgs and unlimited data ($20 per month), I have upgraded to unlimited text msgs for my iPhone as well. My son text msg was over the 400 on our plan by 690 msgs, and AT&T gave me a full credit for signing-up with Family Unlimited Text Plan. :cool:
 
mrgreen4242 said:
There really needs to be a plan like this. If I didn't have a shared plan with my wife I would only need about 200 "anytime" minutes, maybe 1000 nights and weekends on my busiest months, and the 200 texts with unlimited data would be a perfect iPhone plan for me. Should cost like $40 or so.
Click to expand...

Where are those rates (for pre-paid slash pay-as-you-go)? I can't find the numbers anywhere.
 
kuebby said:
Where are those rates (for pre-paid slash pay-as-you-go)? I can't find the numbers anywhere.
Click to expand...

They're not advertised, but are presented to you when you fail the online activation credit check. You can Google 'iPhone prepaid" and you'll find a few blog posts with screenshots/details.
 
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