Carrier AT&T family plan with FAN discount - Help me understand Mobile Share Value

[Orangechipper]

Math.

Tell me which is cheaper.

What i want is two lines.
unlimited text and calling. 10GB shared.

If i go on 2 year contract.

Its 100 + 40 per line. or 180/month. + i pay 199.99 for iphone 6 i want
and i pay 499.99 for iphone 6+ i want.

Over 2 years. 4320 + 700 = 5020 total. + 40/each line for activation. TOTAL of 5100

IF i go next.

That's 100/month + 15/line. so 130/month.

Plus Iphone 6 costs me right at $30/month. Iphone 6 plus costs me roughly $35/month. So thats right at 195/month over 24 months.

That's 4680 over 2 years.

How is next not a better deal???? I'm saving roughly 420 over course of 2 years.

And finally. If you keep next entire 2 years. You stop paying for the phone and you own it. So after two years on next. I'm paying 130. After 2 years on contract still paying 180. So savings EVEN BIGGER after 2 years are up with next.

 

[ftaok]

That's 4680 over 2 years.

How is next not a better deal???? I'm saving roughly 420 over course of 2 years.

And finally. If you keep next entire 2 years. You stop paying for the phone and you own it. So after two years on next. I'm paying 130. After 2 years on contract still paying 180. So savings EVEN BIGGER after 2 years are up with next.

For you, NEXT is a better deal. But that's not always the case, a lot depends on the type of FAN discount you can get.

The OP has older plans and a very generous FAN discount. I ran the math and he'd pay more for a 10GB Mobile Share plan than he would with his existing plan. This would still be the case after the two year contract is up and even with the $40 activation fee included.

Keep in mind that the OP's plan is not the norm and in many (most??) cases, NEXT comes up cheaper. Especially if you decide to not upgrade right away.

 

[pacohaas]

I switched my plan online and it was extremely clear that if I sign a 2-year contract and get a subsidized device, I lose the $25/line discount.

The screenshots I included in the 1st post do not make that very clear. They show my current charges ($209.96) and estimate my charges after switching at $175 (minus $25 for our FAN which they clearly state below the estimate). So as a consumer, I would believe them and think it's going to be $150 instead of the $176.15 we currently pay after taxes and discounts. They fail to make clear what effect the "on contract" and "off contract" lines would have on any of this or what would change if we got a new smartphone on the off-contract line.

 

[T5BRICK]

The screenshots I included in the 1st post do not make that very clear. They show my current charges ($209.96) and estimate my charges after switching at $175 (minus $25 for our FAN which they clearly state below the estimate). So as a consumer, I would believe them and think it's going to be $150 instead of the $176.15 we currently pay after taxes and discounts. They fail to make clear what effect the "on contract" and "off contract" lines would have on any of this or what would change if we got a new smartphone on the off-contract line.

Because you signed your contract on those lines prior to 3/8/2014, then you'll get the $15 per line price. If you upgrade any of the lines using NEXT, you'll pay the additional fee for the phone. If you buy the phone outright, the line charge remains the same. I suggest staying away from the traditional subsidy style upgrades, because you end up paying more than what the phone is worth in the long run.

I actually switched to this plan, with 4 smart phones and a dumb phone shortly after it was released. It's a pretty good deal for my family, since most of them use their phones until they die.

 

[pacohaas]

Because you signed your contract on those lines prior to 3/8/2014, then you'll get the $15 per line price.

I actually switched to this plan, with 4 smart phones and a dumb phone shortly after it was released. It's a pretty good deal in my opinion.

Where do they mention 3/8/2014? What would happen if we upgraded the off-contract device today to an iPhone 6 and then switched to Mobile Share? What about if we switched to Mobile Share and then upgraded that line to an iPhone 6 with a 2-year agreement?

 

[mtneer]

The old family plans had one "parent" line which got charged the plan amount and the rest of the phones on the plan paid ~$9.99 to stay in. Then data and messaging gets added on.

The new NEXT plan has a base shared data package and every line then pays an access fee of $15 or $40.

In my case, with 4 unlimited data plans, the cost of the parent plan + 3 x $9.99 comes out lower than 4 x $40 (since we upgrade phones every two years, not sooner). 4 unlimited data plans is like 4 x 5GB plans = 4 x $30 = 20 GB for $120 (albeit shared equally, not in a ratio decided by you).

Moving off the old plans will only work out for the better if we kept phones for longer than 2 years. Fronting the payment to reduce monthly bill is just moving money from AT&T's left pocket to their right pocket.

 

[rui no onna]

The screenshots I included in the 1st post do not make that very clear. They show my current charges ($209.96) and estimate my charges after switching at $175 (minus $25 for our FAN which they clearly state below the estimate). So as a consumer, I would believe them and think it's going to be $150 instead of the $176.15 we currently pay after taxes and discounts. They fail to make clear what effect the "on contract" and "off contract" lines would have on any of this or what would change if we got a new smartphone on the off-contract line.

There's a cross next to the $15 charge. The explanation may not be on your cropped screenshot but it does say you the smartphone line access fee goes up to $40 if you sign a 2-year contract.

 

[T5BRICK]

Where do they mention 3/8/2014? What would happen if we upgraded the off-contract device today to an iPhone 6 and then switched to Mobile Share? What about if we switched to Mobile Share and then upgraded that line to an iPhone 6 with a 2-year agreement?

I got my dates switched around. It's 2/2/14.

For plans 10GB or higher, AT&T customers with smartphones on 2-year wireless agreements prior to 2/2/14 are eligible for the $15/mo. access charge.

You'll find it here:

http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html#fbid=XV-xLuPTXI-

 

[pacohaas]

There's a cross next to the $15 charge. The explanation may not be on your cropped screenshot but it does say you the smartphone line access fee goes up to $40 if you sign a 2-year contract.

You're right, the cross says:

†If you upgrade a smartphone to a 2-year wireless contract, you will no longer be eligible for a monthly discount. To continue to receive a discount, upgrade with AT&T NextSM, bring your own smartphone or pay full price for a new smartphone.

and there is no cross by the dumbphone, it'll just always be $15 it seems. What's confusing is even this fine-print makes it sound like all our lines will be $15 right now. What it should say is 3 of those 4 lines are $40, not $15 which is a huge difference and somewhat false advertising.

 

[T5BRICK]

What's confusing is even this fine-print makes it sound like all our lines will be $15 right now. What it should say is 3 of those 4 lines are $40, not $15 which is a huge difference and somewhat false advertising.

If the dates in the images in your first post are correct, you'll be getting all 5 lines at $15. Follow the link I posted above. If you signed those contracts before 2/2/14(which you did), then you're "Grandfathered" in and the lines will be eligible for the discount.

 

[Ortiz7983]

I entered my iCloud email to see if I could get a discount, I qualified. Now, how do I know how much the discount is?

 

[pacohaas]

If the dates in the images in your first post are correct, you'll be getting all 5 lines at $15. Follow the link I posted above. If you signed those contracts before 2/2/14(which you did), then you're "Grandfathered" in and the lines will be eligible for the discount.

And then as soon as anyone gets a new phone (whether it was on or off-contract before the switch to Mobile Share), it would go up to $40 for that line and any savings we had would be a wash with the added benefit of AT&T "letting" us upgrade to iPhone 6 on all the lines and pay that extra $40/month for the pleasure? If we still wait until each line would have been eligible for an upgrade (as we are used to doing), would we avoid that upcharge?

 

[T5BRICK]

And then as soon as anyone gets a new phone (whether it was on or off-contract before the switch to Mobile Share), it would go up to $40 for that line and any savings we had would be a wash with the added benefit of AT&T "letting" us upgrade to iPhone 6 on all the lines and pay that extra $40/month for the pleasure?

Correct. This is exactly why you do not use the "subsidy" type upgrade when you're using these new plans. You end up paying quite a bit more than the phone is worth.

If we still wait until each line would have been eligible for an upgrade (as we are used to doing), would we avoid that upcharge?

No, if you use the "subsidy" type upgrade, then you're going to get charged an additional monthly fee per upgraded line.

You stated in your original post that 4 out of 5 of the users on your plans just use their phones until they die or lose them. That is exactly how the members in my family behave.

You need to calculate the cost over a few years on the new plans with the full price phones that you'd plan on buying in that time frame and compare it to the cost of the plan and phones over the same time period with your current plan. When I did the math, I saw that I'd be saving money overall, but it wasn't a significant monthly amount. I did gain unlimited texting and a little extra data per person, so it was worth it.

 

[pacohaas]

You stated in your original post that 4 out of 5 of the users on your plans just use their phones until they die or lose them. That is exactly how the members in my family behave.

You need to calculate the cost over a few years on the new plans with the full price phones that you'd plan on buying in that time frame and compare it to the cost of the plan and phones over the same time period with your current plan. When I did the math, I saw that I'd be saving money overall, but it wasn't a significant monthly amount. I did gain unlimited texting and a little extra data per person, so it was worth it.

Actually the other way around, 1 out of 5 users (the only smartphone that is off-contract right now) will hold onto her phone until it breaks. The other 3 smartphones upgrade roughly every 2 years whenever AT&T says we're eligible for the (subsidized) price that they and Apple advertise, sometimes we're eligible a little early, sometimes we wait a little longer if it's nearing a new iPhone announcement. The basic phone never upgrades, it's an emergency line with an old flip phone that we're ok paying ~$8/month for after taxes.

 

[deeddawg]

Yep, AT&T is being very shady about the whole $15 or $40 per line fee issue.

Not to defend AT&T, but it's not really fair to blame them for people being stupid.

The $15 vs $40 is simple. If you switch to Mobile Share and have a subsidized phone on contract you pay the full $40. If your phone is paid off or financed in some other maner it's $15. It stays $15 unless you later buy a subsidized phone on a 2year contract.

I moved my family plan over several months ago and have enjoyed the savings. For our usage and circumstances it made sense to switch over; that won't be true for everyone, you have to evaluate your own specific circumstances. Be careful of sweeping generalizations, this is a complex the question considering the many different plan permutions someone might be coming from as well as the widely varying differences in usage/needs.

No offense to anyone who already did it, but Next stands for NEXT SUCKER Keep the family plans you have with the unlimited you have.

Umm... Next and Mobile Share are two different things. Plus you're generalizing as if you've evaluated all possible situations, which you clearly haven't else you wouldn't put forth such a myopic claim.

 

[Vertigo50]

Not to defend AT&T, but it's not really fair to blame them for people being stupid.

The $15 vs $40 is simple. If you switch to Mobile Share and have a subsidized phone on contract you pay the full $40. If your phone is paid off or financed in some other maner it's $15. It stays $15 unless you later buy a subsidized phone on a 2year contract.

I moved my family plan over several months ago and have enjoyed the savings. For our usage and circumstances it made sense to switch over; that won't be true for everyone, you have to evaluate your own specific circumstances. Be careful of sweeping generalizations, this is a complex the question considering the many different plan permutions someone might be coming from as well as the widely varying differences in usage/needs

In the OP's case, I think Mobile Share is a bad choice. I'm not making sweeping generalizations. People with a lot of lines who fully understand the plan and its caveats have saved some money, and that's great. It's also a bad plan for me. I would spend $60 a month extra for LESS data than I have now, even if you count my unlimited data as 5 GB. Then when we upgrade, we would be paying an additional $25 a month if I didn't do NEXT.

The only thing I'm making a minor generalization about is the fact that AT&T are quite obviously not being clear with people about the change in fees when they upgrade. As I said before, there were dozens of threads at upgrade time about people who didn't understand why their bill was going up. Yes, you can make the argument that they should have read the full agreement. But do you read every line of every Terms and Agreements you see? Did you read the entire iTunes agreement this last time? It says that if you click "Agree" you sign over your first-born child. I hope you noticed.

The point I'm making is that the difference in the $15 and $40 fees per line is a HUGE part of the plan, and it's clear that the reps were not being forthcoming about it, instead highlighting all the "savings" people would get with the Mobile Share plan. When it's such a big part of the plan, that is shady.

 

[deeddawg]

In the OP's case, I think Mobile Share is a bad choice. I'm not making sweeping generalizations.

My comment about sweeping generalizations wasn't directed at you specifically as much as it was an overall caution, sorry if I wasn't clear.

I agree that from what I've seen of the OP's situation, he's better off staying with what he has. Mobile Share is sometimes the better path but not always. Depends heavily on upgrade frequency, voice minutes usage, data usage, etc. Each person really needs to model their own situation to see which makes sense for them.

 

[Vertigo50]

My comment about sweeping generalizations wasn't directed at you specifically as much as it was an overall caution, sorry if I wasn't clear.

I agree that from what I've seen of the OP's situation, he's better off staying with what he has. Mobile Share is sometimes the better path but not always. Depends heavily on upgrade frequency, voice minutes usage, data usage, etc. Each person really needs to model their own situation to see which makes sense for them.

No problem. In fact, the sweeping generalizations usually flow the other way. There are dozens of threads like "Why do idiots still keep their unlimited plans when they could save money?" I guess I just try to balance it out a bit.

But I agree with you that the best strategy is to carefully calculate all the options and see what works for you.

 

[pacohaas]

I agree that from what I've seen of the OP's situation, he's better off staying with what he has. Mobile Share is sometimes the better path but not always. Depends heavily on upgrade frequency, voice minutes usage, data usage, etc. Each person really needs to model their own situation to see which makes sense for them.

Thank you, that does seem to be the consensus for me (which is why I opened the thread). Thanks to everyone for weighing in and helping make sense of this for me. I wish AT&T would let you easily see the cost of buying new devices when comparing their Mobile Share plans, that's a big piece of the puzzle and they leave it out of the numbers that they show us to entice us to switch even though they know most smartphone users are used to upgrading every 2 years or so.

It would be nice if they showed how long we would have to keep our existing phones to "break even" on upgrading to say an iPhone 6 vs our old plan. Then we'd at least have an idea of what to shoot for and when to upgrade. I know the whole point of NEXT is to be able to upgrade when you want and do so more often, but again that's why it's difficult to decouple NEXT from Mobile Share plan discussions.

 

[ftaok]

Thank you, that does seem to be the consensus for me (which is why I opened the thread). Thanks to everyone for weighing in and helping make sense of this for me. I wish AT&T would let you easily see the cost of buying new devices when comparing their Mobile Share plans, that's a big piece of the puzzle and they leave it out of the numbers that they show us to entice us to switch even though they know most smartphone users are used to upgrading every 2 years or so.

It would be nice if they showed how long we would have to keep our existing phones to "break even" on upgrading to say an iPhone 6 vs our old plan. Then we'd at least have an idea of what to shoot for and when to upgrade. I know the whole point of NEXT is to be able to upgrade when you want and do so more often, but again that's why it's difficult to decouple NEXT from Mobile Share plan discussions.

It's easy enough to set up a spreadsheet to see how long you'd have to keep the phones in order to break even. I even did one for your situation.

Bottom line, with the way your FAN is set-up, there is no way for Mobile Share to work out, presuming you stay with the 10GB plan.*

* - I assumed that the user with the feature phone would upgrade to a new feature phone at a price of $300. I also assumed that your FAN only discounted the data portion of the Mobile Share plan and not the $15/month charge.

 

[Arran]

It would be nice if they showed how long we would have to keep our existing phones to "break even"

The phone companies will never do that. Clarity in cellular pricing is the last thing they want. It would lead to awkward comparisons.

I agree it's frustratingly complicated. I've done countless spreadsheets over the years. Surprised there isn't a TurboTax-like app that takes all your details and just tells you which plan to buy!

 

[rui no onna]

The phone companies will never do that. Clarity in cellular pricing is the last thing they want. It would lead to awkward comparisons.

I agree it's frustratingly complicated. I've done countless spreadsheets over the years. Surprised there isn't a TurboTax-like app that takes all your details and just tells you which plan to buy!

I think right now, the most confusing part is the presence of grandfathered plans. For all the new subscribers, they only have the option of Mobile Share Value and More Everything as well as the promotional Verizon 2GB single line. Both Mobile Share and More Everything are expensive for 1-2 line customers. Prepaid options or the Verizon single line are much better. On both, if you have less than 10GB, contract is cheaper. If you have 10GB or more, Next/Edge or buy outright is cheaper.

 

[pacohaas]

I think right now, the most confusing part is the presence of grandfathered plans. For all the new subscribers, they only have the option of Mobile Share Value and More Everything as well as the promotional Verizon 2GB single line. Both Mobile Share and More Everything are expensive for 1-2 line customers. Prepaid options or the Verizon single line are much better. On both, if you have less than 10GB, contract is cheaper. If you have 10GB or more, Next/Edge or buy outright is cheaper.

Now you're confusing this thread even more by bring up Verizon options? I do love when those commercials come on because "More Everything" reminds me of an awesome Portlandia sketch. Do you want "Simply Everything" or "Simply Everything Plus"?

 

[rui no onna]

Now you're confusing this thread even more by bring up Verizon options?

AT&T Mobile Share Value and Verizon More Everything plan pricing is comparable and for new customers, these are the only plans you can sign up for anyway. If you're a new customer, it's really not that confusing. You pay a base amount for a certain number of shared GBs and a per line fee of $15-25 for no contract smartphones or $40 for smartphones on 2-year contract.

The confusion stems primarily from those who are on varying old grandfathered plans that you can't sign up for anymore and follow a completely different pricing scheme. For that, calculations need to be made and which is better will vary on a case-to-case basis.

 

[pacohaas]

Exactly, which is why I started this thread to determine the difference between my plan and Mobile Share. Not Verizon vs ATT or anything else.