Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

AT&T Family Talk -- Can I switch to it later?

S

Siguy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 12, 2008
7
0
Okay, I've got a little question and I was hoping someone here might have some experience with it.

Here's the situation.

My verizon contract is up, my wife's isn't up for 3 months.
I'd like to buy the iPhone this week on an individual plan, and then in 3 months, when she buys an iPhone, I'd like them both to be on a Family Talk plan.

Does anyone know if this is possible? Would switching to family talk break the first iPhone's contract and require paying a huge cancellation fee?

I'm pretty sure AT&T's other phone plans let you switch to family talk part way through your contract and it doesn't matter or even extend your original contract's length, but I don't know if this would work for the iPhone.

I'm of course going to ask AT&T this question but I'm worried they'll just tell me whatever I want to hear.
 
I'm sure it will be fine. Lots of people, including me, will be using the iPhone on the family plan. I don't know how it will work with going from individual plan to family plan but I'm on a family plan with my sister and when my wife's contract runs out with t-mobile, I will break from my sisters family plan and join my wife. I was told it would be an $18 transfer fee.
 
Switching to Family Talk

I'm not sure about the iPhone in particular but I did this same thing a couple of years ago. It doesn't matter if you already have a contract, they'll switch you to family talk whenever you like. The only restriction, I think, is that the plan has to be the same price or higher than the one you signed up with. Most family talk plans are because you're getting the benefits of the shared minutes. However, be advised that internet access is $35.00 per phone. There is no shared internet service with AT&T's family talk.
 
jbx2usa said:
The only restriction, I think, is that the plan has to be the same price or higher than the one you signed up with.
Click to expand...
That is correct. Plus $9.95 per additional line beyond the first line on the account.
 
almost all correct jbx,
you can change from an individual plan to a family talk plan at any point. Because its an iPhone doesn't matter. the only thing that did matter is that they would make you resign your contract if you did this after 6 months of your initial contract. This may not be the case anymore and it wouldn't apply to you in this case. and its $30 for the data plan per line.
 
It doesn't matter, you can switch to the Family Talk plan at anytime.

I switched to the Family Talk two weeks after I bought my 3G phone. Two weeks after that, I added a second 3G phone. You still keep the two year contract, just changes to a two year contract on the Family Talk.
 
im literally on the phone with att doing this now, its called a transfer of service and its a minor pain in the ass

you have to pay an $18 transfer of service fee and both account holders need to be present, not just authorized users, the actual account holders, and you have to go to a corporate att store

oh, also the pricing works so that each 3g iphone will be $40 (10 for the line, 30 for data) in addition to the 2 line family plan base (so say the family plan is 2 phones and the bill is $100/month, then your 3g iphone gets added, the new bill is $140/month)

the main family plan account holder has to sign an agreement saying they will take over the 2 year plan (the 2 year start date remains unchanged, so if you started you plan july 11 2008, the end date stays july 11 2010)
 
nfg315 said:
im literally on the phone with att doing this now, its called a transfer of service and its a minor pain in the ass

you have to pay an $18 transfer of service fee and both account holders need to be present, not just authorized users, the actual account holders, and you have to go to a corporate att store
Click to expand...

No, it's actually very easy to do. Go to the AT&T store and be done with it in 10 minutes. It's really very painless.
 
hexonxonx said:
No, it's actually very easy to do. Go to the AT&T store and be done with it in 10 minutes. It's really very painless.
Click to expand...

actually not so easy if you live hundreds of miles from your family...like i said, im still on the phone now, so i think i know

sorry wanted to add for the op, since you will just be adding your wife's line, you both just need to go to an att store assuming she wants to port her number, your 2 year contract wont change, but hers will end 2 years from the day she signs, and since you are taking financial responsibility for the account, it will effectively extend yours (but not contractually)
 
Re: Switching to Family Talk

I just tried to do this with both mine and my wife's individual plans. :rolleyes:

A month ago we both bought iphones in an Apple store. I was a 1-gen owner, and was upgrading. She was a new customer(both iphone and At&t). Since I was a on a current At&t iphone plan, the Apple store people couldn't convert me to a Familytalk plan in store to add my wife at time of purchase. We both decided to get individual plans (we had stood in line for about 2.5 hours at that point). The Apple store people said we could merge to a Familytalk plan after we got home.

A month went by, and we finally got around to calling into At&t to merge both of us to a Familytalk plan. After 45 minutes and 2 customer reps, finally got through to the transfer department. My wife had called in to give permission for me to assume her plan. The rep said there was a problem, and asked for my wife's cell#. After 5 minutes, the rep swithced back to me and said she was unable to merge the accounts, and could not give me the reason (I had to ask my wife, for security/privacy reasons????).

Apparently, even though I had been an At&t customer since Jan 2008, my wife's plan wasn't eligible for transfer. I guess you have to be on an active plan for 60 days before eligible for transfer. Why the first two reps couldn't tell me this is beyond me.

Anyway, if you are going to do this, ask as many questions up front so as to not waste your time on the phone (or better yet, as other posters have said, go into an At&t store.)

Also, I was easily able to get them to waive the $18 transfer fee, not really an issue. And some areas (I am in Denver) still offer the 550 minutes familytalk plan for $59.99 for the iphone. You just have to ask, since they don't tell you (the reps actually started off as saying that the 700 minute plan was their first plan offered. . .).

Oh, and while your contract doesn't extend another 2-years when adding a pre-existing line to your family talk plan, you do take on the contract end date of the other line if it was established after yours.

And I was told that I would keep my rollover minutes, while my wife wouldn't.
 
badmammajamma said:
And I was told that I would keep my rollover minutes, while my wife wouldn't.
Click to expand...

I too kept my rollover minutes, till I got the first 3G. That wiped out over 4,000 rollover minutes. You get to keep the however if you already have 3G phones and then convert to a Family Talk plan, you just lose them on a new phone that requires a new contract.

Good that you could keep your minutes.
 
It seems that it was harder in this particular case due to the fact that there's 2 accounts owned by 2 different people. In my case, I just upgraded from a single line to a Family Talk. However, as the postings show, it can be done with some pain.

As for the data plan, it is $30 but I don't think that includes text messaging anymore. You have to add it for $5 (starting) extra for any PDA phone, including the iPhone.
 
hexonxonx said:
I too kept my rollover minutes, till I got the first 3G. That wiped out over 4,000 rollover minutes. You get to keep the however if you already have 3G phones and then convert to a Family Talk plan, you just lose them on a new phone that requires a new contract.

Good that you could keep your minutes.
Click to expand...

Weird, I kept my rollover minutes from my 1-gen iphone after upgrading to the 3G.

As for the data plan, it is $30 but I don't think that includes text messaging anymore. You have to add it for $5 (starting) extra for any PDA phone, including the iPhone.
Click to expand...

I am pretty sure that there is only the unlimited text message plan for the familytalk plans, which is $30 month.
 
badmammajamma said:
Weird, I kept my rollover minutes from my 1-gen iphone after upgrading to the 3G.



I am pretty sure that there is only the unlimited text message plan for the familytalk plans, which is $30 month.
Click to expand...

As I stated above, I was able to keep them too when I upgraded to the 3G, it was changing to the family plan that wiped out the rollover minutes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back