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AT&T to Stop Offering Two-Year Phone Contracts Starting January 8
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You probably want to keep your current plan. The new plans would be either 5gb with unlimited talk and text for $75 plus the cost of your phone and taxes which would bring you around the price you have now or the 15gb plan which would be $115 plus the cost of the phone and taxes. Either way, you'll be giving up unlimited data and not saving any money.
Are you upgrade eligible now? If so, you might want to get something like the iPhone 5S for free and then sell it for around $200-$300 and put that money aside. When the 7 comes out, sell your 6 and you should come close to being able to buy the 7 outright.
No, once I give up my unlimited plan and take my 4 lines to another carrier I win and AT&T loses.
I'm not giving them a dime again and they lose a 16 year longtime paying customer.
AT&T 5GB a month mobile share plan would be cheaper for you. It's $75 a month for 1 line. And you'll get your discount to lower that further. You could move up to the 10GB plan which is $115 - discount but that would work out to be around the same cost. So no real benefit to you.
I know you said you want to stay with AT&T but have you considered Verizon? From my person experience they have almost identical coverage. Very similar. You could get 6GB for $80 or 14GB for $100.
I have been looking at prices the last few days and AT&T has the worst plans right now.
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Let's for the sake of argument that this is true; the price is "baked into" the price of the monthly payment and AT&T is making even more money after the contract ended. Would it make an ounce of financial sense to end such a payment scheme? Is this AT&T being a fair corporation?
Next argument. Anybody?
It would make sense to end it IF:
FamilyTalk (old) plan + data plan - hidden subsidy cost = Mobile Share (new) plan.
But for a lot of us here this is not the case. For me personally I would pay the exact same amount going from what I have right now to 25GB mobile share. Except I would lose all 5 subsidies. So I would pay MORE, NOT LESS. The problem is AT&T didn't recalculate these new plans to save the customer money by removing the subsidy fee, they recalculated them to actually make AT&T more money.
and yes the new plans can be cheaper for certain people but the more data you use, the less likely that scenario is.
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Sure. The point is anyone who wishes to keep unlimited will continue to pay those "baked in" costs designed to cover the subsidy. I.e., grandfathered unlimited customers will receive no service discount for buying outright so it'll automatically become $450 more expensive for them.
I already said in my post that if you have an unlimited plan, the NEXT discounts aren't comparable or necessarily worth it... and of course these moves are designed to get people off unlimited plans. AT&T is a corporation, they want to make money, and unlimited plans are not getting AT&T what they want... these carriers do not have customers in mind, only profit, and they hope you're along for the ride. My point was that NEXT isn't the horrible, absolutely worst thing possible that a lot of posters here have described it as. It makes a lot of sense if you have a certain # lines/data used (non-unlimited).
Still curious about the opinions of the group on the above scenario...
Does it make more sense to just sit tight and see if AT&T eventually lowers their "line access fee" or data charges at some point versus locking yourself into another contract now to save $45 over the course of 2 years.
Or just plan to put that $405 you would spend extra over the course of the contract into savings and then when iPhone 7 comes out, use it to buy outright. Sure it's not $450 like the full subsidy, but you aren't locked into a contract and your phone isn't locked either. Plus you would be able to take advantage of any price reductions AT&T might do later making the $45 savings be a moot point. Perhaps one day we'll see iPhone go down in price due to competition and loss of subsidy through carriers.
Oh no, if you don't sympathize with us UDP users we're all going to cry
Going Costco to buy some a pack of facial tissue to wipe off my tears.
)) .... Wait I cannot upgrade my line there anymore.
If you have a MSV plan then you should buy the phone at full cost (unless you like paying the $15 upgrade fee). 2 yr contract only makes sense for those that are still on the older FamilyTalk plans.
You have a contract with AT&T. You agreed to pay $40 per line plus the data plan charges for a period of two years to obtain a subsidized phone. Once you are out of contract, you no longer have an agreement. You can agree to AT&T's new terms (i.e. Next or buy phone outright), continue payment of $40 month with a phone discount incentive no longer available or move elsewhere for a better deal.
Why is this soo hard to understand. People on old FamilyTalk plans DO NOT HAVE A $40 access fee, it's only $9.99 per line + individual data plan.
As I laid out above, not necessarily true for single MSV lines that have <10Gb data (line access fee $25 per month). You save $45 over 2 years if you sign a 2 year contract versus not.
If you are on an MSV plan >10Gb with a line access fee of $15 per month, then yes it make more sense to buy phone at full cost.
But who knows what the future holds for AT&T's prices. I seem to recall Verizon lowered their line access fee for a lot of people when they changed their pricing structure recently from what it used to be.
Going Costco to buy some a pack of facial tissue to wipe off my tears.
.... Wait I cannot upgrade my line there anymore.
Get me a family size pack of that kleenex too man. It really hurts when no one sympathizes with me and I have to deal with the struggle on my own
You are right, you get a $45 discount going with the 2 year contract. I still wouldn't do it tho.
I just switched over to T-Mobile and 3 of my phones are unlocked but I have to wait until I get the final bill to unlock the other 2. It's a hassle because of the 2 year contract.
Furthermore I can almost guarantee you that to take advantage of future price savings you will need to change your plan.
With that said, I wouldn't get your hopes up about getting a better deal. I just looked at all 3 major carrier (cuz not Sprint) and AT&T has the worst deals, worse than T-Mobile obviously and even worse than Verizon.
That's why I'm hedging on AT&T having to make their plans more attractive to stay competitive, especially after the mass exodus they are about to undergo.
But we'll see I guess...Even if they eventually lowered their "smartphone line access fee" to $20 per month like Verizon did, then that would make some nice savings over current (certainly would negate the $45 savings if you signed a contract and locked in for 2 years).
That's why I'm hedging on AT&T having to make their plans more attractive to stay competitive, especially after the mass exodus they are about to undergo.
Even if they eventually lowered their "smartphone line access fee" to $20 per month like Verizon did, then that would make some nice savings over current (certainly would negate the $45 savings if you signed a contract and locked in for 2 years).
" AT&T executives promise not to 'chase' customers amid 'noisy' competitive environment"
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story...s-amid-noisy-competitive-environme/2015-12-02
and in recent years AT&T has cuz it's level of investment in towers to record low levels.
Let me clarify. It is $40 per month including data per line so if you have a FamilyTalk 700 with four lines, it is $70 for the first two lines and $20 ($10 per line for each additional line). Messaging is $30 per family. Assuming everyone is on UDP, it is $35 (new rate) per line so the total cost is $70 + $20 + $120 + $30 for a total $240.00 per month. On a 15 gig plan it is $100 + $15 per line for a total of $160 or $190 on a 30 gig plan. This obviously excludes any taxes or FAN discounts.
That's more correct, but I do not understand why you think FamilyTalk 700 is $40 per line based on your math. The $40 per smartphone line on 2-year contract is for the Mobile Share plan.
Not true. I have verified that I can sign up for Next and keep my UDP. However, in my case it would amount to $450.00 more over 2 years vs the contract plan I am currently on. I will be getting a new contract phone before the 8th; my UDP will be locked in for another 2 years.