Easy way to make secondary AT&T's line eligible quickly for iphone 4S full upgrade

[aneftp]

Just did the primary line switch trick.

Here's what you need to do to make your secondary lines almost immediately eligible for a full subsidy $199/299 upgrade.

Requirements:
1. Must have family line (voice/data on primary line must be higher than $99 for at least the past 3 months).

2. The secondary line you want to upgrade with this trick must have upgraded more than 12 months ago

3..After upgrading the primary line to new iPhone 4S, after you receive and activate your iphone 4S, immediately call customer service and ask that (line 2,3,4,5...you pick the line). Ask that line to be moved to primary line.

CS will tell you pro rated charges etc. That's not going to matter in the overall bill so don't worry about it.

4. Now wait. It may take 1-3 weeks but that "new primary line" that previous had to wait to "say Feb/March 2012" for full upgrade. Well that previous secondary line (now primary line) is now eligible fo full upgrade.

So you don't have to wait till Feb/March 2012 to upgrade that secondary line.

You really only have to wait 1-3 weeks for the ATT's system to recognize that "new primary line" is eligible for full upgrade.

I did this trick last year with this primary line/secondary line switch to make both my phones eligible.

It worked this year also. Took about 18 days for ATT's system to make my "new primary line" eligible today for full upgrade. Previously had to wait till Feb 22 2012 for full upgrade. Now it shows $199/299 pricing.

Hope this helps those who want to upgrade.

But please remember the requirements I listed above. They are pretty clear cut. That secondary line must be at least 12 months from last full subsidy upgrade. And primary line must be at least $99/month voice/data (excludes texting)

 

[aneftp]

Wow. Over 300 views in less than an hour an no comments.

This trick does work. It takes 5 minutes.

Just trying to help those who don't want to wait till feb/march so they can get their iPhones full subsidy within the next 3 weeks.

 

[Bluehinder]

It sounds hard!

 

[aneftp]

It sounds hard!

Takes literally 5 minutes. It's not as hard as it seems.

All you have to do is call customer service after you upgrade your primary line and do the line switch. That's it. A 5 minute phone call.

Wait 1-3 weeks and your new "primary line" upgrade date will move up and you can use it to buy a full subsidy iphone 4S instead of waiting till Feb/March 2012.

 

[BlindMellon]

Lot of "ifs" in this trick, the least of which is the part about having a monthly bill over $99.

 

[NathanA]

Lot of "ifs" in this trick, the least of which is the part about having a monthly bill over $99.

Right...this might work for people on family plans where the master/primary account line is > $99 before taxes and is on the 12-month upgrade cycle.

I thought about trying this, but one of the big unknowns for me on this was whether we might risk losing our Premier/FAN discount (which we no longer qualify for, so if we needed to reinstate it again, we couldn't) by juggling lines around like this.

-- Nathan

 

[aneftp]

Right...this might work for people on family plans where the master/primary account line is > $99 before taxes and is on the 12-month upgrade cycle.

I thought about trying this, but one of the big unknowns for me on this was whether we might risk losing our Premier/FAN discount (which we no longer qualify for, so if we needed to reinstate it again, we couldn't) by juggling lines around like this.

-- Nathan

There aren't a lot of Ifs. ($99 primary line) and the line you want to be the new primary has to be more than 12 months since last upgrade (rememeber AT&T moved people's iPhone upgrade by up to six months year so many people even on secondary lines were able to use their last upgrade to buy iPhone 4 more than 12 months ago.

I have a FAN account also. It doesn't do anything to your fan. I just got my bill and the FAN discounts still apply to all my lines. In fact I always get 24% discounts even on the $30 data plans on all 4 of my lines.

I have done this in 2010 and 2011. It works.

Most people with family lines would have at least 2 lines who would have brought iPhone 4 more than 12 months ago.

I was suggesting this switching of lines cause if you have to wait another 4 months for your full upgrade than it becomes a waiting game (should I wait for the sixth gen iPhone by Spring 2012) whereas buying as soon as new iPhone is release makes more sense (for those who like the latest/greatest)