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

For AT&T grandfather users, what’s your future plan?

K

kimguroo

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 23, 2007
78
7
I am one of few grandfather users and last time when I upgraded to 6S plus, I felt AT&T wanted to get rid of all grandfather users since they were not allowed me to stay 200 text message serves for $5 and forced me into unlimited message for much higher prices. I told them I am a long time att customer then they said it’s last one time exception for the 200 text for $5.

Now AT&T brought back two unlimited plans. Currently I am paying $159.99 for two lines (grandfather).
My contract will be expired in next month.
I will get the iPhone X and pay in full now on for future phones. I was always on 2 year contract with $200 iPhone but if I have contract free monthly based service with my own fully paid phones, my bill should be much lower since I don’t need to pay subsidized iPhone service fee anymore.

There are two options I have. Keep the old grandfather plan and ask At&T to lower monthly payment or move to new unlimited plan.

New unlimited choice is $125 for two lines and unlimited plus is $155 for two lines.
I am okay with current grandfather plan which is 700 talk, unlimited data and 200 text but I feel that I should not keep paying subsidized fee.
Unlimited choice is cheap but it’s bit limited. Unlimited plus might be slightly over-kill and don’t want to pay almost same as current service price since I pay my phone in full now.

Also There are people who believe that unlimited plus speed was slowed when they changed from grandfather plan so people who has grandfather plan should not change to new unlimited plus plan. Hard to believe it but some people has speed issues with unlimited plus plan so I am worry that unlimited choice might be even worse. Looks like unlimited plus offers better services such as 10gb tethering than grandfather plan so paying $155 is not a bad thing though.

What is your future plan? Why do you want to change service plans or why do you want to stay for grandfather plan which might still need to pay monthly service fee with subsidized phone price.
If AT&T lower my grandfather plan to $130-140, I will happy to stay but it’s not a good idea to pay $160 for grandfather plan. Honestly, I don’t think AT&T will lower my bill after My contract will be expired.
 
I was told my corporate discount isnt available with the new unlimited plans. That would be my main reason for wanting to stay on my grandfathered plan.
 
Still hanging on to my grandfathered unlimited plan, but it is getting harder and harder(as AT&T wants).


I do use between 15-20GB a month, and also pay for HBO(separately) so I feel like it might almost balance out to switch. Currently paying around $90 with my discount, plus 14.99 for HBO via iTunes.

Switching would also finally allow me to hotspot, but I have a mifi from work so it's not the biggest deal. I am also concerned about throttling, price changes, and impossible to determine actual price involved to switch. Seems impossible to even get a bloody quote of what just unlimited plus with HBO and a single line would actually cost. For those reasons i stay.

I have been buying iPhones full price for years out of fear of loosing my unlimited plan...
 
adam1080 said:
Still hanging on to my grandfathered unlimited plan, but it is getting harder and harder(as AT&T wants).


I do use between 15-20GB a month, and also pay for HBO(separately) so I feel like it might almost balance out to switch. Currently paying around $90 with my discount, plus 14.99 for HBO via iTunes.

Switching would also finally allow me to hotspot, but I have a mifi from work so it's not the biggest deal. I am also concerned about throttling, price changes, and impossible to determine actual price involved to switch. Seems impossible to even get a bloody quote of what just unlimited plus with HBO and a single line would actually cost. For those reasons i stay.

I have been buying iPhones full price for years out of fear of loosing my unlimited plan...
Click to expand...

Unlimited Plus w/ HBO is $95 plus tax, or $90 plus tax if you don't mind Auto Pay and Paperless Billing for an individual line.
 
  • Like
Reactions: adam1080
i gave up the UDP last round (7+)and it hasn’t been an issue, what i’m paying now for fixed is much less than the price premium i was paying for UDP and never using
 
  • Like
Reactions: Oridus
Switched to T-Mobile earlier this year and haven't looked back since. 2 lines, unlimited everything, $80 all in.
 
I dropped most of my old unlimited plans ages ago. The new unlimited plus plan is so much better. I get basically all the same unlimited stuff just now I get tethering, but most importantly I can carry around my MiFi for my work laptop and get unlimited data on that instead of having to use my phone's data [and battery].

I do still have a grandfathered individual line. For voice I have 450 minutes, that's plenty for this line. I had 200 bonus minutes... it disappeared a while back and didn't noticed until recently. I never had the 200 message plan. I did have unlimited messages for $20, but wanted to get rid of that. They offered me the same unlimited plan for $10, so I kept that. It does have the old unlimited international data plan... not sure why I'm still playing with that one.
 
If I ever break down and buy an apple watch, now that there is an LTE version, I will have to drop the grandfathered plan then I think...
 
oldhifi said:
Luv TMobile too ...NO contract
Click to expand...

I switched to T-Mobile for about three months back in 2005... worst decision I made. I didn't get signal anywhere and definitely not at home. So I went back to AT&T (well Cingular) and haven't looked at any other carrier since. I guess I never found anything wrong with AT&T, but I have been hearing that T-Mobile has gotten much better.
 
I still have my grandfathered UDP, and have no plans to change right now. The only time I thought about it was when it was unclear whether they’d let me keep it when I moved to AT&T Next. Since that wasn’t an issue, I’m staying with it.

I use just enough data in a month that switching to another plan isn’t going to save me much, if anything, and it’ll just reduce the quality of the random videos I watch. Now, granted, I’m not watching full on movies on my phone, but I like the quality regardless.
 
My family plan has 3 grandfathered UDP held from many years ago. I also have 2 more lines and our total AT&T bill is like $288/month (AT&T raised UDP $5/line two years in a row but not as bad as Verizon did). However, I am considering Verizon's Beyond Unlimited Wireless Plan for $200 (4 lines) + $10/month extra to remove the video streaming resolution restriction (720p crap). AT&T and T-Mobile LTE coverage and speed in my area haven't been as good as Verizon, so we might pull the trigger on jumping ship in a few months. Side note, AT&T got rid of their subsidized phone policy with 2 year contract around January 2016, so we reloaded 3 lines with 2 year contracts to get half subsidized iPhone 6s Pluses in 2016 which means our contracts expire January 2018.
 
adam1080 said:
If I ever break down and buy an apple watch, now that there is an LTE version, I will have to drop the grandfathered plan then I think...
Click to expand...

I have the old 450 Nation plan with grandfathered UDP. I have the new apple watch and was able to activate it on my account. The "key" is not to activate it on the plan; it needs to be activated on your account. It works. Just have to find the agent who knows how to do it.

As an aside, a while back AT&T "upgraded" me to unlimited minutes/texts. I was paying $20/mo for 1500 texts. I called up one day to ask if they could reduce my cost and the agent seemed confused as to why I was still being charged for text messages. She did some magic, and now I pay $40 (at the time it was still $30) for the data & 39.99 for unlimited minutes (texts included no charge), plus I get 21% FAN discount. It's a tough sell for me to change plans for what I pay/have.
 
  • Like
Reactions: adam1080
I went to one of the new unlimited plans this past year. Was on the grandfathered one for years.

I have the one where you get a discount for DirecTV and also I get my 17% for being a government employee. The new unlimited plan lowered my bill by nearly $20/mo. I recently got rid of DirecTV over the summer and AT&T let me keep the discount :). I’d say look at your options. The grandfathered one isn’t necessarily the best anymore.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ntombi
I’m keeping it for as long as possible. The new plans cost more for me over the year than my grandfathered UDP (including the monthly phone subsidy costs for a phone paid off years ago).
 
tatyiona said:
I'm switching to the unlimited plus because
free hbo
$25 direct tv credit monthly
$10 off with paperless billing/auto pay
and 15% off military discount
Click to expand...

Same here. Dropped my UDP on two lines and now share Unlimited Plus on 4 lines. Came out cheaper for me than paying for 4 lines under 2 UDP plus 2 additional data plans. Military also so I kept my discount.
 
I kept my old grandfathered plan. I’ve been using a lower texting option with it and get a corporate discount. When I tried briefly switching to the new unlimited plan, it ended up being about $70/mo more, so I immediately switched back (after a lot of arguing with some junior customer service people that I couldn’t). I will only miss not having the hotspot. I was able to add my LTE watch to this old plan, though I will likely cancel that— it’s actually about $16/mo after fees and taxes (not just $10) and I can’t see myself using it often.
 
Tarheels23 said:
I was told my corporate discount isnt available with the new unlimited plans. That would be my main reason for wanting to stay on my grandfathered plan.
Click to expand...

This is true... however, I have ATT and DirecTV, now an ATT subsidiary. They recently made an offer for customers with both services: Unlimited talk/text/data with 10GB per line of tethered data each month... good (competitive) prices and $25/month service credit in DirecTV plus free HBO. With this deal, I am paying about $44/line for 5 lines... and a $25/month service credit on DTV... that's a deal that I can live with. The $25 DTV credit more than offsets the FAN discount that I used to get.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tarheels23
I dropped UDP a couple of years ago. I am not happy about paying more over all, but the benefits are greater as well.
I recall, when UDP first came out, they did not offer F.A.N. discounts on that either. Later they relented. I am hoping this will happen again.

1. ATT will not lower your bill, off contract. Just forget that idea...
2. I couldn't add my kids to the grandfathered plan, once they got iPhones.
3. I was paying about $139 for grandfathered.
4. Added kids makes that $205 for new UDP after discounts.
5. New plan offered, Unlimited North America T.V.D. Since I visit Canada often enough, this was a value.
6. The new UDP also has some extra advantages roaming in the EU...
7. HBO bonus
8. $25 DirecTV discount was a a factor.
9. $10 discount for paperless billing+autopay, was a factor - though they keep on messing this up.
10. There are some small residual F.A.N. discounts for portions of the bill.
 
I did the unthinkable last spring and ditched my grandfathered plan and $5 text for TMob. There have been some rough patches but connectivity seems to have improved last few months. Unlimited for $70 or $65 months I stay below 2GB is fantastic plus free WiFi on planes and TMobile Tuesday. Love TMobile Tuesday. Greatest marketing gimmick ever.
 
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