What is the best way to leave Verizon for another carrier "maybe to T-Mobile" and keep my same phone? If I pay off my ETF $350 would I get to keep my phone and is there any penalty for doing so?
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Carrier How to leave Verizon?
- Thread starter pongyuekong
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From T-Mobile:
Cant get the phone or plan you wantall because youre stuck in a dead-end service contract? Think again. Trade in your phone at T-Mobile, and well not only give you the most value for your old phone compared to other major national carriers, but well also pay your Early Termination Fee (ETF) with a Visa® Prepaid cardand never make you sign another annual service contract:
Get a trade in credit based on the market value for your eligible device.
Get up to $350 per line based on the Early Termination Fees (ETFs) on your carriers final bill.
Cant get the phone or plan you wantall because youre stuck in a dead-end service contract? Think again. Trade in your phone at T-Mobile, and well not only give you the most value for your old phone compared to other major national carriers, but well also pay your Early Termination Fee (ETF) with a Visa® Prepaid cardand never make you sign another annual service contract:
Get a trade in credit based on the market value for your eligible device.
Get up to $350 per line based on the Early Termination Fees (ETFs) on your carriers final bill.
The ETF is essentially the "penalty" and is really there just so that VZW can recover their subsidy. You get to keep the phone. How much longer does your contract have to run? With most carriers, the ETF goes down by $10/month.
If you have a Verizon iPhone 5s or iPhone 6 (or any Verizon LTE phone for that matter), it is already unlocked. The iPhone 5s and 6 have all the right bands for either T-Mobile or AT&T, so if you are switching to them, ultimately it's cheapest just to pay the ETF to Verizon and take your phone with you. T-Mobile will "pay" for your ETF, but only if you trade in your old phone and then buy another phone from them on one of their installment plans. So essentially they give you a $350 credit if you buy a $650 phone from them, and you wind up $300 worse off than if you just bring your current phone with you.
If you have a Verizon iPhone 5, you can use it with T-Mobile, but you won't get LTE, so in that case the trade-in may make more sense, but I'm guessing your ETF will be a lot smaller as you are likely close to the end of your contract in that case.
If you got Verizon contract at Verizon just port your phone number to another carrier and you will get final bill, or they will charge you credit card like they did to me. If you got contract thru third party like Radio Shack, Sams Club etc then ETF may be double. That what Sams Club was telling me...
My wife moved her Verizon line to my AT&T plan. We just switched everything over at the AT&T store and she called Verizon the next month and paid her final bill and ETF. The folks at the store were surprised that the Verizon iPhone 5s worked on their network, they were pretty set on selling a new phone. 
look at Verizon's coverage viewer and find the nearest roaming/partner/off-network coverage in your area. Go to that location and download as much data as you can with your phone, preferably towards the end of your billing cycle. You need to download a minimum of 100mb, but the more the better. In a few days you'll get a notice from verizon that you have exceeded off-network data usage and will cut your service if you continue to use too much off network data. Go back to the roaming location the next month and repeat. Verizon will call you and bitch at you for doing that. Next month do the same and they will cancel your service/contract. You are now contract free/no longer verizon customer. you do not owe the ETF because they cut your service and you didn't. Go to at&t/T-Mobile and start new service with them. Done.
Just did this myself. It was great switching to T-Mobile. They paid $352 for my iPhone 5S 16GB Verizon. Processed as a credit to the account, now waiting for a prepaid Mastercard for our ETF fees. T-Mobile was excellent, the even gave $249 worth of credits for a couple delayed iPhone 6 Pluses.
Just tell them you're leaving them.
You will survive
... and you will be very glad that you "escaped".
Run, don't walk, away. Always buy unlocked phones (e.g., newer iPhones, Nexus phones, Moto "developer" phones, etc.), and never sign carrier contracts.
Remember that whatever ETF you pay will be more than made up in the long run by reduced plan charges that do not have built-in subsidy costs for the phones.
I left VZW 9 months ago after 10 yrs with VZW. Now with ATT, very pleased with service. Much better signal now at my home, good signal when traveling. Would consider TMobile if the signal were better in my area. ATT's family share data plans are good value and ATT is much quicker than VZW to respond with competitive plan prices.
Verizon has no roaming limits, and even if they did when roaming on 1x it's nearly impossible to use large amounts of data.
OP, just call and cancel, pay the ETF, and the phone is yours.
It would be something of a wash... TMO requires you buy a phone from them for them to pay your ETF. Would be easier for the P to just pay their own ETF, more than likely.
They also require you trade your current phone in with them. I suppose you can do a VZW throw away device too. I;ve read that TMO required a phone call be sent to the device being traded in as proof that it's currently activated.
You can short circuit this a bit if you find the cheapest, dumbest Verizon phone you can lay your hands on and trade that in, and then purchase the cheapest, dumbest T-Mobile phone in the store on the installment plan and then immediately pay it off.
Next, find a current T-Mobile user to claim a referral credit with, and you'll have recouped most of the cost of buying that dumb phone. Then sell it on eBay to recover the rest.
Switch to T-mobile, trade in an older phone, you can keep your phone. You do have to purchase a new phone at T-mobile though
You get reimbursed the ETF you paid through a prepaid card