Used friend's upgrade on VZW - can I activate on my line without activating on his?

[Cozmosis]

Hi there,

A generous friend let me use his upgrade to purchase a 6 today. When we receive it, can I pop my nano sim in and use it without activating it on his account, or do I need to do that first? I'd love to skip the step that involves his phone going offline as he is going out of town.

If it does need to be active on his account, can I activate it on mine while he is gone and then temporarily put it on his later?

Thanks!

 

[leenak]

Why didn't you just create a new account of your own? The price would've been the same. And if it is upgrading on his account, then he will need to add another line on his account for you to use it since he now has a 2 year agreement for the phone that is yours. You can't just use an upgrade to get a 'cheap' phone. Also, you should've looked at the Edge plan, it turns out to be cheaper overall and the upfront cost is less too.

 

[Cozmosis]

Why didn't you just create a new account of your own? The price would've been the same. And if it is upgrading on his account, then he will need to add another line on his account for you to use it since he now has a 2 year agreement for the phone that is yours. You can't just use an upgrade to get a 'cheap' phone. Also, you should've looked at the Edge plan, it turns out to be cheaper overall and the upfront cost is less too.

I have a Verizon account (for years). It wasn't eligible for upgrade.

He let me use his to get a subsidized price on the phone because he didn't care and was fine with his current phone.

No different from people who use their upgrades to buy a phone and then eBay them. He just isn't selling it.

 

[leenak]

I have a Verizon account (for years). It wasn't eligible for upgrade.

He let me use his to get a subsidized price on the phone because he didn't care and was fine with his current phone.

I'm not sure how verizon handles that case. They probably don't care because he is on a 2 year contract with them due to you using his upgrade. You should be able to activate the phone on your line unless they do something weird like auto activate it on his.

 

[tmoney468]

When I ordered mine, it asked if I wanted to keep my SIM or get a new one - perhaps this is how they keep track of purchases?

 

[jonbravo77]

This should be interesting to find out what happens. This is not an easy question because he upgraded his line on his account. I do this all the time but I have 6 lines so I can use one line, upgrade it and then shuffle devices around but that's on the same account. Not really sure what is going to happen when the phone comes in, I think in the VZW system the MEID of the new phone is tied to the line it was upgraded on and when you turn the phone on it will activate to that number. After that, he can move his phone back to his line and that should release the MEID of the iPhone 6, but really not sure.

Need to let us know how this works out.