The contract you signed was your acknowledgement and agreement, that said carrier could make changes to the contract and or service it provides as it sees fit. You shouldn't be mad at Verizon for exercising power under the contract you signed.
Ultimately it depends on the plan you are on. On older plans you were paying the same whether you got a cheap/free subsidized phone vs. if you bought one at full price, so clearly going down the subsidized path would save money. On the current plans, it can still be potentially cheaper too, depending on the phone and the plan specifics, but for the most part the subsidy doesn't really provide a better price with those plans.
They still play some games with device payment plans by offering credits and so forth that stretch out over a 2-year period to make it all similar to the subsidized model.
Yes, I think it it illogical to be mad at Verizon for exercising power under the contract you signed and agreed to ahead of time.
The thing is is that you have been and are paying for the current contract that you are on--basically paying off the subsidy you received when you got the subsidized the device that resulted in the contract--not anything toward the next one.
It's not even really that, it's that the current contract doesn't really have anything to do with the next one, or whether or not there would be a next one.
I think the price of the phones is becoming the major impetus for the longer upgrade cycle. Buying a new iPhone is getting closer to $1,000.
It's basically a move to get people off of older plans that Verizon hasn't been offering for some time.
Not so much when they lay it all out in monthly payments that are just $20-some per month, or even better when they offer a credit (applied monthly and stretched out over 2 years) because of a sale or some deal that brings that payment down to something like $10 or even $0 every month.
Need to add in the extra monthly line access fee to that $199 to see what your real cost is for the device. They charge more for the service to make up the cost difference of giving you a device for $199. So you aren't really only paying $199 for the phone.
Not really. The 2 yr contract plans DID keep the line charge the same after the contract was up **double the cost if you didn't get the subsidized phone**. I changed a few months back because my free bonus data was expiring (1 gb for each phone (2) for two years) Doing the math the new plans were a lot cheaper. The data was cheaper and the line access is 1/2, $20 ea vs $40 each. Even though the contract was up the line charge was still $40 a month to keep the old plan. They were basically continuing "making up the subsidy" for as long as you kept your old already paid for device and plan.
In my opinion, not being under contract gives the consumer more freedom to change carriers, if the service is not to their liking etc.
Well, it also kind of depends. With contracts you had that lock-in for 2-years, and similarly you can have it now with device payment plans that are also stretched out over a 2 year period. It's not really the same kind of lock-in, but still money due if you leave essentially (and especially so if you get things on a sale where monthly credits over a 2-year period are applied and wouldn't benefit you if you left earlier). There are certainly differences, but understand the details of all of these things it's not really any harder or easier to leave than it was before as far as somehow not owing money for the subsidy that hasn't been paid off, or the remainder of the device payment plan, or having already spent the full price originally.
No that's not correct, when you change to a monthly payment plan (or bring your own phone to the game) Verizon issues you a credit off of your monthly per-line data fee, where the amount of the credit varies by the size of your plan. In my case, each line on a payment plan is credited $25, dropping each line's data from $40 to $15/month.
But you got those subsidies on the devices you received in return for the 2-year contract. Basically the last time you upgraded with a cheaper subsidized phone you were paying off that subsidy over the next 2 years. You weren't paying to get the next subsidy after 2 years, you were paying back for the subsidy you got when you got the cheaper phone and got on the 2-year contract.
That's basically how it was/is on the recent Everything and More Everything plans, on the current Verizon plans it's essentially even simpler than that: you pay $20/month for a device that is either yours or is on a device payment plan, or you pay $40/month for a subsidized device (under a 2-year contract essentially).
Except your "contract" is over after 2 years. Once it has been fulfilled they have every right to change the terms going forward. That's the part some are missing.
Exactly, if you kept the same device past the two years once the contract was up, AND kept paying for the inflated service plan you were losing out. So may as well get new device for cheap.
Do the math and you will see that $450 is sorta still there. You are paying double line charge and more for data to get that discount. So you pay $20 a month more for a line access for 24 months so that is $480. Not including the additional cost for data.
Are you saying you were paying more for the last 2 years without getting subsided devices 2 years ago (and getting on 2-year contracts at that point)? Basically your last contracts ran out 2 years ago and you didn't renew but kept on paying the higher line access fees (that apply to lines with contracts and subsidized devices) waiting to upgrade at some point?
