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Carrier Verizon’s upgrade fee

valinda

valinda

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 16, 2015
992
869
Virginia Beach, VA
I have noticed that when I buy a sim free phone from Apple store, and put in my sim card at home. I don’t get charged an upgrade fee. If I buy a Verizon phone from Apple store, I do get charged an upgrade fee. Don’t get it. I haven’t bought an iPhone on launch for awhile. I know I can’t get a sim free until a few months after launch, but this year I want to try and order one on launch day. I wonder why the sim free one I’m not charged an upgrade fee for ?
Are you paying for the new SIM card in new phone?
 
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When I got my X from the Apple store it was through the Verizon upgrade program, I tried to swap my old SIM card out of my 6S into my X and it still needed to be activated. When I put the new sim into the 6S, it worked fine without needing activation. I guess there must be some software on the new phone that knows it hasn’t been activated so they can charge you the fee.. From what I’ve been able to find out, the only way to get past the activation fee is to purchase the Sim free version outright or call customer service and plea your case and see if they waive the fee
 
i had the fee waived by talking to CS through chat- told them i would not place unless they waived that fee....
after a while they gave in and fee waived - had them set up for pick up at a local verizon store.
 
The upgrade fee is used to pay the commissions for the people who sold you the phone in the Verizon store, or the commission of the third-party store (Best Buy, Apple) when sold with a Verizon installment plan. I think of it as essentially a finance charge. Every other carrier charges the fee, which doesn't excuse the practice of course. The blessed Uncarrier calls it a "SIM Card fee" instead of an upgrade fee but it's the same thing.

If you buy the phone directly from Apple using an Apple installment plan, Verizon doesn't finance the phone so there is no upgrade fee.

Apple Stores typically keep SIM cards on hand for their carrier partners, and can give you one when you buy a phone. Otherwise, in most cases your carrier will send you a new SIM at no cost (or you can pick one up from a branded store) if your old one won't work for whatever reason.

I wouldn't bet on the carrier waiving the fee. Maybe now when they're hurting for sales since everyone is waiting for new phones, but when the new phones come out everyone is paying the fee - if you refuse to pay it, there's a line of thousands behind you who are more than willing to pay the fee for that new phone.
 
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I have not paid AT&T a fee in over 5 years. I simply order the iPhone from Apple, paid in full, and even if it is an AT&T phone, I pull out the SIM and put in existing SIM and no fee is ever charged. Just remember not to turn on your new iPhone until after you replaced the SIM.

Note that pulling the SIM card out, you can accidentally start the phone so be careful!
 
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brofkand said:
If you buy the phone directly from Apple using an Apple installment plan, Verizon doesn't finance the phone so there is no upgrade fee.
Click to expand...

Thats not true. I've been charged the upgrade fee for the past 2 years from Verizon using the apple financing. Never paid it as you can tell them they did not make you aware of it at the time of upgrade and they are forced to credit you for that amount.
 
boch82 said:
Thats not true. I've been charged the upgrade fee for the past 2 years from Verizon using the apple financing. Never paid it as you can tell them they did not make you aware of it at the time of upgrade and they are forced to credit you for that amount.
Click to expand...

How interesting. I bought a phone from Apple and paid for it with the iPhone Upgrade Plan from Apple, and I wasn't charged an upgrade fee. But that was with Sprint. I assumed Verizon would be the same.

Sounds like the only way to get around it with Verizon, other than calling and hoping to get it waived, is to buy the phone outright at full price that way your Verizon account information isn't associated with the phone purchase transaction at all.
 
brofkand said:
How interesting. I bought a phone from Apple and paid for it with the iPhone Upgrade Plan from Apple, and I wasn't charged an upgrade fee. But that was with Sprint. I assumed Verizon would be the same.

Sounds like the only way to get around it with Verizon, other than calling and hoping to get it waived, is to buy the phone outright at full price that way your Verizon account information isn't associated with the phone purchase transaction at all.
Click to expand...

It is not charged at the time of purchase, but it on your first service bill.
 
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boch82 said:
It is not charged at the time of purchase, but it on your first service bill.
Click to expand...

Right, but if you buy a phone outright Sim-free at full price from Apple, Apple has no idea which service provider you'll be using so they don't ask for your service provider information. Verizon doesn't know that you're upgrading, just that you're swapping phones. There is no charge for a phone swap, only an upgrade.
 
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brofkand said:
Right, but if you buy a phone outright Sim-free at full price from Apple, Apple has no idea which service provider you'll be using so they don't ask for your service provider information. Verizon doesn't know that you're upgrading, just that you're swapping phones. There is no charge for a phone swap, only an upgrade.
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Don’t give Verizon ideas about charging fees for swapping SIM cards, they just might listen and do it.
 
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BigMcGuire said:
As a Verizon Apple Upgrade Plan iPhone purchaser, this is sadly true. :(
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I guess it's a hit or miss. I'm also on the Apple Upgrade program and Verizon never charged me the Activation Fee (I assume that Upgrade Fee is the same term?). I checked my bill around that time after the Upgrade and there were no Activation fee tacked on.
 
I bought my iPhone 8 from apple.com at 3am when preorders went live last year. It was a Verizon model but I paid for it in full with my credit card (no installment financing with either Verizon or Apple). Verizon did NOT charge me an upgrade fee and had they tried to charge one, I would have called them with some choice words since they had absolutely nothing to do with that transaction.
 
brofkand said:
The upgrade fee is used to pay the commissions for the people who sold you the phone in the Verizon store, or the commission of the third-party store (Best Buy, Apple) when sold with a Verizon installment plan.
Click to expand...
The upgrade fee isn't used to pay the commissions on Verizon.
boch82 said:
I've been charged the upgrade fee for the past 2 years from Verizon using the apple financing.
Click to expand...
If you purchased your iPhone from Apple you shouldn't have been charged an upgrade fee by Verizon.
brofkand said:
How interesting. I bought a phone from Apple and paid for it with the iPhone Upgrade Plan from Apple, and I wasn't charged an upgrade fee. But that was with Sprint. I assumed Verizon would be the same.
Click to expand...
They are. The upgrade fees are only paid on Verizon when you upgrade through device payment.
brofkand said:
Sounds like the only way to get around it with Verizon, other than calling and hoping to get it waived, is to buy the phone outright at full price that way your Verizon account information isn't associated with the phone purchase transaction at all.
Click to expand...
That is one way.
Superrjamz54 said:
Don’t give Verizon ideas about charging fees for swapping SIM cards, they just might listen and do it.
Click to expand...
I could see Verizon doing that. My wife has a few family members who work for Verizon and we have had words over the fees.
 
brofkand said:
The upgrade fee is used to pay the commissions for the people who sold you the phone in the Verizon store, or the commission of the third-party store (Best Buy, Apple) when sold with a Verizon installment plan. I think of it as essentially a finance charge. Every other carrier charges the fee, which doesn't excuse the practice of course. The blessed Uncarrier calls it a "SIM Card fee" instead of an upgrade fee but it's the same thing.

If you buy the phone directly from Apple using an Apple installment plan, Verizon doesn't finance the phone so there is no upgrade fee.

Apple Stores typically keep SIM cards on hand for their carrier partners, and can give you one when you buy a phone. Otherwise, in most cases your carrier will send you a new SIM at no cost (or you can pick one up from a branded store) if your old one won't work for whatever reason.

I wouldn't bet on the carrier waiving the fee. Maybe now when they're hurting for sales since everyone is waiting for new phones, but when the new phones come out everyone is paying the fee - if you refuse to pay it, there's a line of thousands behind you who are more than willing to pay the fee for that new phone.
Click to expand...
I would disagree, Verizon has always waved the upgrade fees for me ever time I upgraded and I pre-order when pre-orders open. Verizon always has promos that wave upgrade fees if you order threw them during iPhone pre-order time.
 
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If you are paying full price for a phone, might as well go prepaid and pay less for your monthly service. Fewer fees, save money every month. I switched from Sprint to Cricket and am saving $30 every month, and have a better network. I imagine the savings from going to Verizon to something like Cricket would be even more substantial given Verizon's higher prices in general.

The only advantage of postpaid cell service nowadays is pretty much just monthly installments on your phone - and if you have to pay for your phone on installments, is it really something you can afford? That's up to you I guess.
 
valinda said:
I have noticed that when I buy a sim free phone from Apple store, and put in my sim card at home. I don’t get charged an upgrade fee. If I buy a Verizon phone from Apple store, I do get charged an upgrade fee. Don’t get it. I haven’t bought an iPhone on launch for awhile. I know I can’t get a sim free until a few months after launch, but this year I want to try and order one on launch day. I wonder why the sim free one I’m not charged an upgrade fee for ?
Are you paying for the new SIM card in new phone?
Click to expand...
An upgrade fee of $35 over around $1,000 phone should not be a big deal. Anyone who truly can afford around 1K phone should not be bothered by it. It is only around 4%. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
brofkand said:
If you are paying full price for a phone, might as well go prepaid and pay less for your monthly service. Fewer fees, save money every month. I switched from Sprint to Cricket and am saving $30 every month, and have a better network. I imagine the savings from going to Verizon to something like Cricket would be even more substantial given Verizon's higher prices in general.

The only advantage of postpaid cell service nowadays is pretty much just monthly installments on your phone - and if you have to pay for your phone on installments, is it really something you can afford? That's up to you I guess.
Click to expand...
The problem with prepaid and MVNO’s is that you’re usually missing out on certain features depending on what MVNO/prepaid service. For example some do not offer WiFi calling, visual voicemail and/or roaming. Also a lot of MVNO/prepaid is prioritized behind postpaid.

So it’s not really as simple as if you can afford to buy the phone outright or not. I stay on postpaid because you get better plans, but yes at a higher cost.
 
timeconsumer said:
The problem with prepaid and MVNO’s is that you’re usually missing out on certain features depending on what MVNO/prepaid service. For example some do not offer WiFi calling, visual voicemail and/or roaming. Also a lot of MVNO/prepaid is prioritized behind postpaid.

So it’s not really as simple as if you can afford to buy the phone outright or not. I stay on postpaid because you get better plans, but yes at a higher cost.
Click to expand...
I was about to post something similar to what you said.
 
I've been buying phones from Apple the past several years via the 0% Barclays financing and I've never been charged an upgrade fee or even had to fight to have it waived. I always buy the Verizon model and all I do is once I get home, swap SIM cards and sell my old phone on eBay.

Not sure why I'm never charged.
 
achappy said:
I've been buying phones from Apple the past several years via the 0% Barclays financing and I've never been charged an upgrade fee or even had to fight to have it waived. I always buy the Verizon model and all I do is once I get home, swap SIM cards and sell my old phone on eBay.

Not sure why I'm never charged.
Click to expand...
If you're buying the iPhone at retail or through the iPhone Upgrade Program you won't be charged an upgrade fee because there is no upgrade being done as far as Verizon is concerned. The same would apply if you're buying the phone at retail through Verizon.
 
VivaLasVegas said:
If you're buying the iPhone at retail or through the iPhone Upgrade Program you won't be charged an upgrade fee because there is no upgrade being done as far as Verizon is concerned. The same would apply if you're buying the phone at retail through Verizon.
Click to expand...

That's what I thought but it seemed from other posts this wasn't the case.
 
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