VZW Upgrade Question

Hi,

I have a somewhat unique situation and I need your help to figure out the best way to upgrade to the new iPhone on Verizon.

My sister and I are on a Verizon family plan (NOT the family share plan), and she has an iPhone 4S with 2GB of data monthly and I have a Galaxy Nexus with 4GB of data (for which I only pay $30 because I signed up during a promotion).

We both want to upgrade to the new iPhone (her 4S is cracked, and I am itching to switch back to an iPhone) by buying off-contract phones, but I am really hoping to keep my 4GB of data.

If I not mistaken, and please correct me if I am, there will be no way to pre-order an unlocked, contract-free Verizon iPhone due to the CDMA 3G (versus the contract-free GSM version).

In order to pre-order through Apple, I believe they make you select the option for upgrading a current line on the account, enter your account information, and then it tells you you're not eligible for upgrade pricing, but you can pay full retail for the phone.

However, because I do not currently have an iPhone, it will ask me to select a data tier, with the cheapest being 2GB for $30, which I am trying to avoid. I was planning on ordering the phone through my sister's number, activiating it on her account, and then switching it to my number in order to keep the 4GB plan. However, once she decided to break her current iPhone, it complicated this plan.

Does anyone have a solution for how we can each get the new iPhone AND I can keep my current 4GB of data?

Thanks in advance.

 

Thanks for your response. I definitely agree that this should be the case, but when attempting to order the 4S through Apple's website to test this theory, it asks me to select a tier as opposed to keeping my current plan (probably because I do not currently have an iPhone as my sister does not have this problem).