One of you punks works for Verizon right? Upgrading to an iphone

Element Brian

So my brother and I are part of a family plan with my mother. He and I both have some crappy shell phone, mine has broke so im using an old one now and we want to upgrade to the iphone 4s.

Thing is, we arent able to upgrade our phones through the contract until August. So we've seen all the ads offering the iphone 4s for $199, but that apparently is only for people who don't have a contract. (which is just silly because what person anywhere doesn't already have a freaking cell phone contract right?) So we aren't 'eligible' for the $199 price and have to pay the full retail price of $650. We also considered just canceling our contract, the ETF would be something like $130 I think. Then just turning around and getting a new contract through the $199 price of the iphone 4s.

Still with me? Ok, so the lady at verizon offered us a manager's 'deal' where we can get the old iphone 4 for $150. (cant remember if she said 8 gb or 16gb). But of course we don't want the iphone 4 because..the iphone 4s is better right? i mean..siri right?

So the way i see it I can just do the early termination fee for $150 (at most, probably less) then turn around and buy the iphone 4s with a contract for $199, and pay a total of $350 right?

OR we can buy the old iphone 4 from verizon at the $150 price they are offering, then turn around and sell it (online i've seen the cell phone buying websites offer to buy it for $250, and i've seen them go on amazon for $430 new, since we wouldn't even open them out of the box, they would be considered new right?) So what I'm seeing is i can buy it for 150, then turn around and sell it for inbetween $250 and $430, right? THEN of course go through the early termination deal, and buy the iphone 4s for 199. Only this time I'm potentailly only spending between $250 and $100 in the end. (150 for iphone 4, 150 for early term. fee. 199 for iphone 4s with contract = $500, minus inbetween 250 and 430 that i sell the iphone 4 for equals between $250 and $100 as my total cost.

Does this make sense? Can I do this? Are people actually buying the iphone 4 for a going price of $430 like it says on amazon?

WHAT AM I MISSING HERE OR IS THIS WHAT I CAN ACTUALLY DO?

matt has a problem

Is your current plan in your name, or your mom's name? Because if it's in her name, you can just start a contract in your (or your brother's) name, it would be a "new customer" so you'd be eligible for the $199 4s. Depending on how old you are, of course. The ETFs for smart and iPhones on Verizon are higher than regular dumbphones also, $350 for the iPhone as opposed to a prorated $175 for dumbphones. So if you did go the manager deal iPhone 4 then ETF it, you'd get hit with another $350, not $150.

Element Brian

oh, so if we bought iphone 4, then tried to turn around and sell it, we'd get hit with an etf for that?

matt has a problem

Yeah, if you try to early terminate a contract with an iPhone 4 on it, it's $350.

Deebaser

Also, of you're banking on flipping the iPhone for as "new", it's probably a refurb.

JAEF

If you terminate your line YOU LOSE YOUR NUMBER. Period. You can't just come back and say hey, I want "new" service with my old number. You forfeit it. You can take it to another carrier, upgrade with new line prices through them and close the Verizon account. But you can't do the same thing within the same cell carrier.

The iPhone 4 costs around $188 to manufacture. Apple sells it for probably at least double that to Verizon, who subsidizes it for contract service (since they know they'll make that cost back up and more through monthly service or ETF.)

Your best option is going to be to either take the manager's offer (they get dinged for giving you shit like this, believe me it's not their favorite thing to do) or just buy a phone from craigslist and throw it on your line until you can upgrade. Make sure you double check with the store manager there whether the manager's offer extends your contract or not. Could be no extension, 1, or 2 years, but make sure you find out and are OK with that. If there's no contract extension, it's almost definitely a refurb kit.

Pre-proration ETF for iphone lines is $350? Yeah you're going to be spending at least $600 for a 4S if you try to set up a new line and then cancel it immediately. Not really better than retail/ebay. Remember anytime you get a discount on a phone and sign a contract you're committing to service for 2 years. You either pay to cancel the line, or you pay monthly to keep it on. Paying for the lowest cost secondary line over 2 years is $240 if you're on a family plan. So assuming you get a new secondary line, get the iphone, activate a different phone on that line (and make sure you remove data services, etc. if they even let you) and let it run the 2 years you're still paying Phone cost+$240.

Esh

Wait for the next iPhone. You're going to be kicking yourself when you're staring at your barely better than an iPhone 4 in less than one year and the total revamp comes out. With iPhones, you're best off skipping the interims (3gs, 4s).

Iceman.USAF

JAEF wrote:

If you terminate your line YOU LOSE YOUR NUMBER. Period. You can't just come back and say hey, I want "new" service with my old number.

I was able to move from my parents "family" plan to my own and keep my number, as well as getting the "new" customer rates.

JAEF

Iceman.USAF wrote:

JAEF wrote:

If you terminate your line YOU LOSE YOUR NUMBER. Period. You can't just come back and say hey, I want "new" service with my old number.

I was able to move from my parents "family" plan to my own and keep my number, as well as getting the "new" customer rates.

This is merely an account transfer. Account transfers don't change your upgrade eligiblity (when done correctly, assuming no system errors.)

You wouldn't have suddenly been eligible to upgrade if you hadn't been before (outside of a system error), you wouldn't have suddenly been out of contract if you were in one before (never seen a system error reduce contract length, only extend)

You didn't terminate your line/number, it stayed active and simply moved from one account to another. Your account is basically just a shell for your number+contract with your personal, plan and billing information.

Now, if some manager personally decided to scale forward your upgrade (or pull something else/utilize an available promotion to get you an earlier upgrade) because you changed from an add-a-line that pays nearly nothing to a full blown ridiculous-dollars-per-month solo account, that's something else.

Gaardean

It'd actually be cheaper for you to keep your old contract active, but strip down the plan to the bare minimum ($9.99 a month for the 9 months you have left = $89.91) and add a new line with the 4GS than paying $130 to cancel the contract, and they can always swap the phone number between the phones so you keep your old number.

This is probably your cheapest route overall, as I don't think you'll get enough cash from the older Iphone 4 to cover the cancellation fee (As Deebaser mentioned, you're most likely getting a refurb, worth a lot less than a new).