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Pay Full Price or Subsidized Price

Will you pay full price for your next phone (to keep your unlimited data) or the subsidized price?

  • Full Price

    Votes: 29 76.3%

  • Subsidized Price

    Votes: 9 23.7%
  • Total voters
    38
parkschr

parkschr

Android Enthusiast
I know many of you are probably grandfathered in with unlimited data through Verizon.

I wanted to know if you will pay full price for your next phone to keep the unlimited data or pay the subsidized price and have to change to the shared plan.
 
If my contract was up today and if i was determined to stay on Verizon, i would pay the full price. Even the cheapest shared data plan is more expensive than what I'm paying now, and i use a lot of data.
 
I've been having the same dilemma. My contract is up in a few months and I'll be able to upgrade (if I want). Trying to decide the lesser of the two evils; multiple phones (because my wife won't let me upgrade if she can't upgrade) or a massive increase in data costs (5 lines on the plan and wife and I each use quite a bit of data).

Lose, lose situation (no, I'm not buying someone's used phones). :(
 
I switched to one of the shared plans, because it saves us a bunch of money, so I'll be going the subsidized route.
 
Full price to keep unlimited for me, but I'm wondering if once out of contract Verizon will try to muscle us over to a shared plan somehow. I mean with no contract to fall back on the ball is really in their court. So hafta see what happens down the road,I guess.
BTW, I'll be keeping my Maxx as long as it still works, no reason to pay that full price tag with a working Maxx anyway.
 
I'd like a new phone if/when my Maxx dies and I am out of my contract, but I don't want to pay through the nose for an unsubsidized one. The thought of using a phone that someone else held up to their face, and who knows what else, grosses me out. Buying a brand new phone at a discount sounds good to me, but in all likelihood, it wouldn't be the latest phone available. Too much to think about now...when the time comes, I'll deal with it I guess. The new plans would cost me about $30/mo more.
 
I switched from an unlimited to a shared plan....and without purchasing a phone. I am saving over 100.00 a month and no where near going over my data. Best move I ever made!
 
Buy a used phone and keep the data. There are great deals out there everywhere. I've seen Razr Maxx for around $350 used, but in like-new condition. I was very tempted to get the S3 new at $150 through Amazon, but I use a lot of data and need the unlimited plan for now. If Verizon was to force me out of the unlimited data, I would consider Straight Talk ($45 unlimited everything) or the new T-Mobile unlimited plan.
 
I voted for full price although I probably won't know for sure until the time comes to replace my Razr Maxx. I purchased this phone at the end of June to replace my Droid X so that I could retain my unlimited data for at least another 2 years. I'm on an individual plan and going to their new shared data plan would have cost me $30 per month more than I currently pay. My current data usage ranges between 1 to 3 GB per month, but I believe future smartphones with added features will only increase the amount of data consumed relative to today's phones making it more desirable than ever to keep unlimited data.
 
B360155 said:
but I believe future smartphones with added features will only increase the amount of data consumed relative to today's phones making it more desirable than ever to keep unlimited data.
Click to expand...

I totally agree. Future devices will only use more and more data. That is why Verizon is making this move now.
 
The Share Everything plan can possibly save you money. Go to the website and they have a calculator tool that will tell you if it is right for you. As far as full price or subsidized? The phone I want is $199.99 with a 2yr plan. I am on someones plan so I can't make them switch to a share everything plan until they are ready. So, I will most likely sell my old phone and use that money towards the full price of the phone I want. I could sell a few other things as well.
 
I'm struggling with that very question. My phone bill would go up under Share Everything -- about $20/month. Over the course of a 2-year contract, that's $480 MORE which I'd be paying, for limited data. The math seems to say that I'd be better off putting that $480 into a shiny new full-priced phone, and not have to worry about my data usage (which can, on occasion, grow quite large -- like when I was Live Streaming the Olympics a couple months ago).

The other benefit to going full-price is that I assume I wouldn't have to wait two years to upgrade a phone. In recent experience, I've been itching to replace a good 6 months before Verizon will qualify me for the upgrade. (Damn near did that just that a few weeks ago, but Verizon offered me the RAZR Maxx to replace my data-dropping Bionic.)

If they'd introduced Share Everything before I'd bought a Wi-Fi only tablet, I might've seen some advantage to it. But as a one-device "family" on unlimited data, Share Everything isn't much of a bargain.
 
Pay the unsubsidized price and keep unlimited data.

There's a reason why they're trying to switch you, and its got nothing to do with your needs and everything to do with their profit margin
 
Rxpert83 said:
There's a reason why they're trying to switch you, and its got nothing to do with your needs and everything to do with their profit margin
Click to expand...

Agreed. But the new plans do save some people money, so take a look at your usage and what the share everything plan would cost you first. But over the 2 years poof the contract it does not take a big increase to erase the benefit of the subsidy.
 
Kelmar said:
I've been having the same dilemma. My contract is up in a few months and I'll be able to upgrade (if I want). Trying to decide the lesser of the two evils; multiple phones (because my wife won't let me upgrade if she can't upgrade) or a massive increase in data costs (5 lines on the plan and wife and I each use quite a bit of data).

Lose, lose situation (no, I'm not buying someone's used phones). :(
Click to expand...


You can't farm the other lines for upgrades?
 
I find it kind of funny that Verizon is selling the new shared plan with free voice and texting. But there plan is that eventually everything will be data including voice. So while you may not shoot through your data plan now, you could see a large increase in the future.

I plan to keep my unlimited plan and pay full price at the next upgrade. Since I'm 1.5 years away, I figure that if I start putting away money on a monthly basis, I should be ready for my upgrade when it rolls around...
 
I just acquired my line and my wife's line onto our own account due to a better discount with my current company, but we were debating on this due to the loss of the unlimited data. We looked at everything very closely and decided what we would be spending keeping what we had, or going to a shared plan, and for the amount of data that we use for the entire month (not even a gig) because we utilize WiFi so much either at the house or at work.

It was much more economical to go the shared plan as many others have said. So I would vote for the subsidized phone. Fortunately it worked out positively for us this way.
 
I'll buy used or pay full price, between two lines I use almost 10GB/month so going shared would cost me significantly more.
 
When I choose to get a new phone I will be paying full retail to keep the unlimited data plan. I use way to much data it would end up costing me more money in the long run.
 
I paid full price for my Razr (couldn't wait the 3 months until I was eligible). I fully expect to do the same thing when the Razr Maxx HD is released.
 
Hard to say, because it is a long way off. I upgraded a week before they got rid of the unlimited data ... I have no idea what options there will be by the time I am ready to upgrade.
 
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