ETF on family plan when using another lines upgrade

Hey I’m trying to figure out what my early termination fee would be if I removed a line from my family plan. 2 years ago I upgraded my phone early (to the iPhone 4s) by using my father’s upgrade, and he used my upgrade a year later. This year I used his upgrade again to get the iPhone 5s. If I switch to my own plan, will the ETF be based on the phone purchased for this line, or for the upgrade used for this line?

I actually want the ETF to be the higher one so that my dad isn’t stuck with it if he decides to switch later. Is there a way to tell Verizon what upgrade I want the ETF to be based on?

Thanks for your help folks!

Accepted answers

rcschnoor

When you say you want to "switch to my own plan", what does that mean. If you simply want to stay with Verizon and take your phone and start your own account, there would be no ETF. You would simply perform an assumption of liability.

If you want to go to another provider, the ETF would be based on the line you are taking to the other provider. If you take your line to another provider and the last contract on your line was signed when purchasing your fathers phone when he used your upgrade, you would be paying the ETF based upon that purchase.

All comments

rcschnoor

genericwoods

Thank you for your reply, yes I’m thinking about switching to another carrier. So the only way to get the ETF based on the phone I purchased would be to cancel his line instead? And then somehow try to switch phone numbers?

rcschnoor

If your father is not thinking of leaving Verizon, why bother. If he ends up leaving at some point in the future, you can simply pay for his ETF, or at least a portion of it.

Keep in mind, you don't want to "cancel" service, you want to "port" it. If you tell Verizon you want to cancel service, you will simply lose the phone number. You need to go to your new provider and have them "port" the number to the new provider. This will in effect cancel the service on the line you are porting.

genericwoods

So the problem is that if I switch to a certain magenta carrier, they’ll pay the entire ETF for me, so I’d rather it be the bigger one. Thanks for the tip on canceling vs. porting though.

Do you know anything about Assumption of Liability? Could that help me out in this situation?

Verizon_Support

genericwoods,

We don't want to see you go. What has you thinking about leaving us? In regards to your question for canceling lines and switching numbers you can cancel his line and switch phones but the numbers would be lost if both lines are currently still in contract.

LindseyT_VZW

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport.