I am 62 and have been with Verizon for 20 years. I used to have 5 devices on our plan. I lost my son 10 years ago. My husband passed away at the end of 2022. My bill did not decrease. They told me I didn't have enough devices. That was harsh. They helped me with a smaller plan to decrease it by $10 or $20 per month. My daughter moved to Europe and I was down to two lines. My mother-in-law passed away a couple of months ago. Now, I only have one line. I just received my new bill. The monthly amount for my single line increased $14/month. My bill went from $152 for two lines to $103 for a single line. I do have a device I am paying off for $30/month. I constantly receive emails asking me to add another line. This just makes me feel worse. i have no family or friends to share my phone plan with and my income is less than half of what it used to be. Is my only option to switch from Verizon to something like Consumer Cellular? This just seems so unreal to me that you can be punished by losing your loved ones and constantly being reminded that you are on your own.
Hi, first of all, I'd like to extend my sympathies for your losses. Yes, it doesn't really seem quite fair to those of us who have just one line to have to pay more than the folks with several getting a huge discount, but unfortunately all the major carriers do this.
There are a few things you could look into besides switching to a discount carrier. By the way, depending on what type of arrangement you currently have with Verizon, be careful that there isn't something in there saying you will have to pay the entire remaining balance on your phone should you port out. If that's the case, you'd probably want to stay with what you have until the contract is completed to avoid being hit with a surprise huge bill.
Anyway, here are some suggestions:
-See if you're eligible for the federal Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) to get a $30 discount monthly
-Switch to a prepaid account
-If you're in Florida, you qualify for a 55+ discount with Verizon. If you live elsewhere, sadly this isn't available, but at least one other major carrier does have 55+ discounts on all their postpaid plans.
Hello, Frustratedsenior62. My condolences to you for the loss of your family members. Help is here as we know how important it is to save money on the monthly billing. May I ask, would you consider yourself to be a heavy data user? Which plan do you currently have?
-Natasha
I have the 5G Start. My data usage is probably between 3-7 GB? I have not tracked it in a while due to having unlimited. I do not download music or movies.
@Frustratedsenior62 wrote:I have the 5G Start. My data usage is probably between 3-7 GB? I have not tracked it in a while due to having unlimited. I do not download music or movies.
You're a pretty light data user. If you aren't playing games or doing a bunch of video conferencing (Snapchat, FaceTime, WhatsApp, Google Meet etc.) and don't watch TV or movies on your phone nor stream music, would say you could definitely benefit from switching to prepaid to save money if you don't qualify for the ACP discount. The 15 gig prepaid plan is only $35 + taxes monthly if you pay with autopay, and the base level unlimited plan is $50 + taxes monthly with autopay. As a prepaid customer myself, I will say my data speeds are highly variable and tend to be slower due to deprioritization, but as I don't live on my phone, it's not a big deal. But wanted to let you know just in case.
The one catch here though is you currently paying off a phone at $30/month. If the phone is tied into your current agreement, you might not be able to make any changes until the phone is paid off. Otherwise you might end up with a huge bill for the outstanding balance of the phone if you tried to switch before the phone has been paid off.
Thanks. I do think prepaid is probably what I will have to do. I think it is still sad that single line users are hit so hard monetarily with the plans.
You're welcome, and I agree with you on the single line rates. But it's the way the industry works, as the other guys also charge the same way.
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