pilcrow wrote:So, you're saying that the 99c is a "cover charge" each day I use the phone, whether it's a weekend or a weekday? So there is no difference between charges weekdays & weekends? Why then even mention weekends in the chart?
I agree, the official chart/explanation of charges definitely can be confusing. Let's see if I can explain it another way that hopefully might clarify things a little better for you.
The "nights and weekends" coverage on the Plus plan is for any voice call you place -- whether to Verizon mobile, landlines, or cell phones on other networks -- they're all covered! All you pay from 9:01 - 11:59 p.m. weeknights, and all day weekends, is the 99¢ daily access fee. You can make as many calls and talk as long as you want within those time frames.
Now if you're on the Core plan, the 99¢ flat fee (by itself) only covers your mobile-to-mobile calls made within the Verizon network; but that's applicable 24/7 (including weekdays and traditional "daytime/business" hours) The reason nights and weekends (along with the "additional minutes") are listed in the chart because they're different for each plan. If you want unlimited calling from your Verizon mobile to *any* phone, any time or day of the week, it's a $3.99 daily access fee any day you place (or receive) voice calls. Kinda steep, but I'd imagine there might be some folks for whom this works out best.
I discovered this from both investigation and personal experience. When I purchased a Samsung Verizon phone for my sister last November, I advised her to select the Plus plan (since at that time she knew no one on Verizon wireless); and she did. As she tends towards lengthy conversations when talking long-distance, it worked out best for us. She was never charged more than the $1.99 per day access fee on the weekends and evenings when we used it. After I got my own Verizon prepay phone, she switched over to the Core plan which has both saved her money and allowed us greater freedom in scheduling our conversation times.
Two things I'd like to mention, though: 1) Think like Cinderella, i.e., be careful of the 12:00 midnight "changeover". Despite Verizon's descriptive classification of 9:01 p.m. - 5:59 a.m. as "nights," you will incur an additional daily access fee when going into the next calendar day (on all plans except Basic). So best to plan calls accordingly. 2) From my experience so far (and what's been posted on these boards), the daily access fee applies to voice calls only. Not text messaging (from 1¢ - 10¢ per text) or picture messaging (25¢ each), if that's all you do on a particular day. I have tested this and not been charged for these. (There are also those on the $3.99 unlimited plan who use it exclusively for texting; which with the DAF would otherwise be cost-prohibitive). Not sure about mobile web (99¢/day). If there's any additional "per minute" charges on that, I wouldn't know as I'm leary of using it; but frankly that would render web access on prepaid a joke. Net10 charges 10¢/min. (though no daily fee) for their mobile web, and as slow & clunky as it is on these little simple prepaid "feature" phones, it's a novelty at best.
Hope this helps answer some of your questions regarding Verizon's prepay charges.
pilcrow wrote:
Am I finally right, and if so, why doesn't Verizon make it clearer?
It's pretty much as Spotted Catfish has explained it , except that under the Plus plan, you'd also not pay any additional per-minute fees to non-Verizon phones and landlines during weeknights after 9 p.m. This adds a little extra value to that particular plan.
As for why Verizon doesn't make things clearer, my guess is that like most for-profit businesses they want to emphasize the benefits of their products/services and downplay the negatives/associated costs -- usually explained further in **fine print disclaimers, easily amendable webpages, etc. Similar reason why postpaid Verizon customers can't easily block data access on their phones, and the default settings on phone menus favor easily accessible premium services.
Well, I'm going to make a test call this weekend to test exactly what I'm charged. Then I'm going to do the same thing Monday night, both before and after midnight. That ought to be definitive. 