Can I get the former discounted price for the iPhone 6s since I have a grandfathered plans (Friends

[TomCat03]

I have a grandfathered plans (Friends & Family 900mins) have have never upgraded to any newer plans because it has never been cheaper. The new Verizon Plan is not cheaper so I am looking to upgrade to the iPhone 6s. I am eligible for the upgrade. Can I get the phone at the former discounted rate and renew my 2 year contract or do I have to pay the full cost to keep my current plan OR upgrade to the Verizon Plan? Thanks!

[MiiHere]

You should be able to upgrade to another 2 year contract. Have you attempted to upgrade via your My Verizon account online?

[vzw_customer_support]

TomCat03-

Upgrading to the new iPhone is definitely exciting news! If you currently have a data plan, you may keep the same plan as long as you upgrade at the retail price. However, if you do not have a data plan, we would need to change your plan to the current plan we now offer if you wish to upgrade at the discounted 2 year pricing. You might be surprised how much you save with the new Verizon plan! It includes unlimited minutes and messages and a data plan that will meet your needs.

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[Snn5]

If the plan you have is no longer offered, you'll have to change plans if you upgrade to a new contract.

[rcschnoor]

Out of curiosity, how much are you paying for your plan each month? Do you have a texting allowance? Do you currently have a smartphone? Which iPhone 6S are you planning to get?

[TomCat03]

rschnoor Our current bill runs right around $157/month. This is for 3 lines (2 Smartphones, 1 basic phone) with 900 minutes shared. The 2 smartphones have 2GB of data each tied to is as well as a message pack of 400 for each.  1 of the smartphones is still within the 2 year contract while the other 2 (1 smart / 1 basic) and all upgrade eligible. I have not called VZW or stopped by to have them give me the rundown of what it would be to upgrade to the Verizon Plan but my figuring that up on my own has it coming out to around the same, if not a little more than we are current paying.  Having the unlimited talk & text is not a big selling point for me to upgrade since we never come close to exceeding the limits on what we currently have.    I would get the iPhone 6s (not the plus).

[TomCat03]

Sorry above. tagged the wrong person. Meant to tag rcschnoor

[rcschnoor · Accepted solution]

There are 3 levels of iPhone 6S with a $200 spread in cost. Just saying you want the iPhone 6S does not tell us a lot.

With the Verizon Plan, you could go with 3 GB for $45 or 6 GB for $60. The smartphone still under contract would have a $40/month line access fee. The smartphone and basic phones out of contract would have line access fees of $20 each. Right now you are at $140 before taxes if you were to choose the 6 GB plan($125 if you go with the 3 GB plan), giving each of your smartphones an extra GB on average to use. When the contract ends on your other smartphone, THAT line would drop your monthly bill to $120($105 if you go with the 3 GB plan) before taxes.

Of course, purchasing new phones would increase your monthly bill by the full retail cost of the phone/24 monthly payments.

IF you have to pay full retail for the phones either way, it appears the new Verizon plan would be a bit cheaper with additional benefits.

If you are able to purchase a contract phone on your old plan, the cost would appear to be ABOUT the same. With the iPhone 6S, you are looking at an upfront cost of either $240, $340 or $440 on contract. With the payment plan, you would not have that upfront cost and would therefore either offset an increase in monthly payments of either $10, $14.17 or $18.33 or you could take that upfront cost and use it as a down payment on the phone to lower your monthly payments by the preceding amounts. With the upfront cost used as a downpayment, your monthly phone payments would go from $27.08 to $17.08, $31.25 to $17.08 or $35.42 to $17.08. THAT would bring your monthly bill with the 6 GB data tier to $157.08 before taxes with more data than you currently have. Additionally, if you are receiving any employer discounts on your plan, you would continue to receive those on the amount of your data which would come off the $60/6 GB data cost. Of course, if you go with the 3 GB data tier, your monthly cost would be $15 less.

AND your bill will drop by $20 automatically when you complete the contract on your smartphone still under contract.

[TomCat03]

Thanks so much for the very detailed response rcschnoor! Definitely a lot to consider. I knew when the phone currently on contract reaches it's end in Sept 2016 then it's a no brainer to switch over to the new Verizon Plan.

We would definitely need the 6GB plan since the 2GB each we have now get very close to being reached some months. 3GB would not be enough to share. From what you have outlined it looks like going with the 6GB plans and switching to the new Verizon plan would be very similar to what we are paying now. We are right around $143 before taxes and this does include an employer discount.

I would not want to purchase a contract phone and have to go back on a new 2 year contract for the line that is currently off contract just to get the benefit of the lower up front cost of the phone. The reduced monthly bill that will come next Sept when that phone comes off contract is nice.  I would also get the 64GB version of the 6s

[rcschnoor]

rcschnoor wrote:

There are 3 levels of iPhone 6S with a $200 spread in cost. Just saying you want the iPhone 6S does not tell us a lot.

With the Verizon Plan, you could go with 3 GB for $45 or 6 GB for $60. The smartphone still under contract would have a $40/month line access fee. The smartphone and basic phones out of contract would have line access fees of $20 each. Right now you are at $140 before taxes if you were to choose the 6 GB plan($125 if you go with the 3 GB plan), giving each of your smartphones an extra GB on average to use. When the contract ends on your other smartphone, THAT line would drop your monthly bill to $120($105 if you go with the 3 GB plan) before taxes.

With a 20% employer discount, that would put your pretax monthly bill at $128. 15% would put it at $131.

Taxes are calculated a bit differently on these new plans and are based upon your line access fees, I believe. With this in mind, I am fairly confident your monthly taxes will be less on the Verizon Plan than it is currently on your Nationwide plan. My taxes were lower, anyway, when I moved from the Nationwide plan to the Share Everything/More Everything plan. I assume the same would hold true for you.

Since you do not want to purchase the iPhone 6S on contract, it seems you would definitely be paying less on the Verizon Plan than you are paying on your current plan considering the phone cost would be the same on either plan. If you choose to purchase the phone on payments, you may be paying more monthly but would not have the $650+ up front cost for a phone, instead spreading that cost out over 24 months.

For comparison sake, I currently have 4 smartphones sharing 15 GB/month with a 22% employer discount and a TOTAL monthly bill of $178 including taxes. I still have 1 smartphone on contract which is scheduled to fullfill the contract in April of 2016 at which time my monthly bill will drop by $25 when I add the month to month discount to my current $40 More Everything line access fee for that line.