Internet/Data Plan w/ Palm Centro Question

[quirkyrocket]

Hello! I was hoping someone here in the forums could guide me in the right direction or give me advice...

I'm posting this for my boyfriend, so some background...
He currently has a Palm Centro with Verizon (I think he got it for free), with a plan that gives him 450 minutes for $39.99 (I have T-Mobile so I'm sorry if I don't know exactly what the plans are called). He also has unlimited messaging as well as an unlimited internet plan for $70-80, which (he told me) is apparently is required if you have a smart phone.

The problem is...
He just lost his job so he's really having a hard time paying the >$100 a month for his phone bill. He's also only a year into his contract, which expires in August 2010.

My (and his) question is:
If he "downgrades" to a regular dumbphone (since what he really cares about is calling/texting, and being able to access the internet only occasionally), would he be able to drop the internet plan without being renewed for two years? Even if he has to pay the full, non-subsidized price for the new phone, if he was able to get rid of the internet plan, he'd be willing to do it.

Thank you so much, and we both really appreciate any suggestions!

[Brothergrim]

First off your boyfriend shouldnt be paying more than 29.99 for the internet package.

Second  Change your plan you can go down to a different phone and not change the contract for chaing your plan.

So in short. Change your plan to a connect plan on a different phone.

Or check the plan and see what your paying for the net if you are paying 44.99 move it to 29.99  If you are using only 450 min plan and have unlmited text and some intnert your looking at  39.99 for plan  59.99 if you add unlmited text and 69.99 for net on a differnet phone.

Or on the treo your looking at 59.99 for 450 with text and 29.99 for net.

Hope that helps

[risu]

What I recommend is getting an older phone from a friend/family member or buying a cheap phone from ebay and activating it on your current line of service.  Then you can cancel the data plan (as long as the phone you're activating is not a BB/PDA/Smartphone) and even more your plan to a cheaper plan altogether.

If you're having serious financial issues, call Customer Service and talk with them about the possibility of either suspending the line without billing until you have a job again (or up to 90 days) or possibily moving down to one of the "Loyalty" individual plans for $20/$25 a month.

If you go the seasonal suspend route without billing, it will pospone your contract date by the number of days actually suspend and you can only do two seasonal suspends in a year (for a total of 180 days).