'Verizon Edge' plans, please help!

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My wife and I are both in need of new phones. Both of our phones are just over 2 years old (out of contract), and are buggy as all get out, so its time. Yesterday we went into the Verizon store to buy a couple of new phones, when the sales associate who we were working with tells us about the 'Edge' plan setup. I was immediately skeptical, but I listened. In the end, I was so confused that I had to leave and come back another day after I better understand this whole thing. But, here's what I've gathered so far...

Essentially, with the Edge plan, Verizon is not subsidizing the price of the phone (which they lose a ton of money on). Rather, they are, for all intents and purposes, 'subsidizing' their own line fees, which makes much more financial sense for them since they already own a vast network of towers, etc. So the end result is the customer owns the phone after 2 years, gets some freebees (case, car charger), and doesn't have to pay an activation fee when buying the phone. Also, once your phone is paid off (after 2 years), your $25-off per line still remains in effect, netting me a savings of $50/month for our 2 lines on our cellular bill.

It also seems from research that this Edge plan is really for people who like to upgrade early and often with the latest device; this is not my wife and I. Unless our phones are beat to death, we hold on to them. So it seems like our situation could actually take advantage of this, but again, I cannot get a solid breakdown of this plan from any source, even third-party ones. Does anyone have any input on this?
 
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All your doing with Egde is putting the phone on a payment plan.

I priced out doing it with my company line and edge with two Iphone 6's vs just paying the $140 a month and upgrading every two years for about $130 a phone with trade in worked out about the same. With two 6's they are about $30 a month, so my bill would go to $160, and I would still need a new phone after a couple of years.

Edge might be a good deal if you buy a super cheap flip phone, or if you don't mind paying them $100 a month on your Iphone to get a new one every year.

I typically get two years out of a phone before its shot, I use mine a lot.
 
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There never was any subsidizing of the phone. That was just marketing. The old way, you signed up for a 2 year contract and got a $500 phone for free or it cost you $100 up front or $200 or whatever. The difference between what you paid and what the phone cost was "subsidized" but really it was just hidden in your monthly service charges as a hidden extra $25 per month. With Edge, they are giving you a 0% interest loan for 2 years and charging you an $25 a month for your phone but then "discounting" this off once you paid off your phone.

Basically, the old way, once your 2 year contract was up, your phone was paid off but you continued to pay for it every month.
 
Originally Posted By: Klutch9
My wife and I are both in need of new phones. Both of our phones are just over 2 years old (out of contract), and are buggy as all get out, so its time. Yesterday we went into the Verizon store to buy a couple of new phones, when the sales associate who we were working with tells us about the 'Edge' plan setup. I was immediately skeptical, but I listened. In the end, I was so confused that I had to leave and come back another day after I better understand this whole thing. But, here's what I've gathered so far...

Essentially, with the Edge plan, Verizon is not subsidizing the price of the phone (which they lose a ton of money on). Rather, they are, for all intents and purposes, 'subsidizing' their own line fees, which makes much more financial sense for them since they already own a vast network of towers, etc. So the end result is the customer owns the phone after 2 years, gets some freebees (case, car charger), and doesn't have to pay an activation fee when buying the phone. Also, once your phone is paid off (after 2 years), your $25-off per line still remains in effect, netting me a savings of $50/month for our 2 lines on our cellular bill.

It also seems from research that this Edge plan is really for people who like to upgrade early and often with the latest device; this is not my wife and I. Unless our phones are beat to death, we hold on to them. So it seems like our situation could actually take advantage of this, but again, I cannot get a solid breakdown of this plan from any source, even third-party ones. Does anyone have any input on this?


Look at Consumer Cellular as a provider. You can get phones from them or buy them elsewhere. They use AT&T towers.

I think the days of a "phone contract" are coming to an end!

My wife and I both have Nexus 5 phones bought for cash directly from Google. And use Consumer Cellular as provider.
 
I looked in to the edge program and I didn't like the fact that you had to turn in the phone you've been paying for to get a new phone.
 
Originally Posted By: wymi516
I looked in to the edge program and I didn't like the fact that you had to turn in the phone you've been paying for to get a new phone.


I didn't have to. My contract was up. Was your phone contract up?
 
Originally Posted By: Leo99
Originally Posted By: wymi516
I looked in to the edge program and I didn't like the fact that you had to turn in the phone you've been paying for to get a new phone.


I didn't have to. My contract was up. Was your phone contract up?


He may have taken an Early Edge promo while still in 2 year contract, or Early Edged into a new phone during an Edge agreement which does require trading in.
 
cricket wireless, at&t towers

40$ a month for 2.5gb data, unlimited talk/text

go on ebay and buy 2 new lg g2 (d800 model)
for about 190$ each.

Save a ton.

cricket also offers family plans


Lines Price
1 40$
2 70$
3 90$
4 100$
5 100$ (110$ next year)

these are all fee/tax included prices..

I just got 2 lines I went with the 50$ plan (5GB data) because no activation and 3rd month free promo right now.

so I paid 120$ first month next month is 85$ (10$ off group disc 5$ off autopay disc)

third month is 0$(free promo)

4th month will be 65$ for 2 lines each with unlimited and each with 2.5GB data

If you go over your data plan on cricket it doesn't stop but they throttle you to 128kbit.

They also offer a 20GB plan for 60$ (55$ with autopay)

Final note they do throttle your data speed.
4G is 4mbit up/down 4G LTE is 8mbit up/down

which is plenty fast for me.
 
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I worked through the details of the equivalent plan on ATT since on the surface it looks like a good value. But when you consider the cost of a good phone, e.g. iphone or samsung galaxy, its a poor value.

If you can get a $200 smartphone special and not have the phone cost be an element of it, it may be OK... But to do apples to apples, you MUST amortize the phone costs into the per month cost to get an accurate depiction.
 
If you need verizon towers, you can do verizon prepaid.

Or you can do page plus, which uses verizon towers.

My plan on verizon prepaid with an iphone 5 was 45.

My plan on page plus is 39 dollars.

No contract, and you can get coupons for the service refills on retailmenot. I usually pay about 36 dollars per month no tax.
 
Put simply, Edge encourages the consumer to be perpetually paying for a phone, putting money in Verizon's pocket at your expense.
 
Originally Posted By: Kuato
Put simply, Edge encourages the consumer to be perpetually paying for a phone, putting money in Verizon's pocket at your expense.


....OK?
You were doing that anyway with 2yr subsidies, but on Edge you stand a chance of saving money.
 
No early upgrade, the edge program according to what I read on the vzw website requires you to turn in the phone.
 
From the vzw web page describing edge:

To be eligible for the Edge Up option, the original device purchased using Verizon Edge must be returned in good working condition and have no significant damage as determined by Verizon Wireless. Good, working condition factors include, but are not limited to, functionality, cracks, visible corrosion, water damage, charging port and whether Find My iPhone is turned off.

So your paying for a phone you never own.
 
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Originally Posted By: wymi516
From the vzw web page describing edge:

To be eligible for the Edge Up option, the original device purchased using Verizon Edge must be returned in good working condition and have no significant damage as determined by Verizon Wireless. Good, working condition factors include, but are not limited to, functionality, cracks, visible corrosion, water damage, charging port and whether Find My iPhone is turned off.

So your paying for a phone you never own.


This is only if you trade in the phone early (before the 2 years us up, i.e. you don't fully own the phone). After the 2 years is up, you own the device outright, yet your monthly bill is still lower. It just doesn't make sense/is to good to be true. I must be missing something
confused2.gif
 
A lot of you guys are not doing an apples to apples comparison.

An Iphone 6 or 6 plus cost what it costs, you can either buy it outright or subsidize it threw the carrier.

I can get a phone for cheaper as well but if you compare apples to apples the edge plan doesn't offer much of an advantage.

Lastly I have found those smaller carriers to have truly terrible service. A lot of my guys have them and they don't work most of the time. No one has coverage like Verizon.
 
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Originally Posted By: Klutch9
Originally Posted By: wymi516
From the vzw web page describing edge:

To be eligible for the Edge Up option, the original device purchased using Verizon Edge must be returned in good working condition and have no significant damage as determined by Verizon Wireless. Good, working condition factors include, but are not limited to, functionality, cracks, visible corrosion, water damage, charging port and whether Find My iPhone is turned off.

So your paying for a phone you never own.


This is only if you trade in the phone early (before the 2 years us up, i.e. you don't fully own the phone). After the 2 years is up, you own the device outright, yet your monthly bill is still lower. It just doesn't make sense/is to good to be true. I must be missing something
confused2.gif



Good point, It's confusing the way it's written, anybody know for sure?
 
Klutch9 is correct.
The cost of the phone is separate from the service, payment is spread out over 2 years. At the end of 2 years you own the phone. Last year we got 2 new phones on Edge with 10gb shared data. The cost of service $110 but the total bill is $165 plus tax with the phone "financing" included. At the end of 2 years we will pay $110 monthly if we do not upgrade and own the G3 and iPhone6 64gb.
We have no contract for service with Edge so theoretically we could change carriers if the phone is compatable with another network.
I also have a 3rd line with a 4g phone I own outright that shares the data for $15 monthly.
All lines have unlimited voice and text.


Originally Posted By: wymi516
Originally Posted By: Klutch9
Originally Posted By: wymi516
From the vzw web page describing edge:

To be eligible for the Edge Up option, the original device purchased using Verizon Edge must be returned in good working condition and have no significant damage as determined by Verizon Wireless. Good, working condition factors include, but are not limited to, functionality, cracks, visible corrosion, water damage, charging port and whether Find My iPhone is turned off.

So your paying for a phone you never own.


This is only if you trade in the phone early (before the 2 years us up, i.e. you don't fully own the phone). After the 2 years is up, you own the device outright, yet your monthly bill is still lower. It just doesn't make sense/is to good to be true. I must be missing something
confused2.gif



Good point, It's confusing the way it's written, anybody know for sure?
 
Originally Posted By: wymi516
No early upgrade, the edge program according to what I read on the vzw website requires you to turn in the phone.

Only if you want a new phone before you pay it off!
 
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