Verizon Plans to Discontinue 1-year Contracts Effective April 17

[kdkinc]

Does it make sense at all to buy the phone out right?
Then I could sell the phone I bought and apply the sale money to the new best next phone.

If i were to buy the Thunder bolt which is a hot phone for the suggested $600.00 how badly would I get beaten up money wise say 9-12 months from now ??

 

[kyler13]

Does it make sense at all to buy the phone out right?
Then I could sell the phone I bought and apply the sale money to the new best next phone.

If i were to buy the Thunder bolt which is a hot phone for the suggested $600.00 how badly would I get beaten up money wise say 9-12 months from now ??

That's definitely a route. The only caveat is that you have to commit to the cycle and you need to target new devices close to release so that in 9-12 months, the market-driven residual is reasonable to roll into the next device. I would also suspect you'd want to carry insurance 12 months a year. While this is definitely a viable option, it would be more viable if, as Miami stated above, contract-free service plans were discounted, ie. the T-Mobile USA model.

 

[dafischman]

and so if we don't like this business model we can always try the european way...

Full pop for te device and lower bills monthly....... justsayin'

I would be fully happy with this if the monthly bills were lowered significantly enough. However I don't ever see this happening in the US. What I do see happening is a slow increase in the prices of our phones until they are essentially non subsidized while maintaining 2yr contracts and higher prices. Unless any of the prepaid companies can start getting some of the top tier phones I just don't see the major carriers having the competition to force them down.

Josh

 

[dafischman]

Does it make sense at all to buy the phone out right?
Then I could sell the phone I bought and apply the sale money to the new best next phone.

If i were to buy the Thunder bolt which is a hot phone for the suggested $600.00 how badly would I get beaten up money wise say 9-12 months from now ??

Well a Droid X is going for about $200-300. So I imagine a Thunderbolt would probably pull about $250-$350 in that time frame. After the first phone your annual update would cost you around $200-400 depending on the prices of the new phones and what you got out of your old one.

Josh

 

[kyler13]

Does it make sense at all to buy the phone out right?
Then I could sell the phone I bought and apply the sale money to the new best next phone.

If i were to buy the Thunder bolt which is a hot phone for the suggested $600.00 how badly would I get beaten up money wise say 9-12 months from now ??

Another route... In the likely event that Verizon doesn't do discounted pricing for non-contract accounts, you could get the best possible phone available every 20 months with a 2 year contract and sell it sealed in the box to fund your unsubsidized upgrade path. Yeah, it locks you up with the carrier, but if you don't care about that, you might as well get what's coming to you free than pay the same thing month-to-month, getting nothing. Definitely want to hit the 3rd party retailer channels to get better pricing.

 

[Vito.a]

I priced a Thunderbolt with no contract at Best Buy right after the debut and it was $749! I told the rep that was a deal breaker.

 

[TheOldFart]

I priced a Thunderbolt with no contract at Best Buy right after the debut and it was $749! I told the rep that was a deal breaker.

I have noticed that the BB price is often lower than Verizon with a 2 year contract, but often priced higher than Verizon with no contract. Verizon was $50 lower than BB for the TBolt without a contract.

 

[kdkinc]

I priced a Thunderbolt with no contract at Best Buy right after the debut and it was $749! I told the rep that was a deal breaker.

VZW is $599.00 .

 

[TRIKOTRET]

I priced a Thunderbolt with no contract at Best Buy right after the debut and it was $749! I told the rep that was a deal breaker.

Actually its listed on their site for 699. Did you ask them to price match verizon price. I remember reading somewhere here that someone had them price match the 599 price

 

[kdkinc]

I priced a Thunderbolt with no contract at Best Buy right after the debut and it was $749! I told the rep that was a deal breaker.

Actually its listed on their site for 699. Did you ask them to price match verizon price. I remember reading somewhere here that someone had them price match the 599 price

Get ultrafast speeds on our advanced 4G network.

This is part of the info I see on my VZW site

This item is in your comparison chart.
Key Features
4G LTE Network
New Technologies. New possibilities. Verizon 4G LTE is lightning fast. Download movies in minutes. Photos in seconds. Apps. Games. News. It’s what you want, when you want it.


Customer Ratings & Reviews
Read Reviews (1244)
Ease of Use
Display
Design
Features
Battery Life
Full Retail Price$599.99
with month to month service
Free Overnight Shipping!
Order Mon-Fri by 4:30pm. Restrictions apply.

 

[kdkinc]

I priced a Thunderbolt with no contract at Best Buy right after the debut and it was $749! I told the rep that was a deal breaker.

Actually its listed on their site for 699. Did you ask them to price match verizon price. I remember reading somewhere here that someone had them price match the 599 price

ThunderBolt™ by HTC....

Get ultrafast speeds on our advanced 4G network.

This is part of the info I see on my VZW site

This item is in your comparison chart.
Key Features
4G LTE Network
New Technologies. New possibilities. Verizon 4G LTE is lightning fast. Download movies in minutes. Photos in seconds. Apps. Games. News. It’s what you want, when you want it.


Customer Ratings & Reviews
Read Reviews (1244)
Ease of Use
Display
Design
Features
Battery Life
Full Retail Price$599.99
with month to month service
Free Overnight Shipping!

ThunderBolt™ by HTC

 

[MissSpiffy]

Most other carriers don't offer 1 yr contracts. I agree it was one nice thing that set Verizon apart, but you can still pay full-retail...which can suck, yes, but you're not forced into any contract.

The vast majority of Verizon customers don't utilize or even know about 1 yr options, and that's a fact.

Verizon customers have become relatively spoiled in the past. Free replacements on damaged phones, replacement after replacement often just due to user error, free phones, early upgrades. So yes, they are taking away a lot of that awesome stuff, but with the millions and millions of dollars they literally invest in their network every year, with 4G spreading like wildfire, believe it or not it's a lot about cutbacks. Much of the revenue goes right back into the company. It's companies like AT&T that don't invest in their network, who send you to a service center 100 miles away, who don't offer overnight shipping (with extended warranty) on a defective phone...well it's those companies who take your money and do little productive with it. Verizon is and will be on the cutting edge, and technology is getting expensive.

 

[reefsrt4]

Just upgraded to the Thunderbolt with one year contract. Happy to have locked in the unlimited data plan for now and get to upgrade again in 10 months

 

[kodiak799]

As of October when I got my phone, I didn't know a one-year option was available. I would have absolutely gone that route had I known... or rather... had I been informed of my options by the rep and been allowed to make a decision. I had every intention of signing *only* one-years from now on.

I have no inside connections, but I have to assume THE INCREASE IN INTEREST is what has caused this. Word has spread about one-years, maybe sign-ups have spiked because people are finally "doing the math" and figuring that a piddly $70 is definitely worth the option to upgrade 10 months sooner (month 10 versus month 20). People used to be able to do this on a two-year contract with no problem.

I didn't know about 1-yr contracts until this forum, either. Agree with everything you said, except I still don't think people on this forum represent more than 2% of their smartphone users (some 30M out of 95M subscribers). When I started all this, I had no intention of dropping $300+ on a phone and accessories every month and actually just want a phone that would last me a solid two years (maybe the Bionic, but the paltry 512 ram makes that dicey).

Companies get rid of marginal incentives and little-used promotions all the time. From my perspective, that is exactly what VZW is doing and I don't even think as many people are as affected as complain on this board.

I've been with VZW 10 years and the only legit complaint I have is changing service plans mid-month (actually a benefit, like if you're running over on minutes that month) can be tricky online and usually requires a call to the service center to avoid charges.

 

[Larry_ThaGr81]

I think everyone that wanted to go 1 year on the bionic to wait for the quad cores are going to be sorely disappointed.

Yeah I would have to agree, but that's just too bad for those wanting the Bionic. I guess those who were unsure about hte TB and Bionic need to go ahead and get the TB if a 1 year agreement is that important to them with quad cores about 1 year away.