Is it time to give up unlimited?

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Kelvarr

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So I have a grandfathered unlimited plan with Verizon. For two lines, after my company discount I pay ~$152/month. I use on average 2-3GB of data per month normally. Both my wife (Droid Razr M) and I (Galaxy S3) are in need of a newer phone.

I was on Verizon's site, and I can get a 6GB Share Everything Plan with Verizon Edge for $100/month for two lines. Seemingly, this might be worth saving the $50/month.

What are the gotcha's? I have to be missing something. I know once football season comes back around, my data usage will go back up. I am also in the process of finishing a Plex server, so my data usage will go up. Whether it would go up over 6GB, I'm not sure...probably not.

What say you? Is it time to give up unlimited? As it currently stands, I don't have HotSpot access, or anything like that. Also, I thought I read somewhere about them throttling even 4G LTE speeds on the unlimited plans. Can anyone here help me make a more informed decision?
 
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CHANG3D said:
Well... Verizon's "Edge" program IS the "gotcha"
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Is it because you pay the price for 24 months regardless of how often you change phones? I don't get what exactly it is.

Reading over it is a little confusing, to be honest. So is my monthly payment on top of the $100/month for the plan? I also am reading that it looks to basically be a "pay-to-rent" plan...as you don't get to keep the device, you have to turn it in if you want to upgrade.
 
It's $100 for the plan, but only if both phones are on the Edge program as far as I'm aware. So it'll be $100 plus the monthly cost of the two phones (the flagship phones are usually $25 a month each) plus taxes and fees. So your bill would most likely be almost the same.
 
The edge plan is the $100 + phone payment.

For the edge program, if you pay off the device totally, then you get to keep it.

You can pay off your device anytime you want. The normal pay off time on the edge plan is 20 months.

Once you pay off the device, your monthly plan goes down by what you were paying per month for your phone.

I did calculations before we switched over from the regular (non unlimited) plan to edge. Even though the monthly payments come out to be more because you are paying for your device monthly instead of buying a "subsidized" up front, it still comes out slightly cheaper than with the regular plan.

And the other thing about the edge plan is that you aren't stuck in a 2-year contract. The only thing you would have to pay if you decided to leave Verizon would be the remainder of what you owe on your phone.
 
T-Mobile is doing a $50/mo line unlimited 4G talk text and data per line...family plan so for you and your other it would be $100
 
Verizon doesn't throttle unlimited data like AT&T. Foxfi app allows tethering and supposedly it even works on unrooted Samsung devices with Lollipop. You'll get screwed over with data overages at $15/GB in the long run. If both of you each go 1.5GB over you'll be even but any more, which is quite easy, you'll be paying more with Edge. Devices you can always find for relatively cheap on Craigslist, Swappa, etc. Edge plan is a trap so don't do it but if you decide to switch your UDP is worth good money so sell it.
 
YeuEmMaiMai said:
T-Mobile is doing a $50/mo line unlimited 4G talk text and data per line...family plan so for you and your other it would be $100
Click to expand...

As of now, I will not switch from Verizon. Coverage is too good despite the expense. I can get coverage all the way into the U.P. and never drop.
 
mi7chy said:
Verizon doesn't throttle unlimited data like AT&T. Foxfi app allows tethering and supposedly it even works on unrooted Samsung devices with Lollipop. You'll get screwed over with data overages at $15/GB in the long run. If both of you each go 1.5GB over you'll be even but any more, which is quite easy, you'll be paying more with Edge. Devices you can always find for relatively cheap on Craigslist, Swappa, etc. Edge plan is a trap so don't do it but if you decide to switch your UDP is worth good money so sell it.
Click to expand...

Hmm...Foxfi is what I tried, and it wasn't working. Although now that I think of it, it might have been the free version.
 
Kelvarr said:
So I have a grandfathered unlimited plan with Verizon. For two lines, after my company discount I pay ~$152/month. I use on average 2-3GB of data per month normally. Both my wife (Droid Razr M) and I (Galaxy S3) are in need of a newer phone.

I was on Verizon's site, and I can get a 6GB Share Everything Plan with Verizon Edge for $100/month for two lines. Seemingly, this might be worth saving the $50/month.

What are the gotcha's? I have to be missing something. I know once football season comes back around, my data usage will go back up. I am also in the process of finishing a Plex server, so my data usage will go up. Whether it would go up over 6GB, I'm not sure...probably not.

What say you? Is it time to give up unlimited? As it currently stands, I don't have HotSpot access, or anything like that. Also, I thought I read somewhere about them throttling even 4G LTE speeds on the unlimited plans. Can anyone here help me make a more informed decision?
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If you are paying $150/month to use two old phones on Verizon you are pretty much screwing yourself.

A) You switch to Edge and use those sames old phones for $100/month
B) You switch to Edge and get two NEW phones for the same price you are paying now (roughly $100+2x$28/month)
C) Keep overpaying and using old phones in a desperate old man "get offa my lawn" attempt to burn money but keep the unlimited data you don't use
 
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If you're really attached to your unlimited data plan you can just buy new phones. There are plenty of Verizon-compatible phones you can buy and buy cheaper than they sell them for.
 
mi7chy said:
Verizon doesn't throttle unlimited data like AT&T.
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Verizon WILL throttle 4G users that meet certain conditions which are...
The heaviest users in the top 5% data usage and when there is peak usage on the tower that user is currently on. Verizon has failed to give any data or way for that user to determine what they consider to be a "Peak usage time for that tower".

mi7chy said:
but if you decide to switch your UDP is worth good money so sell it.
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This is called "assumption of liability" when this happens the unlimited data is no longer transferred to the new owner as of October or November of last year.

I am also on unlimited and I am paying the price for it however....
I do not have to go into McDonalds, Starbucks (insert your own place here) to look for "free wifi"
I can produce a wifi hotspot when on a trip using Foxfi (6 hour drive to the Keys) and let my other family members use that.
I do not have to use some crappy insecure hotel wifi when traveling.
I do not have to check my data usage because I don't care.
Future proofing...I do not have to worry about some new technology, lets say a phone that produces a lifelike hologram in life size 4K resolution eating 10GB per second :D that might come along tomorrow because I have unlimited.
The "not having to worry about it" is worth the extra price IMHO...
 
Puterguru said:
I am also on unlimited and I am paying the price for it however....
I do not have to go into McDonalds, Starbucks (insert your own place here) to look for "free wifi"
I can produce a wifi hotspot when on a trip using Foxfi (6 hour drive to the Keys) and let my other family members use that.
I do not have to use some crappy insecure hotel wifi when traveling.
I do not have to check my data usage because I don't care.
Future proofing...I do not have to worry about some new technology, lets say a phone that produces a lifelike hologram in life size 4K resolution eating 10GB per second :D that might come along tomorrow because I have unlimited.
The "not having to worry about it" is worth the extra price IMHO...
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This has been my line of thinking. I really should look into the Foxfi more I guess. I love not having to worry about a data limit, or finding/using wifi also.
 
Or buy a Nexus 6 and root it. All it takes is adding "net.tethering.noprovisioning=true" to the build.prop
 
Check out the Cricket multi-line deals. AT&T has transitioned Cricket over to their GSM network, so it is worlds better than it used to be. You can also use most AT&T GSM phones with Straight Talk (I've got an LG G3 D850 with a ST SIM and everything works great).
 
Puterguru said:
Verizon WILL throttle 4G users that meet certain conditions which are...
The heaviest users in the top 5% data usage and when there is peak usage on the tower that user is currently on. Verizon has failed to give any data or way for that user to determine what they consider to be a "Peak usage time for that tower".
Click to expand...

Verizon backed off this policy once FCC complained about it (back then, Verizon was bound by the 700mhz band 13 rules regarding no throttling for LTE, so they could still throttle CDMA... with the new net neutrality rules, not sure how FCC would react to these throttling policies)

http://www.cnet.com/news/verizon-backs-off-on-plans-to-throttle-unlimited-data-users/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_2008_wireless_spectrum_auction#Google_involvement
 
Honestly, I would look at www.swappa.com for some new second hand phones. That way, you don't use your upgrade and you can keep your unlimited.

I've been doing this for a long time. I've been eligible for upgrade since they first rolled out LTE. I refuse to use it and give up my precious unlimited -- of which I use a ton of.
 
Don't get rid of your unlimited plan for that plan you mentioned. You'll be paying the same basically and then have limits, which you will probably regret later. Just go to Ebay or something and buy some used phones. If you really want to get rid of unlimited though, I will gladly take over them for you and pay whatever it cost to open 2 new lines for you. :p
 
TheGamerZ said:
Honestly, I would look at www.swappa.com for some new second hand phones. That way, you don't use your upgrade and you can keep your unlimited.

I've been doing this for a long time. I've been eligible for upgrade since they first rolled out LTE. I refuse to use it and give up my precious unlimited -- of which I use a ton of.
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Exactly what I do. You will never take my unlimited from me! I use spotify in the car and data at work so it is very worth it for me.
 
I was paying something like 200 bucks a month for my and my wife's old grandfathered unlimited AT&T accounts. I definitely wanted to keep my unlimited forever, because I hate metered services from the old days (Compuserve and "long distance" being 20 miles away in 1983 scarred me forever). When I looked at what we actually used (less than a GB a month cell data), I went down to the 3GB a month plan and still had 2GB rollover data. I cut my bill in half and saved more than $1200 a year.

Will everyone fit that pattern? Hell no. With a different usage profile, unlimited might the way to go for me. As it stands, though, it was a much better deal to let unlimited go.
 
YeuEmMaiMai said:
T-Mobile is doing a $50/mo line unlimited 4G talk text and data per line...family plan so for you and your other it would be $100
Click to expand...

Yeah, go into the store and find out what the real deal is.

That $50 per line most likely doesn't include the phone payment or the network access fee.

T-Mobile's deals are not deals at all.
 
I really hate the new trend of separating the cost of the phone and the plan. We got suckered into att's version and luckily had fairly new phones. They pretty much let us off the hook for what we owed on our previous phones and reduced our bill $60. They probably assumed we would upgrade right away but I have an unlocked m8 and iPhone 5s, and my wife is super happy with her 5s so forget that.
 
My company's grandfathered into a Sprint unlimited plan.

Every couple months the Sprint wonks try to call us up and sell us a metered plan to "save us money".

Basically, were we to stay within bandwidth limits, it'd save us a grand total of about $75/year.

Woo!

Then we looked at our data usage and figured overage charges.

Basically the cost of the plan TRIPLED (and our data usage is only ever going UP).

So they rather not-so-politely get told to pound sand whenever they call in.
 
cyclone3d said:
Yeah, go into the store and find out what the real deal is.

That $50 per line most likely doesn't include the phone payment or the network access fee.

T-Mobile's deals are not deals at all.
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lol if you say so....

$100 a month for 2 unlimited talk text web and 4G data with no contract obligation and the ability to BYOD or use their EIP interest free is not a deal at all :rolleyes: the only downside (if you can call it that) is that if you leave, your EIP balance becomes due in full.

and the only access fees I pay are those mandated by the federal state and local governments (if any)

for me, my wife and my parents, it is $120 a month plus about $10 in taxes and regulatory fees

my line unlimited data
my wife's line unlimited date
$10 each for my parents line and that includes 1GB of data for each phone

Devices are Lumia 830 (me) Lumia 810 (wife), and 2x Nokia Lumia 521 for parents.

I personally like the idea of buy the phone separate as you can choice exactly what you want to use
 
Rhinohelix said:
I was paying something like 200 bucks a month for my and my wife's old grandfathered unlimited AT&T accounts. I definitely wanted to keep my unlimited forever, because I hate metered services from the old days (Compuserve and "long distance" being 20 miles away in 1983 scarred me forever). When I looked at what we actually used (less than a GB a month cell data), I went down to the 3GB a month plan and still had 2GB rollover data. I cut my bill in half and saved more than $1200 a year.

Will everyone fit that pattern? Hell no. With a different usage profile, unlimited might the way to go for me. As it stands, though, it was a much better deal to let unlimited go.
Click to expand...

Same here. My unlimited plan was doing nothing for me other than costing me $100 a month extra above what I'm paying now.
 
cyclone3d said:
Yeah, go into the store and find out what the real deal is.

That $50 per line most likely doesn't include the phone payment or the network access fee.

T-Mobile's deals are not deals at all.
Click to expand...

Truely unlimited everything with no throttle isn't a deal to you?
 
Domini said:
Truely unlimited everything with no throttle isn't a deal to you?
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Its not truly unlimited, you can't use tether unlimited, and in my experiences tmobile actually checks if you are tethering on their network and they start redirecting web pages to their site about their tethering policy if you go over your tethering allotment.

I actually acquired an unlimited verizon plan in october and I dont plan on giving it up anytime soon. We are a 700min family plan which we use maybe 400 min a month. The cheapest plan verizon has for our family comes out $10 more expensive than what we have now, but only 1gb of data for all of us, where I get unlimited, benefit is that I would then get subsidized phones again, but I'm saving $10 so over two years thats like a 1/3 to half the cost of a new one. I don't see data use going down in the future so I doubt I'll ever change until they force me off.
 
I would upgrade both at the discount price and keep your unlimited data. Not worth giving it up. Make sure it works with FoxFi so you get free hotspot too.

Use a method outlined here to do so:

http://slickdeals.net/f/6964624-upgrade-and-keep-your-unlimited-data-with-verizon?v=1

You can also use Google Hangouts to make calls and texts to any US number using data, so basically you have unlimited voice, texts and data.

Wife and I use this, shaves another $20 off the bill removing texts. Paying $126.xx total for two lines with 700 min shared. I use 150-250gb/mo on my line, and get a new phone every 12 months at the discount price. Verizon is awesome in my book.
 
munkle said:
Its not truly unlimited, you can't use tether unlimited, and in my experiences tmobile actually checks if you are tethering on their network and they start redirecting web pages to their site about their tethering policy if you go over your tethering allotment.
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O geez, its truly unlimited on the device. Its obvious why tethering has a limit, besides their are ways to get around it and mask it. Foxfi + PDAnet on my laptop do wonders
 
Kelvarr said:
This has been my line of thinking. I really should look into the Foxfi more I guess. I love not having to worry about a data limit, or finding/using wifi also.
Click to expand...

Does anyone have any clues as to what to do about the "Credential Storage Password" prompt that keeps popping up?

I googled it and tried all of the top results with no luck. The only thing I haven't done is factory reset, which I don't want to do if I can avoid it.
 
Kelvarr said:
Does anyone have any clues as to what to do about the "Credential Storage Password" prompt that keeps popping up?

I googled it and tried all of the top results with no luck. The only thing I haven't done is factory reset, which I don't want to do if I can avoid it.
Click to expand...

If i remember correctly i think foxfi required you to set a phone passcode/pin to use foxfi wireless tethering.
 
munkle said:
Its not truly unlimited, you can't use tether unlimited, and in my experiences tmobile actually checks if you are tethering on their network and they start redirecting web pages to their site about their tethering policy if you go over your tethering .
Click to expand...

talk about miss representing.... I eat on average 30GB of data a month when working nights and I have yet to be trottled. sure you are cut after 5GB tethering but that is more than enough for anything that does not involve watching video for hours on end. Also T-Mobile does not count a lot of music streaming against your data usage allotment of you are on a metered plan.
 
Cricket ftw...AT&T LTE, 2.5GB monthly after which is throttled (rather than charged overages), unlimited talk, text, all for $35/mo (with another line) all inclusive. You simply can't beat that with any subsidized carrier.
 
Interesting that there are so many people in here that were paying more for unlimited than they are paying now on a limited plan.

Currently for me I have unlimited data, 500 text messages, 450 minutes. I am paying a total of a little over $60 a month after my discount from work.

The only plan that Verizon has that would put me even close to my current cost would be a 1GB single line plan. I would be getting unlimited talk and text (which I don't use or need) and would be limiting my data to only 2GB (which isn't enough). I really don't have any decent options for switching off of my plan. Mostly because Verizon has decided that everyone shall have unlimited talk and text whether they need it or not.

The only downsides to my current plan are: I will have to outright buy my next phone, and I cannot send MMS texts without a 25 cent fee (my texting plan is like $4/mo grandfathered plan from like 15-20 years ago)

I am fine with that though because the phone I am looking to upgrade my Galaxy Nexus to is hopefully a Galaxy S6 Developer Edition if they come out with one. That way I can keep root, and I would have to buy that device outright anyways.
 
I'm going to be purchasing a Z3v as soon as I get one at a good price - I'm stuck with a G SIII also, and it's killing me having unlimited data but itty bitty battery life.
 
Kelvarr said:
So I have a grandfathered unlimited plan with Verizon. For two lines, after my company discount I pay ~$152/month. I use on average 2-3GB of data per month normally. Both my wife (Droid Razr M) and I (Galaxy S3) are in need of a newer phone.

I was on Verizon's site, and I can get a 6GB Share Everything Plan with Verizon Edge for $100/month for two lines. Seemingly, this might be worth saving the $50/month.

What are the gotcha's? I have to be missing something. I know once football season comes back around, my data usage will go back up. I am also in the process of finishing a Plex server, so my data usage will go up. Whether it would go up over 6GB, I'm not sure...probably not.

What say you? Is it time to give up unlimited? As it currently stands, I don't have HotSpot access, or anything like that. Also, I thought I read somewhere about them throttling even 4G LTE speeds on the unlimited plans. Can anyone here help me make a more informed decision?
Click to expand...

Well, I have a hard time believing Verizon is going to bill you $100. It may be $100 for the plan, but then you are likely paying the $40/month smartphone line access charge and then a monthly payment on your edge balance (the balance of the phone).

I was paying ~$187 a month to Verizon for two smartphones, one on Edge and one on a contract with unlimited talk and text and 4GB shared data. Last week I ported both numbers over to T-Mobile where I am paying $100 for unlimited talk, text, and 4G LTE data (5GB hotspot on each line, phone data is unlimited) and then a monthly charge for the phones and insurance which comes out to $177.T-Mobile will be paying my ETF and I (think) I will have to pay the remaining Edge balance (I haven't gotten my final bill from them yet) on the iphone. Sure, I'm not saving much but T-mobile's pricing is much more transparent and the unlimited data is nice. (I got tired of the Verizon bill slowly creeping up every month and when it hit just under 200 I had enough).

TL;DR Read any documents very carefully for the fine print as I'm sure the quoted $100 is not the final price that you will pay for each monthly bill! If you are in a T-Mobile area consider switching ;)

EDIT: Uhm sorry I think the $40 smartphone line access charge is only on the second line? I'd have to look at the VZW bill again. IIRC I was paying Verizon $100 (minus employer discount)+$40 second smartphone line+$25 Edge payment on first line+insurance.
 
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wolfofone said:
Well, I have a hard time believing Verizon is going to bill you $100. It may be $100 for the plan, but then you are likely paying the $40/month smartphone line access charge and then a monthly payment on your edge balance (the balance of the phone).

I was paying ~$187 a month to Verizon for two smartphones, one on Edge and one on a contract with unlimited talk and text and 4GB shared data. Last week I ported both numbers over to T-Mobile where I am paying $100 for unlimited talk, text, and 4G LTE data (5GB hotspot on each line, phone data is unlimited) and then a monthly charge for the phones and insurance which comes out to $177.T-Mobile will be paying my ETF and I (think) I will have to pay the remaining Edge balance (I haven't gotten my final bill from them yet) on the iphone. Sure, I'm not saving much but T-mobile's pricing is much more transparent and the unlimited data is nice. (I got tired of the Verizon bill slowly creeping up every month and when it hit just under 200 I had enough).

TL;DR Read any documents very carefully for the fine print as I'm sure the quoted $100 is not the final price that you will pay for each monthly bill! If you are in a T-Mobile area consider switching ;)

EDIT: Uhm sorry I think the $40 smartphone line access charge is only on the second line? I'd have to look at the VZW bill again. IIRC I was paying Verizon $100 (minus employer discount)+$40 second smartphone line+$25 Edge payment on first line+insurance.
Click to expand...

This was the plan:
Verizon Wireless said:
Limited time offer
2 SMARTPHONE LINES $100 MONTHLY ACCESS
Get 6 GB of data with Unlimited Talk & Text for $100 monthly access on The MORE Everything Plan with Verizon Edge.Limited time offer
2 SMARTPHONE LINES $100 MONTHLY ACCESS
Get 6 GB of data with Unlimited Talk & Text for $100 monthly access on The MORE Everything Plan with Verizon Edge.
Click to expand...


And, as I said, I will not even consider moving from Verizon. I enjoy my coverage too much.

And based on additional reading (and understanding, thanks to [H]), I will be keeping my unlimited. I didn't realize that the EDGE pricing was on top of the $100, so I really wouldn't be saving anything.
 
YeuEmMaiMai said:
talk about miss representing.... I eat on average 30GB of data a month when working nights and I have yet to be trottled. sure you are cut after 5GB tethering but that is more than enough for anything that does not involve watching video for hours on end. Also T-Mobile does not count a lot of music streaming against your data usage allotment of you are on a metered plan.
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Miss representing? If anything he is miss representing, saying it is truly unlimited is a flat out lie, there is a limit obviously on tethering, anyone who calls or thinks that is truly unlimited doesn't know what truly or unlimited really means. Hint: truly: to the fullest degree; genuinely or properly. and unlimited: not limited or restricted in terms of number, quantity, or extent. Seems to me "truly unlimited" is the miss representation here.
 
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