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Verizon: Renewals will still include discounted phones

Under the new system, people will buy phones outright, with the option of paying the full retail price in monthly, interest-free installments. Instead, it opted for new plans that are slightly cheaper (with some exceptions) but require you to pay for your own device. No matter what plan you have – a grandfathered unlimited data plan, a prior bucket of data or a previous contract plan – you will be able to keep it with no changes to the terms. (If you need even more data, it’s available all the way up to 100GB for $750.).

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It should – particularly if you’re easy on your phone.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Vetr from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports.

If you’re ready and eligible for a new phone, it’s safer to do so by Wednesday, before the new plans kick in.

We’ll assume you’ve just purchased a new Samsung Galaxy S6 with 32GB of memory, one of the more expensive flagship phone options. The bill will then automatically go down. An iPhone 6 now goes for $200 with a contract and will likely drop to $100 when its successor comes out.

Analysts have said they expect device-financing activity to provide at least a $2 billion boost to Verizon’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in 2016, though some also note the carrier will still be on the hook for more than $400 million in device subsidies that will dilute the overall EBITDA benefit. Subtract the value of the subsidies ($38 for two iPhones), and you got $92 for 3 gigabytes and $112 for 6 gigabytes.

There are variations, though.

That depends. You can choose to remain on that plan until it expires.

This new set up is different from Verizon’s current model that offers plans for data between 500-megabytes and 15 GB.

T-Mobile: You can get an iPhone 6 for $27.08 per month for 24 months, along with $60 per month for 3GB of data, for a total of $87.08 per month. Vetr now has $50.41 target price on the cell phone carrier’s stock. An hour or two will eat up your allotment. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $46.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $48.40. You can also use your plan’s data for you mobile hotspot.

The plans represent a radical shift away from how Verizon has traditionally operated, offering subsidies to handsets while locking users into contracts. If you have something in between, think twice before switching. And you’ll definitely be saving something – potentially a lot, if you play your cards right.

If your company pays for all or part of your phone service, but not the phone itself, the new plans will hurt. Prices under the new plans will better reflect actual costs, but that also means less service fees to reimburse. But, without the activation down payment fees, you’ll save $192 over two years ($2208 vs. $2400). It is called an “access fee” and it costs $20 a month to connect a smartphone, $10 to connect tablets and $5 for any small device such as a smart watch. With the new plans, customers would have the freedom to upgrade every year if they wish, in line with Apple’s annual product life cycle, while taking advantage of increasingly attractive trade-in options. Its Edge plans weren’t as popular as other rival installment plan, and its base seemed pretty comfortable with their contracts.

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First, your upgrade/activation fee is waived since NEXT requires no contract.

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