It’s Official: Verizon Wireless says contracts are optional
Last week, we spilled a rumor onto the Internet regarding Verizon Wireless’ new deal for going contract free. Today, VZW has officially announced and confirmed our suspicions — contracts are not necessary for those who want to pay the unsubsidized price for phones or potential subscribers who want to use their existing CDMA devices. The leaked internal documents above provides more of the details. Way to go Verizon! The contract-free option will also be available to current users so long as they fulfill their current contracts. So, if you’re nearing the end of your contract or you think you’d like to remain loyal to Verizon for quite some time, this would definitely be the way to go. If you’re new and you’d like to check it out online, when you select your device there is a drop-down menu beside it where you can select Month-to-Month, 1 year, or 2 year contract options. After giving it a quick run ourselves, it looks like all you have to do is pick your plan, choose a device, and checkout. Like we mentioned before, the activation fee still applies for all plans. Full leaked docs are after the jump!
This is a great option. I see Verizon is taking steps in the right direction. \
BG you still haven’t posted the news I sent in about the Storm release date yet, which is Nov. 1st, by way of http://mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/stormlaunchsheet.jpg
Here’s hoping that the Other Carriers follow suit. (although I’m not holding my breath)
As long as you do not mind paying full price for phones, it is a good option. But I suspect that you will see people jump from carrier to carrier to chase the latest phone. Time will tell, especially if the other carriers make the same offer.
Most of them do. AT&T does and Sprint does. T-Mobile is the only one that doesn’t as far as I can remember…
“The contract-free option will also be available to current users so long as they fulfill their current contracts. So, if you’re nearing the end of your contract or you think you’d like to remain loyal to Verizon for quite some time, this would definitely be the way to go.”
I’ve been on Verizon for years without a contract. My 2 years ended and I am still paying the monthly rate for service. How is this any different?
All I see is that they have coined a term for being out of contract… now its called a month-to-month contract.
Maybe this is a new option for new customers but this is no different for exiting customers that run past their 1-2year agreements.
People are like YAAY NO CONTRACT. Wait.. what, that phone is HOW MUCH? 300 dollars for a phone? That’s a ripoff, you are screwing us either way!
FYI you have always been able to do no contract with Cingular and AT&T. It required you to buy full retail or provide your own phone, and the no contract plans had no free minutes (N&W M2M). Reps if you remember Cingular activations they always had two of the same plan but one was just minutes, choose that one and you got a 0 mo contract option.
AT&T has been able to do this w/regular plans for months now. It doesn’t help the average person however since they won’t shell out the 300 dollars for a phone. Now if they upgrade and add a line for the kid, that’s a deal because they can use the old equipment for no contract act.
What’s the big deal?
AT&T has done this for years. I bought my mpx220, my blackjack, and my Tilt all without a contract. You simply pay a higher price for the phone.
AT&T stores even have the no contract price listed on every phone in their stores.
So we are all going to give Verizon a high five for doing something that AT&T has been doing for 4+ years now? Give me break.
Call me when they start offering roll over minutes. Other than the fact that Verizon’s phone options suck (GSM carriers always have the coolest phone options), the biggest reason I chose AT&T is that I hate paying for minutes I never use. If I give you $40 every month for 450 minutes, I should be able to keep them even if I don’t use them. AT&T is the only company that has ever figured this out.
@BoyGenius
T-mo most certainly does a no-contract option. FlexPay, month to month. No contract, no activation fees, no credit check. If you’ve got an unlocked phone, its perfect. But hey, we’ve only been offering it for a year now, I can see how you missed it.
If you’re thinking about choosing vzw for your cellular service then it is a big freaking deal. If not…then kick rocks….
@RockTripod
Uh, that’s called pre-paid service buddy. It is NOT the same as month-to-month POST paid service. Please quit your job, because you obviously aren’t very good at it.
Shane,
Are you an att rep or something, well probably just an ATT blogger since you actually care about your Job. ATT reps hate, hate, hate selling phones out of contract and even though R.S. says it can be done I have had no luck with customer service starting a contract without a one year commitment. More importantly call me when ATT customer service and cellular reception don’t suck… call me when you guys get on the 700mhz frequency.
First off, as far as my experience (and yes, Ive had ALL carriers) all carriers bill 1 month in advance, and tack on any extra usage from the previous month into the bill….
If you pay immediately before service is turned on, or 2 weeks later for prorate and first month doesnt matter if you wanna call it POSTPAID its still PREPAY.
What Americans know as “Prepay” is may for minutes in advance and get no monthly plan rates.
So – while ALL new monthly plans are “Prepay” by technical definition of how soon you must pay for the service… its “Postpaid” plans.
So – BOTH people are correct.
Postpaid plan options prepaid in the beginning (or within 2 weeks of activation) service starting.
Hmmmm, why do I think no one will be calling you, regardless of what anyone else does!
How does this really help? Isn’t the early termination fee only $175? If so $150 for a 8830 plus $175 is still way less than $519 on month to month. Seems like you’re still better off getting a contract and then just canceling it down the line if you really want to switch services or get a new phone.
I have been on month to month with ATT/Cingular for the last 4 years. Granted I just let my contract run out, but that’s not the point. After being such a loyal customer, I simply asked ATT for a free phone and after talking to three reps until I got someone who was authorized, I was offered any phone BUT the iPhone. Now, I don’t want the iPhone, and if ATT stops dicking around, I gets me a free Bold for being month to month. And just to be sure it was legit, I called back a week later and asked them to read the notes back. A Big ol’ smile I had when he said, “Any phone but the iPhone for free.”
And that is the ONLY good reason I can claim for month to month.
@shane
I know what you mean about customer service for ATT. I have been with them since the transistion and with Cingular since Cellular One. all I can say is the customer service reps in the north-eastern region have always been great and knowledgeable. I rarely have to talk to them, but they always get it right when I do, and no yelling at all, which is much unlike the reps in the south eastern region. They SUCK! They have always been miserable and had no clue when it came to much. But, don’t count ATT out now for their Customer Service. T-Mobile may have them beat, but Verizon SUCKS all over the country.
@BG,
Hate to team up on ya boss, but T_Mobz does have m2m plans contract free. we have been doing them for a little while now (Not quite an year) that is a post paid acct with no contact and no subsidized handset. this is not our prepaid, or flex pay. its called month 2 month.
Come on Verizon you could probabily fool a few people but not many i think. People what they’re going here is charging you the ETFs up front, in other words you pay $175 plus the cost of the phone which when you add it up, it’s the total price of the phone unsubsidy, Now AT&T and Apple had a better one, where you paid $399 upfront and in return you got cheap data plans and 200 sms messages included a $15 monthly saving value
Do people think that the carriers get the phones free from the manufact? Half the times they are loosing money on the phones when they sell them. If you like paying a higher price for your equip, then this is the way to go but don’t bitch that you will be paying retail. I had a customer come in and tell me that he wanted a camera phone (higher megapix) bluetooth,video,speaker,and voice dialing. So i showed the exact phone he wanted. He then turned to me and said “I also want this for free as well as no contract” I looked at him and politely asked where he worked. He told me mens suits at Nordstroms. SO I said sure you can have this for free with no contract and when we are done I will come to your work and pick out an Armani suite, tie, and shoes and expect to pay nothing. He laughed and then said he could not. I then asked what makes you think I can. He did not say much afer that. I;m sure what ever carrier you work for, I’m sure you call relate. Nothing is free in this world, NOTHING.
@ boy genius.. your true hatred for tmobile really showed here.. Saying you cannot do monthly contract on the 1st company in the US to offer over nationwide calling network…I love your site but that was a blow below tmobiles belt!
HERE IS THE DIFFERENCE:
New users (new lines) are required on most carriers to have new contracts either way. With this announcement, people/businesses will be able to start an account or add a new line without the contract. (they just dont get the subsidized phone price, they pay full price like most of the international community does). This is good news and hopefully the industry moves to this standard, wasnt this a part of the fight consumers took to the FCC recently?
What people are talking about as far as carriers “already” having this… is that once you are with a carrier for a while and out of contract, you can choose to pay full price for a phone and not extend the contract, but if you were to switch to another carrier for an iPhone or Instinct or Diamond or whatever, you would start all over again with a contract. But if you are staying with your current company and want to pay full price for a device, then yes this doesnt really affect you. Limits people from getting to purchase devices because they are under contract and other devices with other carriers. But this now puts the ownice on carriers to step up their game, cant hide behind contracts anymore. Good stuff.
this actually makes me kinda mad since i just activated a line for my dad and i already had a phone ready to go but since they made me sign a contract i decided i may as well get him a new phone… this was not even a month ago.
What does “compatible with the Verizon Wireless network” in the second bullet point mean? I interpret this as CDMA, which should allow me to buy the HTC Diamond from Sprint and hook it up on Verizon…thoughts?
I gotta tell you, this whole no commitment option has been a real help to my sales at at&t. Being able to offer a new line using existing equipment or set up a new account w/o contract actually goes a long way to build trust. Yeah I get chargebacks occasionally if they drop the line in under six months but the adds far outweigh the chargebacks.
And for the record, everyone in this industry follows each other. AT&T copied Verizon’s unlimited minutes T-Mobile copied AllTel’s my-faves; if one miltibillion dollar telecom makes a big concession to attract customers the others may have to follow to keep up. That’s just business.
@ BGR:
Its based on the prepaid billing platform, but you can still do a blackberry data package, a family plan with up to 3 lines, and an unlimited plan if you feel like it. So the fact that you have to pay for the month in advance is a rather small difference, or am I’m missing something here, BGR? The end result for the customer is the same. Its prepaid, sorta. On steroids maybe. But you’re right, I clearly have no idea what I’m talking about, and must suck at my job.