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Verizon has announced a small, yet key change to their EDGE upgrade program. The company now allows you to upgrade through EDGE as soon as your device is paid in full as opposed to having to wait a certain amount of time.
This is great for folks who want a new phone with little upfront costs, but don’t mind paying their current device off early for the privilege of doing so at their own pace. The change goes into effect May 31st, which is only a few days’ wait if you’re planning to take advantage.
[via Verizon]
You missed the big key change in this. They currently allow you to upgrade on edge after 30days when you paid only 75% of the device off. Now you must pay the full amount of the device before upgrade. This is a huge difference when devices cost 600 or more!
But you had to turn the device in when you paid off 75%. You keep it in this scenario (as you should) and can sell it on your own to be much better off than paying off 75% and turning it in.
You could always keep it and pay it in full. They are eliminating the option of paying less then full and giving back which is what most verizon customers do. Most verizon customers are not android experts and sell their phones on ebay etc. So in effect they just increased prices 25% on their majority of customers.
But if they turn their device in now, after paying 100%, Verizon pays them whatever their current trade-in amount would be.
I wouldn’t suggest turning phones in to Verizon after payoff…. One would make much market on Craigslist (unsafe, possibly) or swappa
Why would anyone do that?
That’s exactly my point to techman – but he does have a point that a lot of customers don’t know any better than to utilize these trade-in programs.
A sucker will be separated from his money one way or another…
Verizon is not eliminating the option of paying less than than full retail…. So there is no theoretical price increase… The only thing accomplished is they corrected a flaw in their own processes that made me switch carriers once because I was unable to purchase another phone unless I paid full price because of the stupid wait periods that were in place for those of us that pay edge agreements off early.
yes they are. you can no longer pay only 75% and trade it in for a new device. Now you must pay 100% and then trade it in for a credit that wont equal that 25% extra you just paid. Remember we are talking about 98% of the customers not us who go and resell our phones.
Option still available.
Clarification Option available to not pay it off in full and just sell it…. seems like a good deal to me….
What “jnt” said. For people like me that trade and sell phones often this is excellent. I can now sell a phone, payoff my edge plan, and purchase a new device… Opposed to paying it off and waiting a month or paying off some huge amount then giving Verizon my phone.
Exactly. Honestly it’s *not good* for a serial phone changer… lol
that is not new. You could always pay it in full and keep it. We both know most verizon customers do not sell the phone like we do. Think in terms of all customers. This is verizon taking a way an option from the majority of customers who dont do that!
Yes, no one said that was new…. The new thing is that there is no wait period between agreements after paying off the previous agreement
Damon and jnt, that is not new! you could always pay your device off and keep it if you wanted too. However the majority of verizon’s customer base does not do that. They just trade the device back to verizon and now verizon is increasing their own profit by 25%.
How are they increasing their profit by 25%? All they’re really doing is dropping the “pay off ** percentage and turn your device in” thing and getting rid of the time limit. Paying off 75% of a device and then also having to turn it into them gives them a much higher per phone profit margin.
because people are then trading in the device to them. 98% of ppl trade it in to the carrier and do not resell their own phone. And verizon pays peanuts on trade-ins. lowest of anyone.
You could always do that, but read my issue… My issue is that if I were to sell my device to pay off my edge agreement because it was more beneficial to me to do so, I would not be afforded an opportunity to purchase another device until a full billing cycle had been completed after paying off the device that was under an edge agreement…. Now I can pay off a device and purchase a new device immediately.
i think you were misinformed by verzion. i could always pay off if i wanted and get a new phone immediately, did not need to wait til the end of a billing cycle(as long as its been more than 30 days since i bought the phone originally). Wouldnt surprise me though since verizon ppl are more often then not clueless these days
Not misinformed… That why they are introducing the change. I’ve had this issue twice just as recently as last month when I had to purchase an ATIV SE on eBay so that I would have a device. Told the same policy by managers at 2 stores and customer service rep….
But I also think this change speaks to the fact that it was the policy.
Damon you are wrong. They are not introducing it for the .0005% of people like you that may have had that issue. They are doing to increase their profits by increasing what everyone pays by 25%. The fact that you cant see that is amazing.
Verizon even trying to copy T-Mobile still gets it wrong. ? ? Verizon sucks monkey balls definitely.
So, they allow you to buy something after you buy something? I think that’s just called… buying things.
No kidding. When you’re done buying a phone, you can buy another phone.
This is actually a huge change. It should hav been this way from the beginning.
I had an edge plan, then sold the device and paid off the phone thinking that I would be able to purchase a new device, lo and behold, I was told I had to wait until the next FULL billing cycle before I could purchase another device on edge or establish a new contract….
THAT SUCKS!!! I switch devices often and that really burned me. I had to purchas a device outright($150 Cheapo phone, not spending $600 full for a device I will likely trade).
Once I pay off a device I full expect to be free and clear with the ability to use every purchasing option. FINALLY!!
I’m glad for this change honestly – it simplifies things and puts more control in the customers’ hands, and more clearly separates the device from the plan.
100000% agree.
I see no benefit to this. You could always pay your phone off anytime you wanted and buy a new phone on edge and keep your device. They are just eliminating the 75% option for the majority of customers that can not be bothered with selling their phone and giving themselves a 25% boost in fees in the process.
You could, yes – but then you had to wait 30 days – which isn’t a problem for most people, obviously, but is still a limitation.
But even if someone pays off 100% and then turns the device into Verizon for a credit, Verizon is still paying the customer a credit that they weren’t paying them before, while taking the device after having 75% of it paid off. So it still seems better for the customer unless I’m missing something.
verizon’s credit is not worth 25% in most cases. You have to think of this in the terms of the common person, not us. So 98% of customers are now paying 25% more for their phone and in 2 years when they upgrade verizon will pay them 50 bucks or less for the tradein because 98% of people do not resell their phones they just trade them in
I don’t know if you saw my “TLDR” analysis up above but that does point to what you’re saying. I knew their trade in program was crap, but it’s worse than I thought. Though in the example I did above (which is obviously just one scenario), the customer’s increase is “only” 12%, not 25%.
Let’s run through what might be a “typical” scenario – not one like me or Damon who changes phones all the time. Let’s take someone that bought the LG G3 on Edge 1 year ago, and wants to upgrade to the S6 or G4.
At this point in their Edge agreement they’ll have paid half off – $300 (I’m pretty sure the G3 was $600 brand new on Verizon). If they want to “Edge up” right now, they have to pay another $150 on their Edge agreement and give Verizon the year old G3. That’s $450 (plus tax on $600) they paid for a device they just gave back to Verizon. So their net out of pocket right now is -$450.
Looking at Swappa, a used, good condition G3 should sell for around $300, give or take depending on other factors. If they pay the device off in full, they net -$300 (-$600 for device, +$300 for selling it). If they turn it into Verizon, they get a whopping $98 for it (that’s… ridiculous). So in that scenario they pay out -$600 and get $98 back, netting -$502 – $52 worse than the original scenario in the second paragraph.
So to a certain extent I see your point now, though it’s not significantly different from the 75%/turn-in scenario while giving the customer more options on what they want to do with the device and greatly simplifying things.
Moral of the story – spread the word as much as possible about selling on Swappa, Ebay, etc. and not doing their trade in program… ;)
I am 100% positive that in some way Verizon benefits from this more than the consumer. That is just the Verizon way… Bilk the customer for everything they have and just keep them happy enough to stay.
no more edge up options so either you pay the full price or wait the 24months
Not what they are saying… This eliminates the wait period between agreements should one pay off the previous agreement early.
nope no more 75% option or device returns on new agreements but atleast you get to keep that nifty discount.
Paid in full… What? Ive had the one m8 since launch so a year and a month. I was able to upgrade 2 weeks ago. I’ve only paid the device off half way. The stipulation is I have to send my old m8 back to them and I assume they will resell it as a refurbished phone but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m able to upgrade a year in and after only paying off half the phone.
This time last year, Edge was switching from 50 to 60%. I think it was just earlier this year that it went to 75%. By next year, you’ll pay double the price and will have to cut off a hand (the left one, obviously, cause that’s the wrong way to hold a phone)
That is a joke, anyone can upgrade if their device is paid for. Why even be on the edge program? Verizon is ridiculous, so happy I dropped them, my LTE speeds sucked and was paying almost twice what I’m paying now. Thank you T-Mobile, my signal strength is stronger, data speeds are twice as fast (55mb down & 25mb up) and saving close to 50 bucks a month. Again, Thank you T-Mobile, Thank You John Legere.