[Instruction] How to get a new phone and keep (legacy) Unlimited Data on Verizon

[Lodingi]

Re: Verizon: How to keep Unlimited Data and get phone on subsidized price

First of all, this has been the best thread that I have ever read in my life on any forum ever. Ok, that may be a bit hyperbolic but ... you guys have NO IDEA how excited this has made me.

I WANT to do this, but I need some help and have a few questions (please be gentle ...).

1) I'm visiting from the sister site wpcentral and have been using a Trophy (a phone that was first released in October of 2010 for the record) and the only sim that it has is an international one. As I understand it, for me to do pull this off requires that I have a sim for an LTE phone that's already active. So my best bet would be to buy the cheapest LTE phone I can find from craiglist, ebay, etc, activate it and then follow the steps in this thread (from what I read). BUT ... do used phones like that typically come with a sim card? Sorry, I've been a Verizon/CDMA customer for a long time that hasn't traveled internationally (yet!) so sim cards are kinda foreign to me.

2) Does the sim have to come from a Windows Phone or can I use one from an Android phone as well? The reason I ask is I might be able to find a cheaper old Android phone (Thunderbolt???) or even hit up some friends to see if they have any laying around with a sim.

These would help tremendously. I can't believe this workaround has been in place for so long and STILL works. I apologize in advance for this, but ... TEE HEE!!!

You can't use a sim that's already active. It must be a new (never activated) sim. Like I stated above, get a nano sim from Verizon or Amazon, and activate the sim yourself on Verizon's website.

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[Tjarren]

Re: Verizon: How to keep Unlimited Data and get phone on subsidized price

You can't use a sim that's already active. It must be a new (never activated) sim. Like I stated above, get a nano sim from Verizon or Amazon, and activate the sim yourself on Verizon's website.

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Ahhhh. I understand now. So I'd have to borrow/buy an LTE enabled phone from somewhere (that I can either give back or sell afterwards), buy a sim, activate it on my Verizon account, then go through the process in this thread and put the new sim in the new phone before turning it on and all should be well, right?

 

[lizzie9208]

Re: [Instruction] How to Keep Unlimited Data on Verizon

I tried every which way to get in on BOGO and maintain my UDP. I spoke to 3 reps & did a live chat with 2 reps. All 5 reps would not let me go BOGO without dropping my UDP. I gave up on BOGO and upgraded one line using the Best Buy method. Once I receive the phone, I will immediately discard the included sim card & install my existing sim. This should maintain my UDP.

My advice to you is to pay the $149 per device through Best Buy online, and activate the phones as I mentioned. Read this thread for more info. Good luck.

Thanks! When I go to Best Buy's website, it's $199 now. Is there a mail-in rebate or anything? Amazon has the S5 for $99, though it's forcing me to choose a different data plan rather than allowing me to keep existing plan. Blah.

 

[dss2000]

Re: [Instruction] How to Keep Unlimited Data on Verizon

Ok here is my question I couldn't read through 111 pages of stuff to find it. MY current phone is the droid razzr with unlimited plan. I ordered the droid moto x with my upgrade and it said online to activate my phone I had to change my plan to a non unlimited plan. No way I'm doing that cause I use around 10gb a month. I will not lose my unlimited no matter what. So my first thought was to check the sim cards, they are different sizes the new phone has a smaller sim card then my old phone. Is there a way from this point to transfer my unlimited data to the new phone. If not should I just send the new phone back and try a different method. I have not lost my unlimited service my old phone works, but I am looking at both phones right now.

Edit: My current phone says 4g, but when I went to activate it, it said something about activating from 3g to 4g i need to change my service or something.

Also is there a way to get the 2 for 1 galaxy deal cause my mom wanted that phone as well, but they said we couldn't get the deal because only 1 contract was up and I am willing to drop 100 bucks with my mom to get that phone if its possible someway to get both the phones and activate the phone with my unlimited data plan.

I think the phone that I have is not activated under my number because the phone was actually ordered from Motorola and not Verizon.

AFAIK you can't directly use an UDP line to get a subsidized phone. You need to have another line without UDP to transfer the upgrade to and then upgrade from that line. Then when the phone comes activate the phone on your UDP phone. Are there any other phones on the account? If so I think you'd have to return the phone and start over.

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[Kevin Galley]

Re: Verizon: How to keep Unlimited Data and get phone on subsidized price

Any idea what I am supposed to do once I receive the phone?

I got the phone through the BB loophole. Took all my screenshots. I have two phones both, Samsung Galaxys. I had to order over the phone the sim cards since I had an iPhone 4S thus no 4G LTE enabled.

So I know which phone is which order wise. I was sent two micro sims. I want to ensure that I do it properly and not screw up all the work I just did to get to this point. Should I just go on the site and activate the device using either of the sims? Will that trigger the end of my UDP or is activating through the site with the new sim exactly what I need to do to get it to work?

 

[Lodingi]

Re: Verizon: How to keep Unlimited Data and get phone on subsidized price

Ahhhh. I understand now. So I'd have to borrow/buy an LTE enabled phone from somewhere (that I can either give back or sell afterwards), buy a sim, activate it on my Verizon account, then go through the process in this thread and put the new sim in the new phone before turning it on and all should be well, right?

Yes.

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[Lodingi]

Re: Verizon: How to keep Unlimited Data and get phone on subsidized price

Any idea what I am supposed to do once I receive the phone?

I got the phone through the BB loophole. Took all my screenshots. I have two phones both, Samsung Galaxys. I had to order over the phone the sim cards since I had an iPhone 4S thus no 4G LTE enabled.

So I know which phone is which order wise. I was sent two micro sims. I want to ensure that I do it properly and not screw up all the work I just did to get to this point. Should I just go on the site and activate the device using either of the sims? Will that trigger the end of my UDP or is activating through the site with the new sim exactly what I need to do to get it to work?

Not sure I follow. Are you activating one phone or 2?

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[GeekzGurl]

Re: Best Buy Mobile lets me keep Unlimited Data Plan on Verizon?

Success so far! I activated the S5 on my wife's unlimited line and used her existing SIM card to activate it. It showed the S5 with unlimited data. She did not want the S5, so put her sim back in her existing old phone and it still shows unlimited.

edit:
Activated the S5 on a previous dumb phone line with no issue. Still showing unlimited on my wife's UDP

That's awesome gratz You didn't have to contact Verizon at all, just ordered from BB and plopped the sim in? And things are still all good?

 

[Duhaa]

Re: [Instruction] How to Keep Unlimited Data on Verizon

AFAIK you can't directly use an UDP line to get a subsidized phone. You need to have another line without UDP to transfer the upgrade to and then upgrade from that line. Then when the phone comes activate the phone on your UDP phone. Are there any other phones on the account? If so I think you'd have to return the phone and start over.

Posted via Android Central App

Ya we have like 5 or 6 phones on it. I talked to the guy at Verizon and the guy at Motorola, and ill be sending the new phone back. They were both super cool about it and understood where I was coming from. Both said I would have to send the new phone back though or I would get stuck with the crap data plans.

When I transfer my upgrade to another phone number and get the subsidized phone with the new number, I activate that phone with the non UDP number I reactivate the old phone back to deactivate the subsidized phone and then I can transfer that phone to my UDP number? How does deactivating the subsidized phone make it eligible to transfer that phone to my UDP number? Does it basically make the phone look like it is a retail phone or ??? sorry just want to make sure I do this right on the second go around.

 

[alxarambula]

From what I understand you have to do it with your active sim from the device you are currently using. If your current device doesn't have a sim you have to buy a cheap phone or borrow a phone from your friends get a new sim activated for thay phone to your account once that's done do the best buy process and once you receive them do not turn them on untill you remove the sim cards that are in your new phones then you can activate both phones with the active sim that's in your loaner device just one at a time and make sure the SIM card fits your device and remember there is always sim cutters and SIM adapters.
Like i said I'm no pro but from what i understand that's how it works.

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[dss2000]

Re: [Instruction] How to Keep Unlimited Data on Verizon

Ya we have like 5 or 6 phones on it. I talked to the guy at Verizon and the guy at Motorola, and ill be sending the new phone back. They were both super cool about it and understood where I was coming from. Both said I would have to send the new phone back though or I would get stuck with the crap data plans.

When I transfer my upgrade to another phone number and get the subsidized phone with the new number, I activate that phone with the non UDP number I reactivate the old phone back to deactivate the subsidized phone and then I can transfer that phone to my UDP number? How does deactivating the subsidized phone make it eligible to transfer that phone to my UDP number? Does it basically make the phone look like it is a retail phone or ??? sorry just want to make sure I do this right on the second go around.

I think the Verizon system is programmed so when you upgrade it makes you pick a new data plan and they make the unlimited plan unavailable. So you're basically transferring the upgrade so you're not choosing a new data plan on the UDP. When you upgrade you're doing it on a line that you don't have UDP so you don't care that it's making you choose a new tiered plan because it's either a line that already has a tiered data plan or a line with a basic phone that doesn't have data anyway. The original poster has the step of activating on the receiving line first then taking it off but I've found this step unnecessary. When you get the new phone just activate it on your UDP line. You can just put the Verizon SIM from the UDP line into the new phone. The pending order on the phone that received the order data plan will never go into effect and it will eventually drop off within a week.

 

[brshipman]

Re: Verizon: How to keep Unlimited Data and get phone on subsidized price

My new M8 arrived yesterday (was able to intercept the UPS guy at work ), cut my GNex sim down and fired it up. Checked all of my vitals this morning and everything is good to go! A BIG thanks to this and the Best Buy thread as without this info, I would have left Verizon to pay more for getting less. Best of luck to those about to take the plunge!

 

[ozzybiker]

Re: [Instruction] How to Keep Unlimited Data on Verizon

Here is a new question that I haven't seen asked: I have successfully upgraded 2 of the phones on my family plan in the last 2 months and managed to keep UDP on both. I am soon to upgrade the 3rd phone. The question is this: The original phone is an old Moto Droid 2 Global, which has both CDMA and GSM on board, and thus has a SIM card. Can I install that sim card into the shiny new Galaxy S5 that is sitting on my counter waiting to be used? Will the old (3G) SIM card work in the new (4G-LTE) phone? Or must I use a 4G card? Thanks for your help!

Anyone? Anyone? Buehler? Buehler?

 

[dss2000]

Re: [Instruction] How to Keep Unlimited Data on Verizon

Anyone? Anyone? Buehler? Buehler?

I haven't had a 3G SIM in quite a while so can't recall first hand but there is this post from Droidforum:

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/android-general-discussions/227416-3g-sim-card-into-4g-phone.html

10-22-2012 03:57 PM #2
No, it won't work. The 3G SIM card in your Droid Pro is only there for international roaming. It doesn't actually authenticate the device while in the U.S. With LTE devices, the SIM card is actually required in order to register and authenticate the device on your account and on the network (something the 3G SIM card from your Droid Pro won't do). So, you'll have to get a LTE microSIM from Verizon in order to activate and use the Droid RAZR. If you go to a corporate store, it won't cost you anything, and you'll be up and running in no time.

 

[Special K]

Re: Verizon: How to keep Unlimited Data and get phone on subsidized price

Have been month to month for a bit waiting to figure out how not to lose my UDP after upgrading my Razr Maxx. Debating the M8, Galaxy S5 and the iPhone 5C. I understand by this thread, if i go M8 or S5, all i would have to do is remove Sim from new phone and insert sim from my Razr Maxx. What i am not sure of if these are direct swaps or if i'd have to cut my Razr Maxx sim down to fit the M8 or S5. Also if i go the iPhone route, how do i go about doing that? As my current sim will not direct swap into an iPhone or will it? Thanks for the thoughts and guidance in advance. Also any thoughts on these 3 phones would be appreciated a i'm not real sure which direction i'm going. I just know my Razr Maxx is really in need of an upgrade. Thanks again.

 

[MCAndroid2014]

Re: Verizon: How to keep Unlimited Data and get phone on subsidized price

Just wanted to post a thank you to everyone here. This is in fact the best thread ever! Got my UDPs intact with 2 new Samsung G S4s!

Couple of notes for anyone still thinking about taking the plunge. First off, I butchered my first sim card thinking I could cut it more accurately with an x-acto knife. I scored it and went slow but in the end it looked like someone took a pair of gardening hedge shears to it. I think I tried too hard to get it to match the template so ended up cutting it down over and over. I also had to peal a layer of paper off of it to make it fit. I ended up shoving it into the slot and it still worked. So I suppose there's some margin for error on cutting your card. Maybe someone else can verify, but it seems as long as you get the gold contacts in the general area in the sim card slot, it should work. I would still try to be as accurate as possible with the template though.

So the first phone I was able to easily activate through Verizon chat, which apparently has limited support hours not 24/7 - so if you go this route, you may want to do this during daytime hours. However, from what some are posting here and what it also seemed like when I went through Verizon to activate, you may not even need to do this step. The person on chat seemed confused, because my new phone seemed to already be activated with my old sim card. Anyway, the first phone activated quickly with no hassles, no questions about the new phone, just verified that I was the owner on the account. But on the second phone (a different chat support person) kept asking me for all the phone's info. She asked for (MEID, ESN, HEX, or IMEI) and then the SIM (ICCID ). I got nervous and hesitated at first, and complained about how easy it was when my spouse activated their phone earlier that day. I eventually gave in and gave them my ICCID, but in the end it turned out that the new phone was already activated, since I had turned on the phone prior to going to Verizon chat support.

So long story short, you may be able to bypass contacting Verizon to activate, even though the instructions initially on this thread suggested otherwise. That's if you have your old sim card with UDP, you can just place it in your new phone and you should be good to go!

 

[nomadthunderbolt]

Re: [Instruction] How to Keep Unlimited Data on Verizon

Sorry

 

[nomadthunderbolt]

Best Buy Site won't allow me to log in....

I have been trying to log onto the BB site to purchase a phone in order to upgrade my phone and maintain my UDP. My Verizon wireless password works on the Verizon site, but not on BB site. I called BB and they tried to get me to order through a rep, I declined and hung up.

Is anyone else unable to verify upgrade eligibility on the Best Buy site? I am selecting the Galaxy S5, then the radio button to extend contract. On the next screen I enter my mobile number, zip code, ss# and password. I get a red bar that states that my Verizon account is password protected, but I put in the password. Can anyone help?

Thanks

 

[Lodingi]

Re: Best Buy Site won't allow me to log in....

I have been trying to log onto the BB site to purchase a phone in order to upgrade my phone and maintain my UDP. My Verizon wireless password works on the Verizon site, but not on BB site. I called BB and they tried to get me to order through a rep, I declined and hung up.

Is anyone else unable to verify upgrade eligibility on the Best Buy site? I am selecting the Galaxy S5, then the radio button to extend contract. On the next screen I enter my mobile number, zip code, ss# and password. I get a red bar that the information is incorrect. Can anyone help?

Thanks

You have 2 passwords. The password to log on to your My Verizon page, and a second billing password. The BB site wants the billing password.

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[linkboy286]

Re: Verizon: How to keep Unlimited Data and get phone on subsidized price

Just want to confirm that best buy method still works. I just activated my phone yesterday with my old sim card and i still have unlimited data. I got the hew htc one.