EDIT: Realized I used 20 months for the Edge payments & the verizon website now shows it split into 24 payments. Fixed the math where applicable below.
I pretty much only start looking at the plans/options/phones every two years as our contract runs out. I had been really happy with my phone (RAZR M) up until the KitKat OTA update. Now the battery issues are driving me crazy and since our contract ended in early September, it looks like it is time to figure all this out.
Our current plan is an old "Nationwide Talk Share 700". We have 3 smartphones, each with 2GB of data (no unlimited to worry about saving) and 1 basic phone. The basic phone user does NOT want to upgrade. She hates phones & her is exactly what she wants. We had already been talking about needing to change our plan. We do not have unlimited Texting - we pay something like 20 or 25 cents each for every text. One of our smartphone users is my son who is 15. Not texting is starting to be an issue - even his teachers want to send him texts! I'm finding it more and more annoying as well. Friends who have my cell number just send texts since they assume "everyone has free texts" and there are more useful things I would like to be able to do (ie 2 factor identification). Being able to share the data would be nice. We rarely go over our 2GB each, but when we get close and have to be careful, it is never all 3 of us. With shared data we would probably be fine. If we could have a little more than 6GB we might feel a little more free to do things like stream radio when not on WiFi.
I have been trying to figure out our options and although I have read here & elsewhere that Edge is NOT a good deal for people like us (keep our phones at least 2 years and really don't feel any need for the latest, greatest, hippest phone) my calculation sure look like Edge is our best option.
I've put all my calculations below. I included our current plan as a base line, but I don't even know if we could get subsidized new phones with that or if the only way to keep it would be to buy new phones at full price. I've included the details first (as I understand them but I could be wrong!) and then calculated a Total Cost for a 24 month period. It is extremely unlikely that we would actually "Edge Up" before the 24 months - far more likely it would be 25, 26 or even longer before we get around to doing this again.
Unless I'm confused an missing something important, it looks like my best bet for a new plan is the Edge w/10GB of shared data. It is only about $900 more than our current plan over 24 months and we get new phones for 3 of us, texting, and shared 10GB.
(1) Current Plan: “Nationwide Talk Share 700”: $180 before taxes
$50 for “plan”
$39.99: Line 1 (RAZR M w/ 2GB Data)
$39.99: Line 2 (RAZR M w/ 2GB Data)
$39.99: Line 3 (Droid X w/ 2GB Data)
$9.99: Line 4: Basic Phone
(2) More Everything Plan (without Edge): $230 before taxes
$40: Line 1 (Moto X (2014))
$40: Line 2 (Moto X (2014))
$40: Line 3 (Samsung GS4)
$30: Line 4: Basic Phone
$80: 6GB Shared Data
PLUS $250: Up Front Cost for 3 new phones w/2yr contract
(3) More Everything Plan (WITH Edge): $175 before taxes
$25: Line 1 (Moto X (2014))
$25: Line 2 (Moto X (2014))
$25: Line 3 (Samsung GS4)
$20: Line 4: Basic Phone
$80: 6GB Shared Data
PLUS $62.49: Monthly cost for new phones (for 24 months)
(4) More Everything Plan (WITH Edge) & more data: $165 before taxes
$15: Line 1 (Moto X (2014))
$15: Line 2 (Moto X (2014))
$15: Line 3 (Samsung GS4)
$15: Line 4: Basic Phone
$100: 10GB Shared Data
PLUS $62.49: Monthly cost for new phones (for 24 months)
Total Cost for 24 months:
(1) $180 x 24 months = $4,320 (no new phones?)
(2) $240 x 24 months PLUS $250 for phones = $6,010
(3) $175 x 24 months PLUS $62.49 x 24 months = $5,699.76
(4) $165 x 24 months PLUS $62.49 x 24 months = $5,459.76
I pretty much only start looking at the plans/options/phones every two years as our contract runs out. I had been really happy with my phone (RAZR M) up until the KitKat OTA update. Now the battery issues are driving me crazy and since our contract ended in early September, it looks like it is time to figure all this out.
Our current plan is an old "Nationwide Talk Share 700". We have 3 smartphones, each with 2GB of data (no unlimited to worry about saving) and 1 basic phone. The basic phone user does NOT want to upgrade. She hates phones & her is exactly what she wants. We had already been talking about needing to change our plan. We do not have unlimited Texting - we pay something like 20 or 25 cents each for every text. One of our smartphone users is my son who is 15. Not texting is starting to be an issue - even his teachers want to send him texts! I'm finding it more and more annoying as well. Friends who have my cell number just send texts since they assume "everyone has free texts" and there are more useful things I would like to be able to do (ie 2 factor identification). Being able to share the data would be nice. We rarely go over our 2GB each, but when we get close and have to be careful, it is never all 3 of us. With shared data we would probably be fine. If we could have a little more than 6GB we might feel a little more free to do things like stream radio when not on WiFi.
I have been trying to figure out our options and although I have read here & elsewhere that Edge is NOT a good deal for people like us (keep our phones at least 2 years and really don't feel any need for the latest, greatest, hippest phone) my calculation sure look like Edge is our best option.
I've put all my calculations below. I included our current plan as a base line, but I don't even know if we could get subsidized new phones with that or if the only way to keep it would be to buy new phones at full price. I've included the details first (as I understand them but I could be wrong!) and then calculated a Total Cost for a 24 month period. It is extremely unlikely that we would actually "Edge Up" before the 24 months - far more likely it would be 25, 26 or even longer before we get around to doing this again.
Unless I'm confused an missing something important, it looks like my best bet for a new plan is the Edge w/10GB of shared data. It is only about $900 more than our current plan over 24 months and we get new phones for 3 of us, texting, and shared 10GB.
(1) Current Plan: “Nationwide Talk Share 700”: $180 before taxes
$50 for “plan”
$39.99: Line 1 (RAZR M w/ 2GB Data)
$39.99: Line 2 (RAZR M w/ 2GB Data)
$39.99: Line 3 (Droid X w/ 2GB Data)
$9.99: Line 4: Basic Phone
(2) More Everything Plan (without Edge): $230 before taxes
$40: Line 1 (Moto X (2014))
$40: Line 2 (Moto X (2014))
$40: Line 3 (Samsung GS4)
$30: Line 4: Basic Phone
$80: 6GB Shared Data
PLUS $250: Up Front Cost for 3 new phones w/2yr contract
(3) More Everything Plan (WITH Edge): $175 before taxes
$25: Line 1 (Moto X (2014))
$25: Line 2 (Moto X (2014))
$25: Line 3 (Samsung GS4)
$20: Line 4: Basic Phone
$80: 6GB Shared Data
PLUS $62.49: Monthly cost for new phones (for 24 months)
(4) More Everything Plan (WITH Edge) & more data: $165 before taxes
$15: Line 1 (Moto X (2014))
$15: Line 2 (Moto X (2014))
$15: Line 3 (Samsung GS4)
$15: Line 4: Basic Phone
$100: 10GB Shared Data
PLUS $62.49: Monthly cost for new phones (for 24 months)
Total Cost for 24 months:
(1) $180 x 24 months = $4,320 (no new phones?)
(2) $240 x 24 months PLUS $250 for phones = $6,010
(3) $175 x 24 months PLUS $62.49 x 24 months = $5,699.76
(4) $165 x 24 months PLUS $62.49 x 24 months = $5,459.76
Last edited:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram