The news we brought you earlier this week were spot on: Verizon today officially unveiled its new early upgrade program called Verizon Edge. The facts and figures remain the same as what we reported along with a few “extras” thrown in that may not displease a few customers.
Share Everything plan customers can start taking advantage of Verizon Edge on August 25th. There are no long-term service contracts, finance charges, or upgrade fees associated with the program. You simply choose the phone you want and signup for a month-to-month service plan. The retail price of the phone is divided over 24 monthly payments that are added to the cost of the monthly service plan you select. If you want to upgrade after 6 months, you’ll need to 50% of the retail value of your existing phone and you can start all over again with a new model.
For instance, if you purchase a Samsung Galaxy S4 at full retail of US$650, your monthly payment would be US$650/24 or US$27.08 per month. If you only pay the minimum amount each month and then decide you want to upgrade after 6 months, you would have to come up with an extra US$162.48 to make up the difference to get to the 50% amount. If you know ahead of time that you want to upgrade every 6 months, then you could choose to pay $54.17 per month, but if you wait an entire year to upgrade, then $27.08 would get you to the 50% mark in 12 months.
A couple of things to realize with Verizon Edge:
- You still pay the full amount on the Share Everything Plan each month. There is no discount off the subsidized plan like T-Mobile is doing with their JUMP! Plan.
- A customer that was grandfathered into the Unlimited Data program will lose that plan if they sign up for Verizon Edge. If you want the early upgrade capability, you will lose unlimited data.
Now three major carriers have some sort of upgrade program and you will have to decide which one is best for you. Most of the time, it will simply mean which carrier gives you the best overall service. Verizon is not giving the customer any dollar savings, just the chance to upgrade early with no penalties. However, if you keep you phone a year before upgrading, you could break about even for what you would pay on a subsidized plan. My Galaxy Note 2, for instance, lists for US$699 or on contract for US$300. Using these figures, I would either pay US$300 and have to wait 24 months to upgrade, or US$350 (US$699/2) to upgrade early after 12 months. That is only US$50 more for the privilege to upgrade after only 12 months… I may have to think about this when I upgrade to my next phone.
Let us know in the comments what you think about the early upgrade options and if you will take advantage of them.
Source : VerizonWireless