flibmeister
Gold Canyon, Arizona
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Joined: 03/03/2006
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There's only one requirement: you have to have a spouse that doesn't give a whit if she has a fancy phone. I'm finding that's the case with a lot of folks in our age bracket, so maybe this can help someone. Here's how it works:
If you have a smartphone, you can upgrade at a discount every two years. If your DW is satisfied with a dumbphone, get her one-- but pay full price (my wife loves her LG flip phone, $120 on Amazon several years ago). Verizon allows you to trade upgrade eligibility to other lines-- so one year you upgrade via your own eligibility, and the next year you use hers.
One year old smartphones hold their value very well-- so well that you can sell one for more than the discounted cost of a new phone. I broke even when I went from a Droid to an Iphone 4 last year, but did even better this time around: upgrade to the Iphone 4S was $199, and my Iphone 4 sold for $350 on Ebay.
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DrBaker
Oklahoma
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Joined: 09/02/2009
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I use to be a member of AT&T Premier. Qualified due to my work email address. For serveral years they allowed phone upgrades every 6 months. Me and the DW upgraded both our phones every 6 months for little or nothing. We then sold our lightly used phones on eBay for big bucks.
Company quit using AT&T Wireless so now I have Sprint and a long upgrade wait.
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rockhillmanor
On the Road
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Joined: 12/06/2003
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I don't get all the hoopla about a 2 year contract and can't update your phone. If they didn't keep coming out with new phones every 2 seconds people wouldn't have the need to have the latest phone which pretty much does the same darn thing as the one they have but 'looks' different.
We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
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flibmeister
Gold Canyon, Arizona
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rockhillmanor wrote:...people wouldn't have the need to have the latest phone which pretty much does the same darn thing as the one they have but 'looks' different.
ROF,L. If you think anybody is switching to the latest Iphone because it 'looks' different than the last one, you haven't been paying attention; they are absolutely identical. Getting the "latest and greatest" version may be a perk of upgrading, but it isn't the point of my post.
The point is that you can get a new phone, with a new battery, and a new warranty-- and make money doing it. Why would anyone that has such an opportunity, whether due to access to a corporate account or because they have a tech-adverse spouse, NOT take advantage of it?
BTW, for anyone who does this and makes the switch from the Iphone 4 to the 4S, it's absolutely automatic, wireless, and pain-free: back up your old phone via iCloud, turn it off, then fire up the new one and restore it from iCloud. All settings, apps, contacts, etc., appear just as they were on the old phone. You do, however, have to connect to iTunes if you want to transfer your music.
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wgriswold
Lake Tahoe
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Joined: 11/11/2005
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flibmeister wrote:There's only one requirement: you have to have a spouse that doesn't give a whit if she has a fancy phone. I'm finding that's the case with a lot of folks in our age bracket, so maybe this can help someone. Here's how it works:
If you have a smartphone, you can upgrade at a discount every two years. If your DW is satisfied with a dumbphone, get her one-- but pay full price (my wife loves her LG flip phone, $120 on Amazon several years ago). Verizon allows you to trade upgrade eligibility to other lines-- so one year you upgrade via your own eligibility, and the next year you use hers.
One year old smartphones hold their value very well-- so well that you can sell one for more than the discounted cost of a new phone. I broke even when I went from a Droid to an Iphone 4 last year, but did even better this time around: upgrade to the Iphone 4S was $199, and my Iphone 4 sold for $350 on Ebay.
Do you have to switch to your wife's phone number?
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flibmeister
Gold Canyon, Arizona
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Joined: 03/03/2006
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wgriswold wrote:Do you have to switch to your wife's phone number?
Oh, no, nothing like that, at least not on Verizon. Go to your online account, and on the main page it will tell you the upgrade date on your primary line. Under that is the option to see the upgrade dates for all lines on your account.
Click on that, and under any line eligible for an upgrade, there will be an option to transfer that upgrade eligibility to another line. Click on that, then pick the line where you want to use the eligibility. Once you've done that, the two lines just exchange upgrade dates.
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magicbus
LBI, NJ or Nantucket, MA
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Joined: 06/16/2002
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iPhone 4s painless? After hours of frustration I finally got all of my wife's notes over to her 4s from her 3Gs. Did I mention I hate iTunes? Honestly it's pushing me to a droid.
But back on topic... My nephew just sold his jailbroken 4 for $350 - almost a $150 profit over the cost of his 4s.
Dave
Our new RV... the adventure continues.
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flibmeister
Gold Canyon, Arizona
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magicbus wrote:iPhone 4s painless? After hours of frustration I finally got all of my wife's notes over to her 4s from her 3Gs. Did I mention I hate iTunes?
I hate ITunes as well, but because I'd already upgraded the Iphone 4 to iOS5, I didn't have to use it, but used iCloud instead-- that's what made it painless!
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crashpilot
Green River, WY
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Joined: 02/17/2005
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magicbus wrote:iPhone 4s painless? After hours of frustration I finally got all of my wife's notes over to her 4s from her 3Gs. Did I mention I hate iTunes? Honestly it's pushing me to a droid.
I have the new Windows Phone 7 operating system in my phone and I've been very very pleased with it. It uses Zune for it's music player which (IMHO) is much more friendly than iTunes.
My $0.02, it is certainly worth a look.
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Klueck
Florida
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Good idea...but I'm afraid I won't like the new Droid as well as my old X.
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