Does a Verizon iphone contract really cost this much?

[stim]

Hidee hi,

I recently paid a visit home to Ireland to meet my brother while he was vacation. He lives in New York.

When it comes to technology, he's waaay behind the curve. Never even had a mobile phone until some friends recently goaded him into getting an iphone. When he told me how much he was paying, I nearly fell off my chair:

90 dollars/month for 18 month with only 1Gb 3G per month.

He was bemoaning the fact that they would only give him 1Gb and that it lasted less than a week. Seems to me that he has been mis-sold a package he doesn't need. Surely he should at least be getting unlimited 3G at that price. Certainly more than a lousy 1Gb. (don't have an iphone myself, but did have 5 years ago and I think I had unlimited bandwidth for much less than that - NL).

He gets his land-line and home internet connection from Verizon as well. I can't help but think that they are taking advantage of his loudly professed ignorance of such things. 

I told him to march into a Verizon shop and demand more bandwidth . Obviously he can't break the contract, but surely he can do better? Any other Verizon customers can offer some tips (apart from dump Verizon - I think that's obvious, hehe)

Thanks in advance.

 

[Ishaq]

Which iPhone does he have?

 

[stim]

Which iPhone does he have?

Hmm, not sure because he left it home lol. He's had it six months, and it was the most recent version when he got it. Unsure about capacity, but the issue isn't really about the price of the phone, rather the lousy 1GB bandwidth limit. 

 

[mojeda]

I don't think you can get unlimited data anymore, at all. Unless he's part of a company with a verizon contract.

 

[RLT]

Sounds like Verizon. I was paying 108 a month owning my phones.

 

[Steven F]

Verizon is very, very expensive. What he is paying is quite normal for Verizon. The thing is, you get what you pay for. They provide the highest quality and most reliable cell phone service, in my experiences. It is rare that I don't have coverage and even rarer that someone with a different carrier has coverage when I don't.

Verizon is targeted at businesses and people looking for reliable cell phone services. If your brother doesn't need perfect coverage and quality, he shouldn't be using Verizon. You can easily save $20 - $50 a month per line by going with T-Mobile.

 

[drmike]

Uggh the phone goading crap.

I wonder if your brother is bundling a phone payment inside of that VZ monthly?

Until this month, Verizon was wallet raping me for a data-only plan and two dumb phones probably $155~ a month. 

The retail stores are shark tanks.  The folks there I swear are on heavy commission.   Every time I've been in one I've seen poor folks unhappy with prices and plans get beat into garbage with even higher payouts.

Safe to say $100 a month is kind of a standard VZ price for a smartphone plan.   There are deals out there, but they aren't competing on price ala Sprint or T-mobile.  Even though I pay basically such, I find it to be a ripoff but justify it as business and need connectivity wherever my work takes me at any time.

If the brother doesn't have such needs, look elsewhere.  Data use, meh, these phones with their updates alone will eat a data plan much larger a month.  I feel for 4G only folks.

Industry rate small commits is about $10/GB all providers currently.  It gets lower up around 4+ GB.  Still robbery.

You take 1Mbps @ ~ 400GB per month and price at $10/per = $4k per month income. (sloppy estimath).  Nice business to be in.

 

[stim]

Thanks guys for the info and advice.

I called him and echoed the fact that he's paying about right for a Verizon contract. When that's up he should move to T-mobile or another cheaper network.

Admittedly, I'm still shocked that in 2015, in New York City of all places, he still has to pay that much for such a lousy 3G allowance. No way in hell would I pay that much.

Reality bites! One thing is for sure, in future he won't be sweet-talked into buying new tech without consulting me first!

Now to try and explain VPN to him...



Thanks again!

 

[host4go]

Now that we "are talking" about telecomunications companies ripoffs.

An employee of a large telecom once told me that the SMS's and Internet on the phones were the profit heaven for the telecoms, because their infra capacity was severaly under usage with only the "phone calls" so using the infra to provide SMS's and Internet was not rising their infra cost but only making use of the current capacity, meaning "pure profit".

 

[MikeA]

When I got my iPhone 6 a few weeks after it came out with AT&T I had to pay $199 down plus $25/m extra on my plan ($75/m total, 1GB data) so it's not that bad really. Not to mention I had to pay a $500 deposit a year ago just to use AT&T as a cell service provider. Really they're all about the same or nearly the same.

 

[drmike]

When I got my iPhone 6 a few weeks after it came out with AT&T I had to pay $199 down plus $25/m extra on my plan ($75/m total, 1GB data) so it's not that bad really. Not to mention I had to pay a $500 deposit a year ago just to use AT&T as a cell service provider. Really they're all about the same or nearly the same.

Hefty front side costs and monthly slap in the pocketbook.

This is precisely why I am more than happy to buy older generation stuff for cash.  I am also as such not bound to long term forced marriage with the cell provider.  Six months at any of these companies and a lot can change with them and in the competitive market.

I'd rather drop ~ $150 for a nice older phone as a refurb or unopened new stock.  Even if I break it and replace it, I can do that multiple times (3+) and still be ahead of the fadsters on their IV wallet dripped self hate phone contracts.

So much waste stream out there with phones.  Silly to buy contracts.

 

[Dylan]

Verizon is very, very expensive. What he is paying is quite normal for Verizon.

Yes, Verizon is expensive, but what he's saying his brother is paying is not normal. An individual line with a smartphone and 1GB of data costs $70 a month. $90 gets you 3GB. I'm inclined to believe his brother is either mistaken about what he's paying or what he's getting. Failing that it has to be a serious billing error.

Verizon also doesn't do 3G plans (or iPhones) anymore.