In reply to mozman68. Umm. So in that dudes case he is paying $3 more. The $20 is discounted off of the smartphone charge a month. The edge payment is separate from that. So he is still paying $23 roughly a month for his phone. If he wants to upgrade he needs to at least pay for half of his phone. Only half. So in twelve months he would have paid half. And he could trade in the phone and move unto the next one. Don't see where you get another $214 from. This deal isn't as bad as it once was. That article was written before they had made some changes recently. This new $10 or $20 discount makes the deal worth it in my opinion. Well the $20 discount anyway.
He got $214 from subtracting $36 from $500. He did this because you have to pay at least half of the retail price of the phone before you can upgrade. So if the customer has already paid $36 in 12 months, he will still have to pay $214 to be able to upgrade.
Please note that the discount is applied to the monthly access fee ($40). So instead of paying a $40 monthly access fee, you'll pay $20. But no matter how you look at it, you still have to pay half of the retail price before you can upgrade.
I guess people see it as a rip off because you're continuously paying for a phone. Also, to get the $20 discount, you have to get 10gb or more, and getting more gb is not cheap with Verizon. It's both good and bad for me. Personal preference I guess.
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