Verizon unveils 1 year “Device Payment Plan” for yearly updaters, moves full subsidies to 24 months

Verizon unveils 1 year “Device Payment Plan” for yearly updaters, moves full subsidies to 24 months:

Verizon announced they’ll be changing things up a bit, possibly in response to T-Mobile’s new ‘Uncarrier’ pricing structure. The first change is enforcing that phones cannot get full subsidized upgrades until a full 24-months is complete on the billing contract, a downgrade to the previous 20-month policy. While the change is disappointing to costumers who enjoyed an ‘early upgrade’ on their devices, Verizon told The Verge that a new “Device Payment Plan” is also being intro’d today as well to assuage the change.
The new payment plan allows customers to upgrade their phone annually by paying the upgrade fee at the register and dividing the rest of the full-retial price over the course of 12 months. On top of paying the full retail price over the course of a year, you’ll also have to pay $2 a month ($24 a year) as a ‘finance charge’.
For people (like us) who update yearly, this is a more pragmatic option, especially when vendors like Gazelle (and others) typically pay more than the down payment for last year’s phone.

Finally, Verizon also announced a new prepaid plan for…dumb phones. If you’re still not sold on the idea of a smartphone or just want to get one as backup, Verizon has got you covered. The new $35 a month plan gives you 500 anytime minutes (sans mobile-to-mobile) and unlimited text and data. So if you’re still hunting for unlimited data, there’s still hope for you.