An upgrade just means a new phone. It may mean a basic phone at no additional cost or a smartphone for a fee and more features added to your plan.

If you go to the Verizon website it will probably spell this out for you. Do you know how to log on to your account through them? Even if you don't, it should give you some idea of what the dollars involved would be for new phones.

In exchange for a discount on a new phone, you must commit to another two years with Verizon. If you can log into your account and order from the website, you will get immediate credit. Often the stores make you pay and wait for a refund.

Yes, an upgrade from Verizon means a new phone for a discounted price. A Smartphone may be anywhere from $99.00 to $399.00 (the newest 64g Iphone 5 for instance). I just got the 32g iPhone 5 and paid 299.00 with my upgrade, other wise they're around $700.00. I had to give up my unlimited data though and purchase a set amount,(4g per month, shared with family)). My DH always gets a simple flip style phone with no data plan needed. I'm sure you could upgrade to a simple phone for free or really inexpensive. A case and insurance will cost you extra too.

Around here if you "upgrade" with Verizon you loose your unlimited data. I think it went into effect in September.

If you're not ready to upgrade I would call Verizon and ask for a tower reset. If the cell tower information in your phone is out of date your phone may be trying to use a less efficient tower. They will direct you to punch an easy code into your phone and the tower information will be updated. Hopefully it will help!

With Verizon, an upgrade does mean a new phone and like another said, in exchange for accepting a new two year commitment you get a discount on the phone. The cost or change in price for your plan IS dependent on whether you get a Smart Phone or just a normal phone. The problem with Verizon specifically is, with a Smart Phone, you are required to also have a data package which does raise the rate. A data package is access to the internet and doesn't even include texting. Sprint and some other companies do not have this requirement. You can buy the phone and have those options disabled. Additionally, the choices of regular non smart phones is very limited. My husband and I both upgraded from regular phones to an iPhone and Android and with the data packages and texting for one phone, our monthly bill more than doubled. In the end, my husband hated the Android so much that he canceled the service with the smart phone and had his old phone reactivated. Depending on who the manufacturer is, Androids have different interfaces, some of which are less user friendly than others and the one he got, an HTC was too convoluted to use and very buggy.

I still hate the higher bill, for 1 smart phone & 1 regular phone it's about 100.00/mo, but I love the benefits the iphone has been able to provide me. I'm not a gadget person at all, but use mine constantly for both home and work.

Afraid so. I have an iPhone w/data unlimited data and DH has a regular phone. We are still under our old plan which allows us rollover minutes for voice & an unlimited text package. We are eligible for upgrade but I don't know if we will stay with ATT or not. I've compared plans and they are all similar and provide basically the same coverage.

However, DH needed a new phone and trying to find ANY non-smart phone is virtually impossible. He's gone thru half a dozen and can't get one that suits him like his old one (it died). He does not want a smart phone. My iPhone is a second generation iphone 3-a dinosaur! I just do not want to pay $200-$300 for a smart phone that will also record HD video- i want to access the web. and my GPS as well aa my music. I found one under $100-but it's not iTunes compatible so I'd need to het some program to change all that to mp3 ans we're talking way ocer my head. It's just all so complicated any more.

Do you regularly do cell & roaming updates? If not, dial *228, then press 1 to update your phone. Ignore the part about activating a phone, just let the call do it's thing. (Don't worry, this doesn't impact your plan, it's like a software update for your phone's innards). Once you've done that, hang up, dial *228 again, select option 2 to update roaming. That could have a lot to do with calls dropping & even battery life (see bottom section at link below).

deee: I wondered if that day would come. I've upgraded my way through smart phones but have been clinging to my old unlimited data plan like it's gold.

Here is a link that might be useful: Verizon Updating Roaming

As others have said, no need to buy a smartphone and data plan if you aren't interested. I dropped my land line and added a basic cell phone to my family plan to keep my home phone number. Though there aren't a ton of non-smartphones they do exist and they are cheap.

Yes data plans are expensive but I find having an iphone and anywhere internet access invaluable. So for me paying for a smartphone and dataplan is a great value.

Gibby, can you explain what you mean about dropping your land line and adding a basic cell phone to keep your home number? What provider do you use? Do you just have the one cell phone at home? Someone told me you can buy some sort of phone thing that you plug the cell phone into then it allows the other phones in your house to ring through the cell phone number. Does the make sense?

IOW, I have four phones in my house that are connected to my land line - one on each level - two on the main floor. I didn't want to give up my land line for two reasons - one, we need a phone at home for when the kids are home alone or with my parents (who don't have a cell phone) and two, if I only had a cell phone at home, I'd worry that when the phone rings, if I'm upstairs, I won't hear it (or my kids will take the phone and not put it back then we can't find it). But when someone told me that you can have the cell phone work with the home phones, I thought that might be an option. It would only cost me $10/mth to add a basic cell phone to my plan but I would only want to if the home phones ran through it (and I'd want to keep my home number b/c that's the number everyone has for us so don't want to give it up).

I hope my questions make sense - but if you could explain how you use the cell phone for your home phone, I'd appreciate it! Until all my kids have cell phones (which will be years), I need to have a "home" phone.

I'm with you, moon. I have an iPhone 4 (no Siri) and I can't update without losing my unlimited data plan. I'm perfectly happy with my phone. So far, nothing is tempting enough to make me want to switch.

Gibby, like you, my smart phone is my best friend when out and about. It's not that I have my nose in my phone all the time but it is there when I need it for smart shopping, finding good places to eat out of town, etc.

Many of the cordless home phones come with the capability
of linking-up your cell to the home phone~

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.costco.com/vTech-DECT-6.0-Four-Handset-Cordless-Phone-System.product.100003036.html

Golddust~
Do you have AT&T ?
If so AT&T if grandfathering you in.
You can update your phone and still keep your old plan.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/21/technology/iphone-5-unlimited-data/index.html

No, I have Verizon. AT&T has very poor reception in my area.

Just out of curiosity, how much data do those of you with unlimited data use? I've never had unlimited data (Verizon plan) and have the smallest data package. I've never gone over. What kinds of things use up the data package? I use mine for email and internet when I'm out and about (like sitting at a sports practice or to look up information like a phone number or restaurant address, etc). I figured if I went over, I'd upgrade to the next data plan, but I've never needed to. But I've heard many friends talk about being upset to lose their unlimited data so just wonder how much more they must use it than I do (I use mine daily).

Very good point fourkids4us~
You need to find what your actual data usage is.
Purchasing a phone plan is like the car salesman of
old..
This is what I use...
This is what I want...
Walk away and make them chase you out the parking lot..

When I had the verizon unlimited data plan the salesman told me our family used .5 to 1 gig each per month. When I bought the new Iphone and had to get a set amount we went for the 4gig a month and never get close.

Forboys, we tried that method once when buying a car and they didn't chase us out to the parking lot. We thought they would but they didn't. We went across the street and bought a Honda on the spot. We got home to a message on our answering machine from the owner of the dealership (he was a friend of dh's boss at the time, and we mentioned that when we were speaking to the sales rep). He wanted us to come back in. Dh very smugly told him that we went right across the street afterward and bought a car so they were too late. LOL

Good question about the usage. I'm not sure how much I use...can't figure out how to tell, and I never see the bill-DH handles that.

I DO stream music a lot on it, and I probably use about 5 hours a day of data time, but at work I use the wireless access instead. If I find out that I use less than I thought, I could change my plan. I DO know that on unlimited plans, if you go over a specific number of bytes or time or however they measure it, you get slower service, down to 1G! I can run faster than that!! So yeah, you get unlimited, but it could be super, super slow. I hit that a lot, so that is probaby an indicator that I use a lot.

Original poster here---Ok, maybe it's me, but I just don't feel the need to be connected 24/7. DH's phone has internet so if we are away and need info, he can handle it. The 2 kids are in college and I already purchased them pricey laptops so I am just not interested in a data plan at this time. Next question: I have 3 phones, unlimited texting and 700 minutes of talking if not a Verizon customer. I pay $120 per month.I have never gone over the 700 minutes. Reasonable? This is harder than buying a car :)

fourkids4us we just put a magic jack in our house b/c we don't want to pay for phone service and my DH doesn't like to use a cell phone all the time. It works wonderfully! You have to have a computer on all the time for the one we got, but it was $39.00 including the first year of service and will be $19.99 total each year after that. I think they have a more expensive one that doesn't need a computer. You can use a regular phone in your house w/ the magic jack.

ratherbesewing - Have you tried entering the code into the phone that updates your tower information? You may not need a new phone.

We went with Ooma, which is another voip service on a regular phone. You buy the equipment, which we got at Costco but I don't recall the cost. The monthly is free and the basic service has voice mail, caller id and so on, the only thing you pay are the taxes. Our taxes are like 4.00/mo. It's dependent on the internet, but not the computer. After the first year or so, the savings pays for the equipment. So far it's worked like a charm for us (and I heard about it from another poster who shared their experience with it)

Here is a link that might be useful: Ooma

Ooma here, too. And our savings covered the cost of equipment in month 2. It all depends on what you are paying for your land line(s). I'm another one who doesn't like talking much on a cell.

But as for smart phone costs and the things they can do, I'm with you completely, ratherbesewing. That kind of *connection* would be convenient sometimes but is not a necessity in my life and I'd like to keep it that way. So where's the middle ground? I'm not a Luddite but phone companies make anyone without a smart phone feel that way by pretty much ignoring the market for non smart phone users. Eventually I'll get one but it will be under protest. I do everything in my power to keep our costs in check on phones, internet, insurance...... and it's going to p*ss me off to pay a data package because they are so blasted expensive.

I just got a Smartphone last year. I was against them for a long time. And if I didn't have a houseful of active kids, I could live without one. However, it has really been useful (though not necessary) to have. I have four kids who have multiple activities and sports all over the place. I keep my calendar on it which dh can access from his phone or the internet so that makes scheduling things very easy - we can both check the calendar before scheduling things (although I must admit, I prefer my paper calendar and still use one in addition to my online calendar). Because I'm constantly out and about driving from one activity to the next and am often away from home and my computer for hours at a time, being able to read my email has saved me at times (canceled at the last minute practices, directions to a field, etc). I can set reminders on it so if I'm out and want to remind myself of something to do when I get home, my phone will actually tell me as I'm turning down my street that I have to do x, y or z and will continue to remind me until I check the box.

I'm not one who desires or wants to be "connected" at all times. I don't answer my phone in public, I don't text or look at my phone when I"m in the company of others and I don't want people to be able to reach me whenever they want (I don't give my cell phone out to anyone unless they need it for logistical reasons). I only use my phone when I'm sitting idle somewhere (like waiting to pick my kids up from school or at a sports practice). I was torn last year about getting a smartphone b/c I didn't want to be one of "those" people, but in the end, realized it would be very helpful to me b/c of my schedule and my kids' schedules. That said, it isn't a necessity and I wouldn't recommend getting one if you don't really have a reason for one as it is costly!

Well, in the nick of time, my child discovered that his phone is fine, and the charger is the problem. I don't know how he discovered this, but he apparently the charger can be separated into 2 pieces. Once apart, there is a little thingy (technical term) that can be plugged directly into his laptop--and voila, the phone charged! Crisis averted. Unfortunately, not before more gray hairs have sprouted from my head!