Mobile Share Value Plans Questions and Discussion

I'd reccomend you check the new 10-15gb share plan. They are currently offering specials for contracts starting before feburary.

View the details here www.myattrpc.com

-Alex

And you didn't really look at the pricing option per the website listed there

It says smartphone lines can get the $15 (discount) pricing by being on 10gb or higher, if their contracts started before 02/02/2014.

If your contract ends june of 2015, that means it started june of 2013, so . . . it qualifies if my math is right.

Maybe I missed something?

-Alex

I'm  sorry, but every time I even think about chaning plans, upgrades or replacing phones, my blood pressure rises. Buying a phone or a plan is worse than trying to buy a new or used car from a dealer.  The sales people are bent on pushing you to the highest cost, highest profit plans in order to maximize their commission. They use shell games and "bait and switch"  tactics to confuse and frustrate customers to the point they just give up and buy whatever is on the table or they  walk out of the store.  The string of posts on this one topic are a prime example of this. Name any other consumer product where customers are subjected to such tactics.

Fortunately at&t has finally brought a pricing plan to the table that can benefit single line users. 🙂  I changed my plan to a single line user MSV plan the day before my billing cycle ended, and my April payment is $61 instead of the $91 I'd been paying for the smallest voice, text, and data (my data usage is < 1GB/month), using the device that I choose to use - which happens to be a smartphone. 

Similarly, I use phones for well beyond 2 years - I'm coming up on 3 years of use with my Nokia E7, and I've never had a phone get lost, stolen, or broken.  I pay more to purchase non-branded (non-subsidized) devices, take care of them, and typically use them until advances in the network technology simply make a particular device difficult to continue to use; then they become "backups". lol.

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@sandblaster wrote:

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@T-Boy wrote:

You are dreaming if you think the average person can keep a smartphone 4 or 5 years. Lost, broken, stolen, dead battery. etc. Your numbers don't add up. You don't save $50 a month unless there are multiple lines or you had the worse single line plan in America. If you have more than one line wait till one breaks, loses, or has a phone stolen and see how much you save. A new phone will add at least $25 a month to your bill for 26 months. Some might come out but most will not.

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I'm not dreaming at all. My iphone 4 is still in use and in excellent condition. I have no doubt my iPhone 5 will last another 2 years. You are correct that my savings are on a multi line plan. Single line plans won't get the same savings, if any. Your argument about the cost to replace a lost or stolen phone does not really hold either because you can't get a new discounted phone until your contract has expired. If you have to replace your phone while under contract, you will pay full price too. Also, there are two installment options on Next, 20 and 26 months. There are a number of phones that are $25 or less a month for 20 months. 

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@little birdy wrote:
I guess you didnt read my post. They 'gave' me this discount, i upped my data to fifteen gigs BECAUSE they gave me the discount, then when it came time to pay they told me i cant have that discount until my contract ends in july 2015. I dont expect any better help on this forum than i get in real life, i just want to put it here for the record.

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I believe that I read your post, about what happened to you.  I will tell you that if you have talked to the correct people in the billing department that you will find that you will get the discount.  I have 2 iPhones on my plan. the first contract started in Sept 2012, and the second in November 2012.  Both are still under contract unil late this year.  In Feb, I switched them both over to the new 10GB Mobile Share value plan.  Now, the first month's bill was confusing because I made the change take effect immediately, not delaying it until the beginning of a new billing cycle.  This meant that my new bill was pro-rated for a little over half the month on the old rates, and then the rest on the new rates.  In the end, my bill for that month went from $182 down to $168.  Now my first full month on the new plan bill arrived a little while back, and it is all the way down to $118 where I expected it. (I receive a FAN discount through my employer).  I have the $130 plan for 2 smart phones, and that is what I was billed  prior to the discounts and taxes/fees being applied.

I'm not sure who "they" are that told you that you can't get the $25/month discount for having a smartphone on your MSVP because you are under contract, but I suspect that "they" are mistaken.  Most likely what you had happen was that your new plan changes went into effect at the start of the new billing cycle.  I have heard that some people (most?) have an issue with not getting the $25/smartphone discount for the first month if they have the changes take effect at the beginning of a new billing cycle.  If this is the case, I susggest you contact the billing department and ask them to correct your bill to give you this credit.  If you have trouble working with the billing department, try contacting the AT&T Customer Care group directly via IM on the support forums and they can help you.

The thing to understand about the Mobile Share Value Plans is that they are designed to give a reduced service rate for customers who are not purchasing a subsidized phone.  If you purchase a subsidized phone, your monthly bill will go up $25/month for 24 months to pay for that phone subsidy.  If you purchase an off-contract phone yourself, you may pay as much as $450 more for the phone, but you'll save $600 in service charges over the course of 2 years.

When you purchase a new subsidized phone under contract, you are just having to pay the higher rate for your service to subsidize that cheaper phone.  AT&T just took the approach of offering customers who were under contract prioer to 02/01/2014 this reduced price service fee as an incentive to get them to move from their older plans to one of these newer Mobile Share plans.  The other side effect is that customers will "get used to" this lower monthly bill, and be more inclined to purchase an off-contract phone when their current contract expires just to keep the lower service rate too.  Over the course of 2 years, it could save a customer as much as $150, which is not an insignificant amount of money...

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@GeekBoy wrote:

The thing to understand about the Mobile Share Value Plans is that they are designed to give a reduced service rate for customers who are not purchasing a subsidized phone.  If you purchase a subsidized phone, your monthly bill will go up $25/month for 24 months to pay for that phone subsidy.  If you purchase an off-contract phone yourself, you may pay as much as $450 more for the phone, but you'll save $600 in service charges over the course of 2 years.

 

When you purchase a new subsidized phone under contract, you are just having to pay the higher rate for your service to subsidize that cheaper phone.  AT&T just took the approach of offering customers who were under contract prioer to 02/01/2014 this reduced price service fee as an incentive to get them to move from their older plans to one of these newer Mobile Share plans.  The other side effect is that customers will "get used to" this lower monthly bill, and be more inclined to purchase an off-contract phone when their current contract expires just to keep the lower service rate too.  Over the course of 2 years, it could save a customer as much as $150, which is not an insignificant amount of money...

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People are so entrenched in the subsidized phone model, many just can't get on board with paying full price for their phones even though it works out costing less but it is clear that all of the carriers are trying to get out of the subsidized phone business. To the OP's question, is Tmobile or Sprint any better, Tmobile is the carrier that started the "pay full price for your phone" trend. I don't think they even offer subsidized phones any more.