Paying off your new Verizon phone will now take 3 years
Phone contracts aren’t what they used to be and are continuing to change, at least at Verizon. The wireless carrier has just extended its installment plan terms for all new device purchases from 24 or 30 months to 36.
Verizon’s retail pages now display only two options for buying any device, be it a smartphone, smartwatch, mobile hotspot, or feature phone: pay the full retail price now or over 36 months.
The company updated theFAQ pagefor its mobile device payment program (viaDroid Life). It seems the new 36-month plans are being offered in earnest online right now, but will be the only option by February 9. If you plan on buying a new phone with Big Red this week, check your local store or channel associate for details. We’ve also reached out to Verizon for clarification. Other stipulations of the installment plan remain the same, including the one that limits customers to paying the installment amounts or the remaining balance in any given month (i.e., you could’t go on a 36-month term and pay it off in 24 equal monthly payments).
Customers currently paying off devices under the older agreements will see no changes.
On the whole, consumers have long been known tokeep their phones around for more than 2 years, often regardless of software support — thoughthe situation on Androidhas been improving and may make 36-month payment plans more palatable. AT&T was the first to adapt with its 30-month device payment plans before it extended them to 36 months for all devices this past June (viaFierceWireless). T-Mobile offers 24-, 30-, and 36-month terms for its phones with the longer terms being attached to the more expensive devices.
Something we might expect to see (but hope we don’t) are non-zero APRs as there are signs that the Federal Reserve policy may raise borrowing rates for the first time in over a decade. Imagine paying interest on a smartphone.
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This article is sponsored by Total Wireless.
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