Re: Thinking about switching to Prepaid, researching details Prepaid vs Postpaid
mama23dogs
Legend

if your G2 has bands 2, 4, 5, 17 it would work fine on ATT for LTE.

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Re: Thinking about switching to Prepaid, researching details Prepaid vs Postpaid
Snn5
Legend

UPDATE

I decided to go the Verizon Prepaid route. 

It took me calling the porting dept. ( 888-844-7095)  to get my phone at 100% working, because my Boost phone was still making and receiving calls and texts and using data the next day, but my Verizon phone would receive and send texts and use data, but could only call out, but not receive calls.  (Make sure to have your Boost or other carrier account number and PIN, if any, available.  Boost makes you call them to get your account number, and make sure to say, "For my records." 

One can also check port status here:  Transfer Your Phone Number - Switch to Verizon Wireless

Also see:

Customer Service - Prepaid

(888) 294-6804

or dial *611 from your mobile phone

Mon - Sun, 6 AM - 11 PM Local Time

The promo on Verizon Prepaid was for 1GB bonus data for signing up with Auto-pay and when porting a number in, the 2nd month is free.

What happened next:

After inquiring as to how to get the second month free while on auto-pay, I discovered that with AP enabled, the charge would be automatic on the next renewal date, for which I have set to 3 days before end of cycle, just to avoid any upsets, just in case.  However, if the second month was free and the AP was charged, there would be a credit for one month.  Yet, to avoid the charge I would have to disable AP, but that would take away my 1GB bonus data.

Where I am now:

What I found out, and this is both good and bad, is that somehow, my 1st month acted as my 2nd month, meaning my 1st month is free AND I already have the 1GB bonus data added.  This means I have to disable AP BEFORE the end of the cycle, as close as possible, to avoid the charge and avoid losing my 1GB bonus, which will be lost the minute AP is disabled, but I am told there are no overages so anything over the 1GB that would have been left will not be charged.

Originally, I was told to let the auto-payment go through to keep my data and to request a refund for the 2nd month charge.  Either way, one month would be free and the bonus data would be kept.  We all know how it goes getting refunds, am I right?  Nonetheless, I took a look at my account and noticed the last CC charge was listed as "cash" in the description of payment method, however, the charge is already posted on my CC account.

I suppose it's a wait-and-see type thing regarding next month as to how the charges work.  I have never known Verizon to speed up the honoring of a promotion incentive by a month.  I suppose I will know on the renewal date: either my phone will work meaning the credit stayed on the account and it will draw from the amount I already applied, or the free month will kick in and the first month will actually have been an actual paid month.  Either way, the bill is paid.  Hopefully.

To add, Prepaid Chat support is far below the level of accessibility that inquiring new customers or post-paid plan customers receive.  The Chat button is rarely red, and one can timeout their session before Chat is available.  But, I guess I'm OK with that for what I pay.  Also, you can count on *611 going straight to an outsourced rep.  Calling the prepaid number (listed above) will get you to the people I was used to on post-paid.  The menu is a bit finicky, and don't count on "0" getting you to a live person.  Also, the My Verizon app works about the same as post-paid, but you have no access to the data-use widget.  You have to log in each time to see the amount of data used so far that cycle.  I did find that the phone's data use counter (a little higher) was fairly correct and matched Verizon's amount.  Though, the My Verizon app for prepaid is updated regularly, so it says, but the info is not.  One might also use a 3rd party data counter widget in the app store of their choice.

However, I am satisfied using my LG G2 with a seemingly perfect installation of 5.0.2 (for which I factory reset again just to start fresh) and my previous contract SIM worked fine on the network and I won't incur any overages, just an inability to call in roaming areas unless there is .20 cents per min worth of money on the account, but SMS/MMS will work, (so I was told) and data will still work as long as there is data left unused.  Plus, that's what Hangouts Dialer with a Google Voice number is for.

Maybe someone else sees this thread and can benefit from this info if they are considering Prepaid with Verizon.

Thanks for all the input!

Re: Thinking about switching to Prepaid, researching details Prepaid vs Postpaid
mama23dogs
Legend

That is way too much work...

image.jpg

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Re: Thinking about switching to Prepaid, researching details Prepaid vs Postpaid
Snn5
Legend

What part was too much work?  The effort to understand or the effort to explain?

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Re: Thinking about switching to Prepaid, researching details Prepaid vs Postpaid
mama23dogs
Legend

What I found out, and this is both good and bad, is that somehow, my 1st month acted as my 2nd month, meaning my 1st month is free AND I already have the 1GB bonus data added.  This means I have to disable AP BEFORE the end of the cycle, as close as possible, to avoid the charge and avoid losing my 1GB bonus, which will be lost the minute AP is disabled, but I am told there are no overages so anything over the 1GB that would have been left will not be charged.


that and budgeting data at all.....


i Am all for research before, then I just want to sit back and let it rip.

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Re: Thinking about switching to Prepaid, researching details Prepaid vs Postpaid
Snn5
Legend

Well, I could just let it all ride and go for the month's refund.

And, budgeting data isn't a huge deal for me.  Either 32MB or 64MB a day.  With my data off all the time it isn't hard to stay in that range.  Verizon/Alltel taught me well on how to manage data/minutes limits.  Started learning these habits back in 100 min for $30 Prepaid days where your phone was off till 9PM M-F, free weekends and you had 3 min of use a day and that was reserved for planned calls or emergencies.  Couldn't even check voicemail till 9pm.  And, without Caller ID, all you knew was that "CALL" was calling, so that was a gamble in itself.

Re: Thinking about switching to Prepaid, researching details Prepaid vs Postpaid
MiiHere
Champion - Level 3

I remember free nights and weekends. 9:01 pm until 5:59am. Sometimes if I'd call before 9pm, it would count the whole call as peak hours.

Re: Thinking about switching to Prepaid, researching details Prepaid vs Postpaid
mama23dogs
Legend

I Remember increasing minutes because my sister was on ATT and a toll call 2 towns away and my best friend was in the next state and we could TALK.....

THrough the years cell service has changed so much.  Talk used to be king and phones had pretty good voice quality.  Then text was a big deal.  I remember not having a texting plan and being miffed for getting text and getting charged 20 cents each.  I was the last in my immediate family to get a smart phone.  But I did it right with the "first, Next big thing". The Galaxy S3.  Using it on my account again, still a great phone.

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Re: Thinking about switching to Prepaid, researching details Prepaid vs Postpaid
Snn5
Legend

Minutes were money makers, text next, data now...data, at some level or speed will be unlimited one day.  I figure at some point, speed tops out and no difference can be noticed.  It is at that point that the fastest noticeable speed will be the money maker and the next slowest will be unlimited, and I'm not talking about 64-128kbps.  I am content with unlimited 3G/HSPA+ (the latter of which we can't use on Vzw anyway) and capped LTE.

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Re: Thinking about switching to Prepaid, researching details Prepaid vs Postpaid
Snn5
Legend

Edit:

After being told that Mobile Hotspot was NOT incluided with Prepaid Plans, I happened to be searching through My Verizon Mobile and came across MHS being listed as an included feature.  I activated the feature and it worked.  However, use caution and limit the number of devices that can connect to 1, I can select channel and 2.4 or 5 ghz and don't allow connected devices to share info between each other.

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