How long to activate new phone?

[iaoear]

I have been on a family plan (contract is expired, it's month to month) with two devices and recently upgraded one of them to a smartphone. Of course I had to agree to a new contract to get the phone, which arrived today. I'm wondering within what time frame do I have to activate the new phone? I'd like to wait until the 14th of next month because that's when my billing period ends and I don't want to be paying for two plans at once. Do they still give you 30 days from the ship date to activate? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

[lewisr13]

I believe it's 14 days or they will charge you full price for the phone.

[AZSALUKI]

also, you only have 14 days to return or exchange it so i wouldn't wait to activate it. what if it doesn't work properly when you do? you won't be able to return it. you won't be paying for 2 plans. it's still one plan with two devices (unless you completely changed your plan setup). you'll just have 2 weeks of the data plan which should be prorated.

[iaoear]

My plan did change, I was on a family share plan with 700 minutes, 1000 texts and pay as you go data. I had to switch to a share everything plan with a $30 per month charge for data. My point is that I don't want to have to pay the $85 for my old plan PLUS $130 for the new one on my next bill. As I understand it, that's what would happen if I activated now.

[AZSALUKI · Accepted solution]

i would REALLY look into seeing if you can still switch back to your old plan. you could have just added a 2 gig data plan to your old plan for the extra $30/month (so your bill would go from $85 to $115). they lead you to believe that you have to switch to a "share everything" plan, but you don't. i am, however, assuming you did this directly through verizon, and not a 3rd party retailer (they have no options besides share everything). i think you may be being charged $15/month more than you need to. with share everything it should be $30 for basic phone plus $40 for smartphone plus $60 for 2 gigs of data ($130). if you had just upgraded and kept your old plan, but chose an individual data plan of 2 gigs for $30/month, then it should just add $30 to your monthly bill. you need to find out if they put you on "share everything" or just added a $30 data plan to your old family share plan.

either way, everything should be prorated. but i would go in and talk to someone and have them set it up for you and be VERY clear that you want your old plan and that you simply want to add the INDIVIDUAL data plan for $30/month. there is not $30 data plan on the share everything plans. they start at $40 for 250mb and $50 for ONE gig.

[lewisr13]

^^^What he said.

[iaoear]

Thank you so much AZSALUKI for the heads up about that! I looked at the info that came with my phone and it still says 700 minute share plan. I went ahead and called and they did just add a data package to my original plan, they did not make me go to share everything (thank god).

As for activation of the phone, they activated it on their end but said I can wait until the end of my billing cycle to activate it on mine and not incur any other charges. The service rep I talked to said the only reason I would be charged full price for the phone is if I didn't agree to the terms and conditions of the new contract, which I already did when I bought the phone. She fixed it so the new plan would not start until my next billing cycle, so I won't have any prorated charges. Thanks again to both of you for your help!