Verizon question

mbcdefg

I'm currently on my family's Verizon plan. My dad's the account holder. I said I'd split off when I moved out after college, but he said it was cheap to have me on the plan since there are five of us, so he'd just do it as a favor to me. Which I really appreciate. I have a basic phone with no Internet.

My Verizon contract expires in August. MH left Verizon this past summer so he could get the iPhone. Originally I was planning to just cancel my Verizon contract in August, and then join MH on AT&T and get the iPhone.

But now that Verizon is allegedly coming out with the iPhone, I'm wondering if it's better to stick with them. And since I'm not planning to make my dad pay for a data plan just because I want a fancier phone, I'm wondering how easy it is to just split off from his account and create my own Verizon account. Since I'd be sticking with the company, would I face any penalty fees if I were to get off my family's account before the August expiration date?

Normally I'd just call/visit them and ask, but since I'm not the account holder they always refuse to give me any account information if my dad's not there with me or if he doesn't make the phone call on my behalf *bangs head into wall*

rutgersgirl82

I would stick with Verizon, but thats just me, I've always been happy with my service and just got a droid and love it (even more than the iphone), I think the data service is fast, I've never had any problems.

You can split from your Dad's account at any time. I was the primary on our family share plan and I recently "kicked" my little brother off (since he's on his own in the city now with his own job etc...) 

Basically your Dad has to call up and give them permission for you to split and then you call up and take ownership. You can keep your same line, and it doesn't matter how far into the contract you are. There's no fees or penalties to make a change like that. It was pretty easy to do, just involves the two phone calls. 

mbcdefg

Thanks for the info! I'm glad to hear that it's a painless process ... I've had some frustrating customer service issues with them in the past (again, though, most of that has stemmed from me not being the primary account holder) so it's good to hear that this can be taken care of quickly and without getting slapped with fees.

colmckenn

I am on my parents account and my mom is the account holder. She called verizon and added me as a secondary user so that I was able to make decisions about my phone.

mbcdefg

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-jersey_verizon-question-1?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:90Discussion:b9060d77-0aeb-4372-9613-4c48b4d95398Post:a477a663-045a-4280-9040-f18554aca66f">Re: Verizon question</a>:
[QUOTE]I am on my parents account and my mom is the account holder. She called verizon and added me as a secondary user so that I was able to make decisions about my phone.
Posted by colmckenn[/QUOTE]

My dad actually did this as well, about a year or two ago, and I was in the store with him when he did it.

I called them a few months ago for something and they still refused to give me any information. I said that my dad had authorized me (actually, all of us) as a secondary user and the operator said, "We have no record of that." <img src="http://cdn.cl9.vanillaforums.com/downloaded/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-yell.gif" border="0" alt="Yell" title="Yell" />

dsulewski

I got off my Dad's plan in April to go on my own plan with FI. We did not have to pay any early termination fees or anything. I think we just paid an activation fee or something because I upgraded to a blackberry when I wasn't really eligible for an upgrade on a phone. Our bill was just high for the first month, but after that went  down to what it is now.

My Dad just had to call Verizon and release liability or something like that (FI's Dad had to do the same for him since FI was on their family plan). I forget the exact thing he had to do, but he just had to call and basically release me from his plan. It was actually really easy to do and didn't take that long.

I would say just go into the store and do everything so you can see everything that is going on and talk to the people. I found with Verizon if you call them, its so shotty the service you get, you either get someone really nice and willing to help you out and answer all your questions (and actually give you correct answers and do everything you want them to do) or you get an idiot who doesn't really want to be talking to you.

But long story short, it's pretty easy. Because you are staying with verizon you don't have any fees. Your Dad will just have to call them and say your good to drop off his plan.

hcer0708

I would stick with Verizon. I have it as well and love it. Everyone that i know that has At& T is always complaining about their service. 

Splitting from your dad should be easy with just a phone call.

mbcdefg

Thanks for all the info! There's a Verizon store in town, so once Verizon makes the iPhone available hopefully Dad can come with me to the store and take me off his contract.

It's funny, a lot of people say the same thing about Verizon having better service than AT&T, but so far MH has had no issues. My Verizon phone actually drops a ton of calls in our apartment (nowhere else, though) but his iPhone has never dropped a call yet (anywhere). *shrug*