ATT: Family talk with contract vs mobile share plus/minus next

[Pandamonium]

ATT reps haven't been the most helpful, so I figured I'd ask here before trying another storefront...

Was waiting for the dust to settle regarding ATT's mobile share plans before switching. Now I'm having trouble making sense of how it works. Currently on family talk with 4 lines,3 smartphones that average 1-2gb/month for 180/mo. All lines are upgrade eligible at this time. ATT's current pricing for switching to an appropriate mobile share plan is 135/mo.

Afaik, next pricing is the same as buying outright, but the phone "lease price" gets added to the regular phone bill.

If we go out and upgrade all the phones right before switching to mobile share, is the mobile share plan still going to be 135/mo or does it jump up to something like 195/mo since 4 lines are technically under new contracts?

Also, is it possible to have separate billing for Next and the phone bill? Ie: adult kids pay for their phones separately at a separate billing address.

 

[Radeon962]

The 10Gb and up Family Value Share Plans give you a $25/mo/line credit for BYOD or Next plan phones. Contract phones get no discount so they are charged at $40/mo/contract phone.

They may or may not be running their double data plans but I was on the 10GB plan with 7 phones (6 smart phones plus one basic phone) and jumped up to the 15GB plan as it was doubled for no additional charge from 15gb to 30gb for the same price. There was a difference of $20+/- going from 10gb to 15gb but the overage charge on the plans starts at 1gb and is $15 by itself, so 20 additional GB for $20 sounded good to me.

I believe I read something recently that they were bumping the 10gb plan up to 15gb for no additional charge. You do have to go online or call in as it is not automatic.

On the lower tiers of data (under 10gb) the discount drops to $15/mo/phone so your monthly fee is $25.

Next plan is just the device cost split into 18, 24 or 30 monthly payments. So if you are the leasing/renting type of consumer then it is a 0% loan. However, if you do go Next some type of insurance is recommended as if you break your phone, lose it, get it stolen you are still responsible to pay off the Next plan amount remaining per your agreement and then would still need to pick up another phone.

Whether you can enter into a contract now and then move over to the Share plan is questionable. When they first changed up their Family share plan they grandfathered in contract phones if they were under contract before Feb. 1 or whatever the date was and charged them off as BYOD phones.

The whole idea with the Next plan or any of the other lease type plans is to get rid of contracts so that the carrier is not financing the device up front to get you to sign on the dotted line.

I buy my own devices outright used, primarily from Swappa so that I can get the $25/mo/line discount.

You also need to factor in the mainline charge for data/voice/text. The shared data plans included unlimited voice and text.

In the end, for 7 phones, my bill is $249.52 (I get a 17% employer discount off the data portion of the bill. My mainline is $128.13 and the additional phones are charged off at $20.23 with taxes and fees included.

 

[isekii]

If you switch to mobile share after you do the upgrade~ you'll pay $40 per line.

So it's whatever the mobile share plan is + $40 per smarthone line.

 

[khha4113]

The 10Gb and up Family Value Share Plans give you a $25/mo/line credit for BYOD or Next plan phones. Contract phones get no discount so they are charged at $40/mo/contract phone.

They may or may not be running their double data plans but I was on the 10GB plan with 7 phones (6 smart phones plus one basic phone) and jumped up to the 15GB plan as it was doubled for no additional charge from 15gb to 30gb for the same price. There was a difference of $20+/- going from 10gb to 15gb but the overage charge on the plans starts at 1gb and is $15 by itself, so 20 additional GB for $20 sounded good to me.

I believe I read something recently that they were bumping the 10gb plan up to 15gb for no additional charge. You do have to go online or call in as it is not automatic.

On the lower tiers of data (under 10gb) the discount drops to $15/mo/phone so your monthly fee is $25.

Next plan is just the device cost split into 18, 24 or 30 monthly payments. So if you are the leasing/renting type of consumer then it is a 0% loan. However, if you do go Next some type of insurance is recommended as if you break your phone, lose it, get it stolen you are still responsible to pay off the Next plan amount remaining per your agreement and then would still need to pick up another phone.

Whether you can enter into a contract now and then move over to the Share plan is questionable. When they first changed up their Family share plan they grandfathered in contract phones if they were under contract before Feb. 1 or whatever the date was and charged them off as BYOD phones.

The whole idea with the Next plan or any of the other lease type plans is to get rid of contracts so that the carrier is not financing the device up front to get you to sign on the dotted line.

I buy my own devices outright used, primarily from Swappa so that I can get the $25/mo/line discount.

You also need to factor in the mainline charge for data/voice/text. The shared data plans included unlimited voice and text.

In the end, for 7 phones, my bill is $249.52 (I get a 17% employer discount off the data portion of the bill. My mainline is $128.13 and the additional phones are charged off at $20.23 with taxes and fees included.

I was in 2yr contract of Family plan with 3 subsidized phones (2 smartphones and 1 dumbphone) from June 2013. I switched to Mobile Share plan 10GB last March that was $100 plus 3 phones' access fees of $15 each not $40.
To OP, try AT&T online website to see how much it would cost you before you decide to switch.

 

[isekii]

I was in 2yr contract of Family plan with 3 subsidized phones (2 smartphones and 1 dumbphone) from June 2013. I switched to Mobile Share plan 10GB last March that was $100 plus 3 phones' access fees of $15 each not $40.
To OP, try AT&T online website to see how much it would cost you before you decide to switch.

You were lucky to get in on the switch before they jacked it up. It's 40 per line.

 

[TiredEngineer]

You were lucky to get in on the switch before they jacked it up. It's 40 per line.

This is correct. I did the same switch to 10GB on AT&T. My wife and I were both on contract at the time and the "sale" was to switch to their new pricing and get non-contract pricing for each line.

I was told I could not break contract, but my pricing was non-contract at $15/line. If I were to go on contract again at a later date, it would add $25/line. This basically means it is always better for me to pay for my own device, which is just fine with me.

 

[lopri]

I have no idea how AT&T work things out but I remember yelling at a manager over the incorrect bills that I got earlier this year at the store and since then it's been $15 per line. I've also got 8% discount on my bills for reasons that I do not comprehend. ^_^

I was told the service fee per line would go up (to $40 I guess, judging from other members' reports) if I were to get a new phone under the 2-year contract, and it would stay @$15 if I use NEXT for upgrades or bring my own phones. He was also willing to upgrade phones under my contract if I wanted, even though the initial 2-year contract had not been fulfilled yet.

 

[isekii]

I have no idea how AT&T work things out but I remember yelling at a manager over the incorrect bills that I got earlier this year at the store and since then it's been $15 per line. I've also got 8% discount on my bills for reasons that I do not comprehend. ^_^

I was told the service fee per line would go up (to $40 I guess, judging from other members' reports) if I were to get a new phone under the 2-year contract, and it would stay @$15 if I use NEXT for upgrades or bring my own phones. He was also willing to upgrade phones under my contract if I wanted, even though the initial 2-year contract had not been fulfilled yet.

if you upgraded your phone under contact~ then you're on the hook for 24 months @ $40 line fee.
It benefits them to get you under contract with the mobile share.