Just buy your own phone. A midrange Samsung is like 350 eurodollars these days.
Some of devices automatically lock once used on a carrier network
Not in EU
Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones
81–90 of 130 posts
Re: Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones
#82Having lived in a lot of countries over the past couple of decades, I can say this is absolutely something Americans do completely wrong. Just buy your phone at full price. The "free" phones cost significantly more than a full price phone.
It was also much easier to import cheap unlocked phones from abroad when the whole world used at most 4 frequency bands. Now there's several dozen and I don't think even the most expensive flagship phones support all of them. To paraphrase a common phrase I've seen around here: The "G" in "LTE" stands for "global".
There are tools to check the compatibility of the phone with the carrier, some sellers like Tradingshenzen integrate that into their shops. A quick check shows that indeed the US carriers have many incompatible bands with the phones. On the other hand, there is only one or two bands that you have to check when importing to Europe.
Re: Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is this an option that's available all the time? Back when the Nexus 5 was still new, I tried doing exactly this and took one I just bought to my local Verizon outlet to have it activated on their network. The tech there told me that while the phone DID have the hardware needed to be compatible on Verizon's network, he was "not allowed" to activate it for me unless I bought it directly through them. I've since switch…
The car salesman will also try to tell you he's not allowed to let you take the vehicle off the lot without rustproofing.
Okay, what I really meant to ask was whether Verizon in particular is still incredibly dishonest about the process of bringing your own device as I had personally experienced. Obviously, the real solution is just to take your business elsewhere.
Re: Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones
#84On Slickdeals, the 60 day unlock after paying for one month of service was often used for locked phones like the $49 iPhone SE. This prevents that.
I haven't head of Slickdeals, but wouldn't you still be under the terms of the line contract?
They aren't going to lose their money.
Re: Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones
#85Having lived in a lot of countries over the past couple of decades, I can say this is absolutely something Americans do completely wrong. Just buy your phone at full price. The "free" phones cost significantly more than a full price phone.
Another label I fell for in the US was "lite" cooking oil. The fine print said "light in colour." The "free" is just advertising and for people habituated to credit, it's a no-brainer. Pun intended.
What did you expect it to be lite in?
Re: Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Norway several of the mobile phone telecom operators sell phones on down payment plans that cost nothing extra compared to buying it cash up front. It has been like this for several years and it’s great! You can pay a pretty low monthly down payment over a period of 36 month. As far as I’ve been able to tell, I don’t even have to enter into any binding contract for any phone plan to buy the phone this way. And eve…
Yes but you will generally pay more for your monthly plan in those cases vs. buying an unlocked phone at full price and a dirt-cheap SIM like Lebara.
In my country you do not. No idea how they do it, but the plan and buying the phone separate (iPhone 16 pro Max) phone costs about 300 more than the phone and plan combined.
Re: Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Americans are, adjusted for inflation, literally richer than Americans have ever been at any point in history right now, at every quintile in the income distribution. If that's "far from good" I'm not even sure what that phrase means. If the point is just that the hedonic treadmill means Americans will continue to be less and less happy as we get more and more wealthy, well, that's the problem we need to fix.
How is that measured? All the anecdotal evidence I’ve ever seen suggests the number of hours you have to work at realistic (especially entry level) wages to afford rent, basic food, and transit to said job is currently higher than it’s ever been as far as I can tell in my lifetime. Rent alone has risen substantially higher than inflation, which seems like it should especially skew the numbers on the low end.
Rent has risen about the same as wages over the last 40 years. So a bit higher than inflation but not so much that it’s less affordable.
Re: Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones
#88Having lived in a lot of countries over the past couple of decades, I can say this is absolutely something Americans do completely wrong. Just buy your phone at full price. The "free" phones cost significantly more than a full price phone.
Is this an option that's available all the time? Back when the Nexus 5 was still new, I tried doing exactly this and took one I just bought to my local Verizon outlet to have it activated on their network. The tech there told me that while the phone DID have the hardware needed to be compatible on Verizon's network, he was "not allowed" to activate it for me unless I bought it directly through them. I've since switch…
Verizon around the Nexus 5 still had a lot of CDMA and you needed to have a phone activated.
Now that networks are pretty much LTE and 5G only, if your phone takes a SIM, take the SIM out of the old phone and put it in the new phone. Some carriers still play games with allowlists for VoLTE though.
But you might have better luck (and better pricing) with a MVNO or the prepaid side of your preferred carrier.
Re: Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones
#89Having lived in a lot of countries over the past couple of decades, I can say this is absolutely something Americans do completely wrong. Just buy your phone at full price. The "free" phones cost significantly more than a full price phone.
> The "free" phones cost significantly more than a full price phone
I buy phones at full price, but in general the free/subsidized versions don't cost more. You just pay over time. For many people, it would even be worth it to pay somewhat more if they don't have the money to pay up front.
One downside though is that you're more likely to upgrade to features you don't need because "it's only an extra $5/6/10 per month". Gotta always consider the total cost.
Re: Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones
#90Why is anyone even tolerating a carrier selling them a phone locked for a single day (unless it is free with plan or something in which case there's nothing wrong)? If you're using an iPhone, buy it from the Apple Store, full stop. No reason not to. If you need financing they have that (ACMI). They also sell older models refurb (like new condition) to save even more. For a cheap Android (Revvl 60 or whatever), they'l…
> Why is anyone even tolerating a carrier selling them a phone locked for a single day (unless it is free with plan or something in which case there's nothing wrong)?
I sometimes buy carrier locked phones when the unlock period is reasonable and the locked phone + the required service is a good deal compared to buying unlocked.
I don't think a 1 year locked period is reasonable though, unless it was locked to the carrier I actually intend to use.