Here’s What You Need to Know About Verizon’s New Plans

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Verizon launched a new app and new plan options July 7. The new plans offer about 30 percent more data than its old plans and the ability to roll over unused data to the next month.

That’s the good news. But here’s the inevitable catch: You’ll pay $5 to $10 more per month for the new plans.

Verizon also unveiled a new My Verizon app. The nation’s largest wireless carrier says its new plans and app solve “customer pain points like fear of overages and bill uncertainty by putting the customer in control.”

“The phone in your pocket gives you access and control to everything in your life. Now you’ll use your phone to control your wireless experience itself,” Diego Scotti, Verizon’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement. “Manage your plan and its capabilities by connecting to your account whenever and wherever you want through the new My Verizon app. … We are delivering the most simple, straightforward mobile-first experience which we believe will give customers what they’ve told us they want: more simplicity and control right in the palms of their hands.”

If you’re an existing Verizon customer, you have the choice to switch to one of the new plans or continue with your existing plan.

This is what Verizon’s new prices will look like compared with its old monthly prices:

  • S (small) plan: From $30 with 1 GB of data to $35 with 2 GB of data
  • M plan: From $45 with 3 GB of data to $50 with 4 GB of data
  • L plan: From $60 with 6 GB of data to $70 with 8 GB of data
  • XL plan: From $80 with 12 GB of data to $90 with 16 GB of data
  • XXL plan: From $100 with 18 GB of data to $110 with 24 GB of data

If you live in fear of going over your monthly data limit, Verizon’s new Safety Mode feature — which prevents you from going over your data cap — may come in handy, but it could cost you. If you’re on the “S,” “M” or “L” plans, Safety Mode is $5 per month. If you have the “XL” or “XXL” plan, you can get the feature for free.

If you have Safety Mode on and you reach your data limit for the month, Verizon will slow your data speeds but not charge you more. But this option for “throttling” your data speeds is not a benefit, says tech blog Android Police:

[Safety Mode] eliminates overages by throttling you when you go over the cap instead. … That means you pay Verizon $5 per month to throttle your speeds to 128Kbps when and if you go over. You pay them for this. I think this is pretty outrageous. Verizon is clearly preying on the fear of overages to extract more money from people; you pay this fee whether or not you go over. It’s such a clear example of Verizon’s arrogance. If you decide you want LTE back, you can pay the $15 for another gigabyte of data (Data Boost).

Do you have Verizon? What do you think of the new plans? Share your comments below or on our Facebook page.

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