Can I upgrade without activating on Verizon?

March 13, 2013 7:32 AM

I have not been able to find a definitive answer on this question. If I am eligible for an upgrade on my Verizon mobile phone, can I buy a new phone at upgrade price without activating it? If not, what is the minimum amount of time it needs to be activated?

My wife and I share a mobile phone plan on Verizon.
Both of our upgrade dates are coming up within the next couple of months, but she is not interested in upgrading her phone (for reasons outside the scope of this question).

What I'm hoping to be able to do is use the "first" upgrade to get a phone at upgrade price, keep it in a sealed box, and sell it or give it as a gift.
Then use the "second" upgrade to get my actual new phone.
I could wait until both of the upgrades are available and do it all-at-once, or I could wait a few months between the steps.

My current phone is a Galaxy Nexus, so as far as I know, the "activate" step is just swapping the SIM card into the new phone (I could also be wrong about this).

So can I do it? Online and/or in the store?

If I can't, and I have to do a token activation of the new phone, what is the minimum amount of time that the phone has to be activated before I can swap my SIM back?

posted by jozxyqk to technology (5 answers total)

I would stop in at a Verizon store to ask them directly, but it is my experience that they exchange the new phone at a reduced price in exchange for a two year contract. They might actually prefer if you not activate the phone as presumably you would be using less data by not doing so. I have upgraded and immediately switched the phone out with another user before I realized I could just transfer the upgrade. I think they would allow you to not ever activate the phone as long as you paid for the two years of service.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:23 AM on March 13

Yes, I'm happy to sign the new contract, just not necessarily use the phone I purchased. I should have put that in the question.
posted by jozxyqk at 8:46 AM on March 13

Just be aware that if you are on an unlimited data plan, they will take that away from you if you upgrade and do not pay the full (unsubsidized) price for the phone.
posted by deezil at 9:04 AM on March 13

Yes, I am aware of that, deezil.
(Not that it's relevant to the question, but we already voluntarily switched from Unlimited Data to a shared plan to save money, based on our realistic usage patterns)
posted by jozxyqk at 9:10 AM on March 13

I have always ordered through Verizon's website, they mail the phone to me and I've let it sit for up to two weeks before getting around to activating it. You will need to change the lte card but you have to call a number to turn it on for the 3g (cdma no card) antenna.
posted by dstopps at 4:12 AM on March 14