Verizon wants to lock customers in for longer periods
Typically when you sign a contract with your carrier, this contract is good for two years, or 24-months, but it now looks like Verizon has decided that they will no longer be offering their customers a 24-month contract anymore and will be shifting to a 36-month contract for future customers.
This is according to a report from Droid-Life who discovered that on Verizon’s website, when you attempt to sign up for a contract, there is no longer a 24-month or even 30-month option offered to customers. Instead, they all seem to have been replaced by 36-month contracts which essentially locks customers in for 3 years.
This option doesn’t seem to be specific to any handset as they have noticed that it applies to cheap, entry-level handsets as low as $160, or even flagship phones priced at $1,000 and above.
So what does this mean for existing customers? Presumably nothing because as long as you have signed your contract with Verizon before this change came into effect, your previous contract will still be honored. Verizon also notes on its FAQ page that customers who wish to upgrade early will be able to do so once their device has been fully paid off. This means that you can choose to pay it off fully before the 36-months are up and upgrade to a new device, or just wait for the contract to fully run out.
Verizon’s decision to switch to 36-months follows in the footsteps of other carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile (although T-Mobile does offer 24-month and 30-month options for some devices).
Source: Droid-Life