Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
You might sometimes find yourself looking at your phone bill and wondering whether it’s finally time to ditch your big carrier for something cheaper. You wouldn’t be the only one who has this passing thought on a monthly basis. Verizon in particular tends to spark strong opinions whenever we cover it, especially as prepaid plans keep getting more competitive. After my colleague’s thoughts on the topic, we decided to ask you whether there’s a good reason to leave Verizon right now or if it’s worth sticking with it for the time being.
We stuck the poll in Andrew Grush’s own back-and-forth article over whether he should finally leave Verizon himself. The move to prepaid made sense on paper, especially after paying off most of the devices on his account. But once Verizon started stacking discounts and even offered a temporary free line, the math wasn’t quite as clear-cut to him anymore. He wasn’t suddenly Verizon’s biggest fan, but the extra incentives slowed his urgency to jump ship.
As we suspected, a lot of you had an opinion on the subject. Let’s see how the poll came out.
Despite Andrew’s approach, the biggest group of you still felt it was better to leave Verizon sooner rather than later. Just under half backed that option, suggesting that even with discounts and retention offers in play, many of you don’t see enough reason to stick around when the MVNOs are offering such reasonable prices. That said, it wasn’t a landslide — more than a third of you said there’s less reason to leave right now, echoing the idea that Verizon’s incentives can at least slow down the urge to cut and run.
Many were happy to elaborate on your vote in the comments, and one theme came up again and again: for many of you, the math isn’t even close. Several readers said they’d already left Verizon and were saving hundreds or sometimes thousands of dollars a year by switching to prepaid or MVNOs like Mint, Visible, US Mobile, or Google Fi. A few pointed out that once you stop chasing “free” phone upgrades and start buying unlocked devices instead, it becomes much easier to walk away without feeling trapped by device payments.
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Customer service experiences clearly also played a big role in why so many of you were happy to leave. One commenter didn’t mince words, calling Verizon “the worst company to do business with, hands down” after repeated billing and payment issues that hurt their credit. Another wrote, “This is hands-down one of the worst customer service experiences I’ve ever had.” Stories like that made it clear why some readers have zero interest in sticking around, discounts or not.
That said, not everyone was rushing for the exit. A smaller but significant group said Verizon’s coverage is still hard to beat where they live, or that employer discounts and long-term loyalty perks make the higher price easier to swallow. As one longtime customer put it, “Coverage has been awesome from back in the day till now,” even if customer service hasn’t kept up.
It’s a predictable mix of opinions — your mobile provider is always going to be a choice you make based on your own circumstances. If you want the cheapest option and can be bothered to do the admin, the smaller providers will usually be your best bet, but the big players will always have ways to tempt you to stay.
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