Verizon Secretly Makes New Device Unlock Policy Extra Strict

When Verizon first pushed their new device unlock policy live a few weeks ago, we pointed out that it was super straight forward, even surprisingly so. That said, a small change that arrived last week has made it slightly more strict and will likely require you to wait even longer before your device truly unlocks.

The original policy stated that if you used a gift card to payoff the remaining balance of a phone, they wouldn’t actually unlock the device for an extra 35 days. This was likely a fraud prevention move involving gift cards. Again, this originally only mentioned using a gift card to payoff a device that would trigger a delay, but that if you paid it off in any other way, the unlock should have still happened immediately.

Here’s what the policy said when it went live back on January 27:

If a Verizon Gift Card is used to purchase a smartphone or pay off a remaining balance, the unlocking process will be delayed by 35 days. This window allows for the verification of the gift card’’s funds to ensure they were not obtained through fraudulent or illegal mean

Last week, Verizon updated a bit of wording around a 35 day delay. They put a new requirement that will basically involve all device payoffs that aren’t in-person at a corporate-owned Verizon store. I’ve bolded the new wording below:

If you payoff a device payment agreement balance online or in the My Verizon App, or if a Verizon Gift Card is used to purchase a smartphone or pay off a remaining balance, the unlocking process will be delayed by 35 days. This window allows for the verification of the gift card’s funds to ensure they were not obtained through fraudulent or illegal means.

We saw the change go live last week, but weren’t really sure how much it was changing things. The wording is just so odd that we basically ignored it. We shouldn’t have. Ars Technica reached out to Verizon who confirmed that this is a change and they do plan on delaying most device payoffs by 35 days unless you do it in-person at one of their corporate stores. Their reasoning, as you might expect, is to try and prevent fraud.

So now, in order to get Verizon to automatically unlock your device after you have finished paying off a device payment plan, you’ll need to do it in-person, at one of their corporate owned stores, and use a “secure payment type” for payment (Card with EMV chip, cash, or Apple/Google Pay). If you don’t meet those requirements, they’ll add an additional 35 days onto your unlock time.

Verizon changed all of this on February 10 without mentioning it and also didn’t change the effective date, as it still shows the original January 27 date. It could be that this was always supposed to be a part of the policy and it somehow didn’t make the final copy. All I know is that it’s live now and wasn’t exactly presented in the most open of ways.

But hey, this is the power an anti-consumer FCC has given carriers. Prepare for changes whenever they feel like it.