This won’t surprise any of you, but it only took a year for Verizon to increase the price of a plan that it introduced with a 3-year price lock. Today, Verizon increased the price of its Unlimited Ultimate plan, pushing its rate $5 per month higher no matter the number of lines on it.
The change rolled out quietly this morning, but we’ve sort of been expecting it to drop at any moment, as stores were told within the past several days that the change was imminent.
How can Verizon increase the price of a plan that they gave a 3-year price lock to only a year ago? Because in the fine print, it says specifically that the 3-year price lock guarantee “Applies to the then current base monthly rate charged by Verizon” at the moment you signed up. In other words, if you signed up for Unlimited Ultimate before today, you are still locked in. This is for new customers or those who switch to this plan going forward.
STATEMENT FROM VERIZON: Verizon reached out because they want you to understand (even though we said it directly to you above) that this price change only impacts customers who weren’t on Unlimited Ultimate prior to today.
“Starting May 7, we’re enhancing our Unlimited Ultimate plan. Moving forward, customers who subscribe to our new Unlimited Ultimate plan will get access to two new features—Identity Secure and Verizon Family Plus—providing an additional $15 in added monthly value for just $5. These enhancements give customers even more value as part of their relationship with Verizon, with security and family management tools now included in our best mobile plan. Existing customers currently on our Unlimited Ultimate plan will not see any change to their monthly plan price.”
For those looking to switch to Unlimited Ultimate, your new price breakdown is as follows:
- Unlimited Ultimate 1 line: $85
- Unlimited Ultimate 2 lines: $77.50/line
- Unlimited Ultimate 3 lines: $63.33/line
- Unlimited Ultimate 4 lines: $55/line
Is there anything new in the plan that increased the price? Verizon did add Verizon Family Plus and Identity Secure to it. Family Plus is a paid service that lets you monitor the phones on your account, set limits, supervise screen time, get roadside assistance, etc. Identity Secure is another paid service that gets you a password manager, secure folder, social media monitoring, and some other security-related features.
These two features would typically cost you about $15/mo combined, so Verizon is giving you a discount, although if you didn’t want either service, you just don’t have a choice. They are now baked into the plan and the price is increased because of it.
Verizon did not increase prices on Unlimited Plus or Unlimited Welcome. Unlimited Plus is still the plan we’ve called Verizon’s best unlimited plan.
