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Verizon set a trap that inflated bills by $5 for longtime customers

Verizon customers tricked into paying $5 more every month, but there's a workaround.

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verizon autopay grandfathered myplan
Verizon is reverting to old habits. | Image by Ryan Duggan
Carriers love it when customers upgrade to their newest, most expensive plans. Subscribers, on the other hand, like holding on to older plans that tend to be cheaper and more straightforward. To get customers to switch, carriers employ various tactics. Verizon may have gone too far with its latest one.

Legacy customers excluded from discounts



As of June 4, Verizon customers attempting to switch from grandfathered plans to MyPlan are being disqualified from receiving the standard $10 autopay discount the plan promises.

Before making this change, Verizon slashed the AutoPay discount on legacy plans from $10 to $5, essentially incentivizing them to switch to MyPlan.

Stuck with higher rates


It looks like customers on discontinued plans are the only ones who aren't eligible for the $10 autopay discount available to everyone else adding a new line.

What makes this change convoluted is that Verizon first intentionally got customers to abandon their cheaper plans. Customers can't roll back to the previous plan, so on top of paying more for a new plan, customers are also not saving as much as before on automatic payments.

What would you do if this happened to you?
19 Votes

Blame the CEO?


According to the Reddit user who broke the news, the restriction is intentional. They are pointing fingers at new CEO Dan Schulman, who is trying to restore Verizon to its former glory.

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With traditional growth paths in the telecom industry largely tapped out, squeezing more revenue from the existing customer base is an easy way to pad the bottom line.

The rollout has been so quiet that even many front-line employees were reportedly left in the dark, and were taken aback when customers started flagging the discrepancy. 

The loophole


While Verizon might argue these were two separate, unrelated policy changes, the timing says otherwise.

For now, customers have found a workaround, which is switching off AutoPay, switching the plan, and then enabling it again.

Most customers are understandably angry and have decided to send checks to the company to create an administrative headache. Others are eyeing the exit door.
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