Many people have switched to AT&T as their cellphone provider since the iPhone came out. I have found that most of these people who switched did it just because they wanted an iPhone, and did not do any research and comparisons into AT&T plans and how they could save some money. What many people seem not to realize is that while they cannot get discounts on the iPhone itself, they can get discounts on their monthly plan with AT&T depending on what school you go to or what employer you work for.
If you already have an account with AT&T, you can enter your phone number and school or work e-mail address to start saving on your monthly bill. If getting a discount would help you make your decision to switch, you can just look-up what types of monthly savings you could get. I've heard people claim that the increase of the data plan from being $20/month to $30/month is the reason that they don't want to switch to the iPhone 3g. With some of these discounts, this could offset the difference from the data plans.
The amounts of the discounts vary. I have heard anything from 5-27%. I am going to be on a joint plan with my brother, who goes to Hopkins Med. JHU gives 10%, and my Fortune 500 employer gives me 8% savings. I have also heard that Radio Shack, CMU, and most schools give 15%. It works on the primary account on family plans, and on all individual plans, though I hear it doesn't work on voice and data for V1 but it does on both for 3G. Some can include accessory discounts (one example I saw had a 30% discount) and waived activation fees. From the AT&T site: "The charges to which your Service Discount applies are subject to the arrangement between your organization and AT&T. Typically, the Service Discount is applied to the Monthly Service Charge on most voice and data rate plans. Note: On FamilyTalk plans, only the Primary Line will receive the discount under eligible Agreements; additional Lines do not receive the Service Discount."
It doesn't matter if you're a new customer, or if you have been a customer of AT&T for years. If you discover that you can receive a discount, they will add it on (though it will only start counting from the day you add it). It might take a few months to show up, but they will retroactively give you the discount on the months after you added the discount information if they charged you with the full amount the first few months.
Good luck, and I hope that helps save some people some money!
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Save on Your iPhone Plan Through Your School or Employer
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6 comments:
Wow - this is totally awesome - my only problem is that CMU comes up as Port of Los Angeles Company. Looks like I'll have to jump through some hoops to get them to correctly recognize CMU. CMU's site doesn't even mention any discount available, so this is a very pleasant surprise. :)
Yes, I've also heard from other CMU people that it comes up as "Port of Los Angeles Company". It should be an easily fixed database problem, though I don't think anyone I've talked to has actually gotten off their butts and tried to get AT&T to fix it yet.
CMU's site doesn't even mention any discount available, so this is a very pleasant surprise.
This is exactly why I decided to do a post about it even though it's not a new program. I don't know why it's not advertised more. My company advertises its discount program with Verizon, but makes no mention of the AT&T one even though we get a discount!
I hope it works out for you! (And if you have any questions about getting the discount applied, here's a forum with comments from lots of people who have done it successfully: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=509732)
The Hot Blogger Calendar nomination wants to know your twitter name.
=) It's just RoboJenny.
This would be awesome if I could actually access my UMD account :(. They made everyone change their passwords at some point and I didn't so I'm locked out. It's really annoying actually.
You may be able to go to an AT&T store in the area and get it added on. I was at one yesterday, and they had a list of the FAN numbers for all the local schools including UMD, that they can just add onto your account. Try it out next time you happen to be near a store.
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