What's the rule on upgrading equipment with Cingular?

[GoldenBear03]

I'm a Cingular customer and my account info online shows that I'm not eligible for upgrade until 9/4/2006. In other words, that's when my 2 year contract ends. I'd like to upgrade to a Treo now though. What's the rule? I've heard some say that Cingular won't let you buy a new phone from them period until your contract is up. True or false? What happens if your phone is lost, stolen, run over, etc.? I'd like to know what my options are. Thanks in advance!

[Miller]

Originally Posted by GoldenBear03

I'm a Cingular customer and my account info online shows that I'm not eligible for upgrade until 9/4/2006. In other words, that's when my 2 year contract ends. I'd like to upgrade to a Treo now though. What's the rule? I've heard some say that Cingular won't let you buy a new phone from them period until your contract is up. True or false? What happens if your phone is lost, stolen, run over, etc.? I'd like to know what my options are. Thanks in advance!

sounds like you need a new account rep to deal with. i'm pretty sure you can always upgrade provided you pay the freight for the phone and the plan....

[rambo47]

Often they'll give you some pricebreak even if it's not time for an upgrade. You'll get a partial discount, but they will require you to extend your contract another year or two from the day you upgrade. Verizon did this with my wife's phone.

[AiricR]

I tried to configure a 650 through Cing for a purchase without a plan and it would not give me a checkout option without putting a plan in the cart. I was in a hurry and didnt want to call cing so I just bought an unlocked 650 from NewEgg.com ..I put my sim from my blackberry in in and off i went. I did have to go in to the cing office today to get a newer sim because of a mms error...

You can buy and activate as many phones as you want with your plan. But as far as getting the 650 for the $399.00 cing price Id forget about it..

[plunker]

The cell companies I have dealt with will always let you change phones.....you just pay retail for them. If you bought a discounted phone on a two year plan they should not care as long as you maintain your two year agreement. I did this with sprint which by the way their policy is terrible.

You activate a phone and you can get a rebate in one or two years on a new phone. If you activate a phone for one day used or new you can only get the rebate one or two years after you activated that phone.

I used my sons phone for a couple of weeks to see if I liked it and lost all of my past rebate time. I like sprint but this policy s--ks.

[chris]

I've always found the best way to get a deal on a new phone is to switch providers. I realize that it's not always the easiest move. Many of us have shared plans, etc. I remember being at the end of my contract with Sprint and they didn't offer me a break on the Treo 650. They will bend over backwards and offer discounts for new customers, but won't budge on offering a discount to an existing customer. I'm sure mileage will vary from company to company. I also thought the advent of number portability would change this attitude among wireless companies.

It's always worth a phone call. Explain the situation and see what they offer. Let us know how you make out as that would be good information to know.

-Chris

[Antoine of MMM]

You can also jsut go and purchase a new phone outright (Expansis, GSMArena, etc. all point to places where you can do so) and then put your SIM card into it. For myself, this is what I have done (partly because I review phones) and you would still have the same date, and not need to register the phone under Cingular. Note, this can only be done with GSM providers like Cingular, Orange, and TMobile. Verizon and Sprint require that you register your phone with them before using it on their networks, which is why they do not use SIM cards.