Adding an iPhone and converting to a Family Plan?

[jasonact]

My wife is currently on AT&T with a Blackberry and an Individual plan. I am with Verizon, but on July 11, I am switching to AT&T for the iPhone. I want to join onto her plan and convert it from an individual plan to a Family plan.

For those of you who know more about this kind of thing than I do, will this allow me to still get the subsidized iPhone? Will they be able to easily do this at the point of sale (i.e. my local Apple Store), or will I need to contact AT&T directly?

[c4sizzle]

I'm fairly certain that you will still receive the subsidized cost, since you're technically a new subscriber.

However, with the way AT&T is fumbling this whole situation, I wouldn't put it past them in trying to get as much money as they can from you.

[whmurray]

Originally Posted by jasonact

My wife is currently on AT&T with a Blackberry and an Individual plan. I am with Verizon, but on July 11, I am switching to AT&T for the iPhone. I want to join onto her plan and convert it from an individual plan to a Family plan.

For those of you who know more about this kind of thing than I do, will this allow me to still get the subsidized iPhone? Will they be able to easily do this at the point of sale (i.e. my local Apple Store), or will I need to contact AT&T directly?

Before I bought my iPhone, AT&T assured me that I could add my iPhone to my existing account. However, in practice it turned out to be impossible. After four hours on iTunes and phone to AT&T, I was told that adding a new number to an existing account required a new credit check. Since I had blocked access to my credit records, the check failed. I ended up getting a pay-as-you-go plan. This plan includes unlimited data for $20- per month but voice is metered at $0.15/minute. As I have moved my voice traffic from my Treo 650 to my iPhone, this plan has become very expensive.

[CoachFreak]

previously I would have told you to get a free phone, create the family plan and then add the iphone after.

now, you will have to do it all at once in store, but it should be feasible!!!

[xintelinsanex]

Originally Posted by jasonact

My wife is currently on AT&T with a Blackberry and an Individual plan. I am with Verizon, but on July 11, I am switching to AT&T for the iPhone. I want to join onto her plan and convert it from an individual plan to a Family plan.

For those of you who know more about this kind of thing than I do, will this allow me to still get the subsidized iPhone? Will they be able to easily do this at the point of sale (i.e. my local Apple Store), or will I need to contact AT&T directly?

Yeah you should be able to get it at a subsidized cost. If you did exactly that with another phone, they still give you the discounted price. And now that the iPhone is subsidized by AT&T, it should be available. The only thing is you have to add the $30/month data plan, not sure how those work for Family Plans.

[jasonact]

Thanks for the replies. Now an additional question: Does my wife need to be present when I purchase the iPhone? It's her account in her name, and I doubt they will simply say, "Okay. We believe you." Will they add me to her account without adding another line before July 11. She'll be at work, but I plan on getting the phone ASAP, probably 8AM July 11.

[Bad Ash]

Originally Posted by jasonact

Thanks for the replies. Now an additional question: Does my wife need to be present when I purchase the iPhone? It's her account in her name, and I doubt they will simply say, "Okay. We believe you." Will they add me to her account without adding another line before July 11. She'll be at work, but I plan on getting the phone ASAP, probably 8AM July 11.

I'm assuming as long as you have all her information you should be ok. Or even give At&t a call and see if she can add your name on the account so you can make changes as well.

[jasonact]

Originally Posted by Bad Ash

I'm assuming as long as you have all her information you should be ok. Or even give At&t a call and see if she can add your name on the account so you can make changes as well.

Okay. I know I'm sounding overly worried (hopefully for nothing), but I have been added to my wife's account, and I've confirmed that all is good, except for one detail:

I stopped by the Apple Store today where I plan to buy the iPhone. One guy there said that they would not be able to add a line and make it a FamilyTalk plan. He said that could be done, but I would need to go directly to AT&T. He did qualify this by saying that they haven't received all of their iDay training yet, so I'm hopeful he's wrong. Does anyone know if I'll be able to add a line to an existing AT&T account at the Apple Store on Friday?

Thanks. Less than 36 hours to go! (CDT)

[Siguy]

I have a similar question, but, well, sort of reversed.

My contract's up and I'd like to buy an iPhone this week, but my wife's verizon account isn't up for a few months. What I want to know is if I can buy the phone on the regular plan this week and then when my wife buys one in three months convert to the family talk plan? I wouldn't mind if it extended the contract or anything like that, I just wouldn't want to somehow have to pay a cancellation fee or anything like that to switch contracts, or worse, be stuck paying two separate individual contracts.

I'm of course going to an AT&T store and will ask them this very question, but I'm worried whoever's working there will do what they always do and just say "Umm, yeah, sure, that'll work. Now give me two hundred dollars."

Anyone have any experience with this? I know you can convert to family talk without extending your contract or paying a fee with a regular phone, but the iPhone family talk plans seem particularly weird.