Verizon's Edge program changes make you wait longer to upgrade
Eyeing an upgrade to the Droid Turbo? An iPhone 6? Maybe the One M8 for Windows? If you're on Verizon's Edge payment program, you're going to have to be more patient than usual -- or at least, open your wallet a little wider. The carrier has confirmed a Droid-Life leak revealing that Big Red is modifying Edge in a way that makes it harder to upgrade quickly. As of October 16th, payments for new devices will normally be distributed over two years, rather than 20 months; if you can't wait that long to get new gear, you'll have to pay off 75 percent of the hardware price rather than 60 percent. In practice, that means that you'll either be waiting at least 18 months to trade up (instead of 12) or else paying more to accelerate the upgrade process.
It's not strictly a doom-and-gloom scenario, thankfully. More payments should mean lower monthly rates, and Verizon is increasing the per-line discount for lower-cost plans (those with 8GB of data or less) from $10 to $15. You'll have to wait longer if you dutifully obey the payment schedule, then, but you aren't necessarily paying more in the long run. The big problem is simply that this now sounds more like a conventional contract rather than the fast track you were probably expecting -- it's just that the math has changed.
