<p>abasket–we got the querty phones in january. The flip phone about two months ago. The phone only says LG on it; I can’t find the model name(probably it’s on the paperwork at home). I’ll try to figure it out and let you know.</p>
<p>To add: just looked on line at the LG store. Mine is an EnV3.</p>
<p>That’s ok Garland (but thanks for the effort!)</p>
<p>I did do an online Verizon search for phones w/Qwerty and then looked for phones that don’t require a dataplan - 2 choices that I see, Cosmos and Intensity. Don’t know if they had Cosmos in the store to see though…</p>
<p>So EnV’s require a data plan now? Wow, I dodged a bullet, must have just gotten in under the wire.</p>
<p>Hold it…when I was looking at phones I was told nothing REQUIRED a data plan…you could just get the phone and use it as a phone without a data plan. Has this changed since March when I was in the ATT store?</p>
<p>Yes, it has changed at Verizon - a good majority of there phones - require a data plan -minimum of $9.99/month. </p>
<p>Yep, the EV3 is one of them that now requires the dataplan.</p>
<p>When this same frustrating thing happened to my family recently, we just trimmed down our minutes to a plan with fewer–thus, the plan was less expensive, so the increased cost with the data plans brought it up to just a little more expensive than it had been when we had lots of minutes.</p>
<p>Do you routinely use all the minutes you have? I know we have 5 people bundled on our Family Plan (the 6th person has their own plan–dad maybe? Don’t remember) so we had practically unlimited minutes and hundreds of them went unused a month. This was because each of our new phones had that thing where you could pick 10 numbers (may have been 10 numbers per plan, not per phone) and always call those numbers for free. Plus, if Verizon works well in your area, then chances are many of your friends have Verizon too and that calling them VZW-VZW is free. </p>
<p>If I were in your shoes, I’d go with the $9.99 upgrade but figure out how to downsize your monthly plan. The cool phones and qwerty keyboard’s worth it!</p>
<p>We have a 700 minute plan- but only use half of that- nice to figure out how we could get smaller.</p>
<p>I can’t talk for abasket but we are on the smallest family plan they have 700 minutes talk and text. Since everyone texts I don’t think we can go to a smaller plan. I wish we could, we’ve only used a little over 200 minutes and our month is almost done. We use our cell phones mostly mobile to mobile.</p>
<p>We use very few of our minutes, too. I think almost everyone we know is on Verizon.</p>
<p>Just renewed our Verizon contract a few months after it expired. H still can upgrade his phone. Son got the Droid X after they did research. I only need a basic phone. It was easier and cheaper after seeing phones in the stores to order online. I have been told many places and different years that LG has the best reception of the Verizon phones available (we have a brick house at the end of a cul de sac with high hills surrounding it, often no reception). We had researched many options, including no contract, ATT and other cell phone companies before deciding to stay with Verizon.</p>
<p>I chose the LG Accolade (also known as the VX5600) over the VX8360 (? exact #) of the ones available for free with the 2 year plan. Did a lot of online research on CNET.com, Best Buy, Verizon and LG after visiting stores. Excellent choice for me. Phone was shipped for free one business day after ordering via signature required FedEx, cost nothing- instant rebate, and was easily set up with the phone number by me (started at home but had to finish away as call got dropped). So much better than the last phone I bought (but wasn’t using since I lost it and had gone to an even older one). I even successfully chatted with my H while at home. The battery life is better on this one although I can’t do movie clips and no removable SIM card like the other model. I did not want a keyboard, or a phone that needed locking to prevent keys from activating in purse or pocket, hence the flip phone. There is so little demand for simple phones now so the choices are limited. I don’t even want to text and have a nice digital camera. This phone comes with a charging cord that has 2 parts- the micro sized USB end fits into the side of the phone and the other end is a regular sized USB connection to the power plug piece- nicer than the older ones. Haven’t figured out if it can be charged using a USB port on a computer yet. Has bluetooth.</p>
<p>Sorry to be so enthusiastic but just got it a couple of days ago and personalized all of the settings. We have a 550 min plan, plus son’s data plan with 3 of us- changed from 700 a while back- check with Verizon. H still can upgrade his- considered a phone only needing a $10 data plan (now retired, no use for data except when traveling and netbook useless while on the road) but figures it is too easy to run out of plan data allotment. Son’s lifestyle fits the smartphone. We can’t get rid of our landline here but know of other empty nesters who have. I had trouble with H’s data plan phone- it was hard to figure out how to make a simple phone call on it, finding the phone button, digits, send, end, etc when trying to use it rarely without having read the manual.</p>
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<p>abasket, it’s really worth the call to customer service to see if you can get one of the phones you want without a data plan. I was also told that the plan was required by a store, and online, but an actual call to ATT got me different results. Also, if you’re texting, don’t you need a text plan anyway?</p>
<p>A text plan is in addition to the data plan. I think Abasket is objecting to the requirement for a data plan…something none of us will need either. Text plan yes…data plan no.</p>
<p>abasket, you might want to send a PM to Dad II 
He was shopping around for a cell phone recently and I don’t believe he was paying for a data plan…he was looking at VERY inexpensive phone plans. Perhaps he can give you a tip.</p>
<p>We have unlimited texting and need to continue that. We have 700 minutes/month and believe it or not, need all those! (H actually is the worst with the minutes! He has several guys he works with that don’t have Verizon, his side of the family who don’t have Verizon etc. - he will NOT cut down on his minutes! And our D has a couple of good friends who don’t have Verizon, plus some school stuff that requires her to make daytime calls etc. - we come close to maxing out our minutes every month! I usually use like 35 minutes a month!)</p>
<p>Def going to have H call and talk to a customer service person on the phone (not at a store). If no luck after that, will probably just get the Intensity and deal.</p>
<p>You have hit a sore spot with me. Our family talks and uses text but has no need or desire for a data plan-in fact, I’ve blocked downloading data. However, when we needed a new phone, Verizon had almost NOTHING with a qwerty keyboard that didn’t require a $10/month data plan. I was so annoyed I wrote the the CEO of Verizon, among others, and refused to order a new phone from them so that our plan can expire–a shame, because I’m otherwise very happy with Verizon. We order phones on ebay–you can buy a used env2 and they’ll let you activate it for free, but when my son bought an env touch on ebay, he STILL had to pay verizon the data plan to activate.</p>
<p>You go Momof3!!! But it sounds like you had no luck excluding the data plan. Total bummer!</p>
<p>Yuck–sounds like we may have to look around when our contracts expire in a year. We have ENV3s with Verizon, before they started requiring a data plan. Definitely don’t need or want to pay for a data plan. Maybe we’ll switch to a pre-paid plan instead and not bother with all of this, tho except for the much higher rate charge than TMobile, we have been happy with Verizon. Oh well, we have another year to figure it all out.</p>
<p>I was told by my ATT customer rep that as long as it isn’t a “smartphone”, you can activate any of those phones with a qwerty keyboard without a data plan. Even though their website says that one is required.</p>
<p>Getting in on these low cost data plans is actually a good idea-- as they will increase in price or have limited data plans in the near future. And… most importantly-- you’ll be able to read and post on CC from your phone! :D</p>
<p>We have an expensive plan-- something like 3000 minutes (with rollover minutes) and unlimited text and data plans for 4 of us on a family plan. At first I thought it was overkill-- but we all use all these services a LOT. Granted I am the only one who is not a techno-dweeb in my family, and the 3 of them love and use all that stuff. Our cellphone bill is pages and pages long, even without itemization of the phonecalls or texts.</p>