Verizon reengineers prepaid
Verizon last week announced a new discount program for its prepaid service. The carrier offers three layers of prepaid data buckets to choose from; a 5GB bucket priced at $40/month, a 15GB bucket priced at $50/month, and an unlimited plan priced at $65/month. The new program, which fosters loyalty, offers a $5/month discount once a user remains on one of these plans for over three months, and a $10/month discount once the service is active for over 9 months. The bucket plans include mobile hotspot (usage deducted from the monthly allowance), while unlimited plan users can add it to their plan for $5/month (for 10GB/month high-speed usage).
The NPD Take:
- Verizon has long been near the bottom when it comes to prepaid. The carrier has the smallest prepaid user base among the top three nationwide carriers and has been losing subscribers for the past 10 quarters. The new plans might help stop the bleeding or help keep the postpaid sub who might jump ship due to the economic downturn (by switching them to prepaid service), but it will be difficult to attract new customers as rivals offer more aggressive deals (i.e. T-Mobile Prepaid’s 5GB @ $25/month plan, which also offers loyalty bonus of annual 500MB data upgrade).
If I had a (Verizon) dollar for every
Verizon joined the likes of T-Mobile and Apple to offer its customers a new credit card program that will allow them to accumulate “Verizon Dollars”, which can be used towards paying bills or purchasing Verizon merchandise (new phones, accessories and etc.). Users of the Verizon credit card will earn Verizon Dollars for 1% to 4% of their actual spending on the card (4% on groceries and gas, 3% on dining/take-out, 2% on Verizon purchases and 1% on any online shopping). Notably, the new Verizon card is the only credit card that is eligible for the carrier’s Auto Pay discounts (of up to $10/mo per line on select plans).
The NPD Take:
- Verizon joins the likes of T-Mobile and Apple to lure customers with financial instruments with the hope of building loyalty. T-Mobile last year launched a new program called the T-Mobile Money, which is essentially a bank savings account that yields high interests. Apple, on the other hand, launched its own credit card program with an effort to draw users into its stores rather than them going to carrier outlets.