Are you tired of constant price increases on everything from cellular carriers to streaming services and apps? Verizon now offers an industry-leading 3-year price lock on select mobile and home internet plans, and the benefits sound amazing. But is it too good to be true?

On April 3rd, Verizon revealed a surprising new price-lock guarantee on two of its most popular plans, and everything sounds great, with free phone upgrades and satellite texting. If you don’t want to constantly battle your mobile carrier, switch to MVNOs, or seek out discounts, this could be a great way to ensure your price stays the same for the next 36 months.

As we all know, a lot can change in three years. Almost every streaming service on the planet is far more expensive today than in 2022. So, we’re excited about Verizon’s offer. Here’s what you need to know.

What You Get With Verizon’s 3-Year Price Lock

According to Verizon, any new or existing customers who subscribe to a myPlan or myHome Verizon plan are eligible and will automatically receive the three-year price lock. No price hikes! To make things more enticing, Verizon is offering free smartphones (with a qualifying trade-in) to anyone making the switch, and the plans even include its new satellite texting for free.

Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg said, “By giving unprecedented value and predictability across both mobile and home, we are establishing the new industry standard for a long-term customer relationship, supporting our path to improved retention, sustainable revenue growth, and long-term shareholder value.”

As long as you’re subscribed to one of its new myPlan or myHome plans for phones or internet, you’re all set. There’s no sign-up process, you don’t have to opt in, and you’ll automatically get a 3-year price lock. So, if your mobile plan is $64.99, it should stay that way for the next three years. Then, in the future, if you ever change your myPlan tier or its options, the price lock counter will apparently reset, giving you another 36 months.

It’s an interesting move from Verizon, which constantly tries to one-up T-Mobile and steal back customers. Additionally, this is likely an attempt to get customers grandfathered into old legacy plans into a new plan and a new phone. Either way, this deal sounds pretty great, but like everything these days, I have my doubts. Hopefully, Verizon will prove me wrong.

What About the Fine Print?

Naturally, I first looked at the fine print to try and see where Verizon could make up some of those losses over the next three years. So, is the Verizon 3-year price lock too good to be true?

Well, yes and no. Everything sounds pretty great, and it is, but the company does have a little wiggle room. The three-year guarantee only covers the base charge for your plan, but none of the fees and taxes. It also doesn’t cover any discounts or bundles currently being offered by Verizon. As we all know, fees and taxes are always confusing, different, and changing at random. Last December, Verizon randomly increased fees, so it wouldn’t shock anyone if that happened again soon.

For example, last week AT&T found a sneaky way to increase your monthly bill by removing or slashing the auto-pay discount. Even if your Verizon base plan doesn’t change for 36 months, who knows if taxes, fees, or certain discounts will stay. A big part of T-Mobile’s strategy is eliminating hidden fees and random charges, and customers love that approach. I’m not saying Verizon will do anything like that, but you never know.

Finally, I wanted to touch on the free phone offer quickly. Any myPlan customer who trades in an old Samsung, Apple, or Google phone can get a free smartphone from Verizon Wireless. This is a fairly common approach, and it’s a solid deal. Just remember that when you get that new Galaxy S25 or iPhone 16 for free, it’s not 100% free. Instead, Verizon will remove the monthly payment for that device from your plan each month for the next 24–36 months. You’ll still owe on the phone if you switch away or cancel too early. It’s like a 2-year contract, without being a typical carrier contract from the good old days.

Either way, the all-new Verizon price lock plans look pretty solid, at least from the outside. Switch your plan today to lock things in, maybe take them up on the free phone trade-in deal, and use its new satellite texting feature. We’ll just have to keep an eye out and see if anything changes in the next year or two.

Source: Verizon