Verizon Wireless yet again makes it more expensive to upgrade early

When Verizon Wireless unveiled its "Verizon Edge" early-upgrade plan in July 2013, the company allowed customers to switch to a new smartphone once they paid 50 off percent of the cost of their original device. But the amount that Verizon Edge customers had to pay to be eligible for an early upgrade kept creeping up, to 60 percent in June 2014 and then 75 percent in October 2014. Now, it's come to the logical conclusion: you can only upgrade to a new device once you've paid off the entire cost of the existing one. Instead of providing a hardware subsidy and requiring an up-front device payment, Verizon Edge splits the cost of the device into 24 monthly installments, except when customers pay it off early in order to upgrade. Customers on standard contracts pay $40-per-month line charges for each phone (in addition to data charges), while Verizon Edge customers pay $15 per line.