Can your merge a new contract to an existing family plan?

[feroscious]

I've been looking at the Samsung Impression and Let's Talk is offering it for free.
That is, it's free if I get a new service plan.
I was wondering if once I get the phone, can I call AT&T and ask them to merge it to my family plan?
I don't really care about keeping my number if that matters.

[Jay2TheRescue]

I'd be very careful of Let's Talk. What will likely happen is that Let's Talk will charge you an ETF if you eliminate the contract they wrote. Let's Talk also is infamous for putting rebates on your phones that cant' be submitted until you've had the line active for 6 months. If you merge it into another plan then you probably won't qualify for the rebates anymore. I wouldn't recommend it.

Just go to your local independent AT&T dealer - usually they can get you a better deal than the corporate stores, you're supporting local business, and they usually don't attach all the strings to their deals like Let's Talk does.

-Jay

[feroscious]

Alright, thanks! I though there might have been a catch.
I'll check out the local dealer tomorrow.

[jamesinclair]

I have the same question and it wasnt answered here.

We currently have two lines in a family plan. Both lines (the entire family plan) is currently on a month-to-month basis, as the contract has ended.

A 3rd person would like to enter the plan. However, she wants a Samsung phone. It is available online at amazon.com for FREE. The AT&T online store has it for $199.

Can I create a new account to get the new phone with 2 year contract, and then merge it with our family plan?

Also, will this affect the upgrade option of the two existing lines?

[efparri]

If that third person gets an individual voice plan for at least $39.99, changing to a $9.99 secondary line on someone else's account would surely be a violation of the Amazon terms. The chargeback by Amazon could be as high as $250.00. That is more than the price difference. Many of the AT&T online prices give you a debit card as a mail in rebate. That could be worth up to $100.00 in value.

Usually Amazon and others will only let you get a single line as an individual line. You would have the same problem as the other person. They also will only sell FamilyTalk plans in pairs of lines. So you would be stuck with two additonal lines and the possibility of $500.00 in chargebacks.

[elmo01]

Originally Posted by jamesinclair

I have the same question and it wasnt answered here.

We currently have two lines in a family plan. Both lines (the entire family plan) is currently on a month-to-month basis, as the contract has ended.

A 3rd person would like to enter the plan. However, she wants a Samsung phone. It is available online at amazon.com for FREE. The AT&T online store has it for $199.

Can I create a new account to get the new phone with 2 year contract, and then merge it with our family plan?

Also, will this affect the upgrade option of the two existing lines?

contracts are based on the upgrade or activation date... normally the upgrade cycle is 18 months when you upgrade/activate ... does nothing to the others in the group... ergo if you have a 3 line family plan you can have 3 diferent contract dates...in your scenario the only concern I would have is your rollover balance ... if you have a big rollover balance now...burn some off before changing plan to acomodate the new one... a rate plan change will not extend your contract