Loyal customer very frustrated with Verizon and Verizon wireless

Question

Moved to Off Topic board

Answer 1

Early Edge works by having you turn in the phone on the line that is early edge upgraded.  You then start paying for the full cost of that phone over 24 months, sooner once you get to 75% paid off on that phone, where you can trade it in and start again on another phone, but you will have lost the money already paid up to 75%.  When you trade in the phone for Early Edge and then trade in the new phone for edging up, the phones must be in perfect working order with no damage of any kind.
The money "saved" comes from being on Edge where, if the phone is on a plan with 6GB or more data, you save $25 per month on each Edge phone, $15 if on a plan with less than 6GB.  However, you turn around and put that $25 back onto the phone payment each month, so you DO save $25/$15 but you basically break about even on a 6GB and greater plan after the phone cost.
BUT, in the end, if you get a better, more reliable signal from ATT, and you have an awful signal with VZW, you might consider a switch, but you'd have a large sum of ETFs at this point to cancel all 5 lines.  There are also special stipulations as to who and when one can Edge up or start Early Edge, such as 6 months straight on-time payments.
Verizon Edge FAQs | Verizon Wireless
Early Edge is basically just starting the Edge plan early, so the above page should answer a lot of the questions regarding eligibility. Be warned however, that there are a lot of people with issues who decided to take advantage of this program, namely the trade-in process of sending old phones back and then finding charges on their bill for phones that were "not" received at the warehouse.
It is my opinion that you should not go this route, because if you have less than stellar service now, you are setting yourself up for possible frustration and another 2 years of disappointment.