Verizon's been making some big policy changes lately, and a new leak shows that they're not done just yet. The folks over at Android Central were just handed the shot you see above, showing that Big Red is planning to change its smartphone rebate plans by simply giving them the axe. Smartphones that are priced at $150 or above will no longer have a mail-in rebate, but smartphones cheaper than $150 will still feature $50 rebates. By the sound of things, this means that Verizon will be offering instant rebates on higher-priced smartphones so that the overall price of the phone won't change, but what you'll end up paying less at the register. The change is slated to take effect beginning January 31st.
As I'm sure most of you know, we love the fact that Best Buy doesn't mess with mail-in rebates on its handsets, so I'm glad to see that Verizon is going to be following a similar strategy. Sure, the mail-in rebates always came like they were promised, but who would wants to wait weeks for a debit card to come in the mail when you can just get the same amount taken off at the register? I'm still bummed that Verizon canned its New Every Two and early upgrade policies, but this news is certainly a change for the better.
Via Android Central
