If you’re seeking to purchase a brand new telephone at Verizon, you now solely have two choices: purchase the machine outright, or pay month-to-month installments for 3 years. As reported by Droid Life (through Android Police), Verizon seems to have gotten rid of its 24- and 30-month contracts for all gadgets — together with telephones, sizzling spots, and smartwatches — and has as a substitute prolonged it to 36 months.

Verizon’s payment program FAQ page explains that there isn’t any curiosity connected to the 36-month plan, and you’ll select to repay the telephone in full everytime you need. What you’ll be able to’t do, nonetheless, is pay greater than your set month-to-month installment — so except you’ll be able to repay the complete machine, you’re locked into the three-year plan. If you’ve agreed to a 24- or 30-month plan earlier than February third, 2022, Verizon says you received’t be affected by this variation.

As telephones get dearer, with quite a lot of crossing into $1,000 territory, it’s now not unusual for us to wish to maintain onto our smartphones for a number of years. Plus, quite a few telephone producers nonetheless roll out updates a number of years after a telephone’s launch, killing the urge to improve our gadgets (a minimum of for a few of us). As a little bit of a recap, Samsung telephones get safety updates for 4 further years, Apple offers updates on gadgets for 5 to seven years, and Google affords updates on the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro for five years. But not all telephone corporations are so beneficiant (looking at you, Motorola), so that you may wish to look into your telephone’s software program replace coverage earlier than you’re locked right into a three-year contract.

That mentioned, it’s unclear when precisely Verizon shifted in direction of longer contracts, but it surely looks like it’s a bit of late to the sport. AT&T has already gotten on board with the thought, as the corporate began offering just three-year contracts final 12 months. And whereas T-Mobile began experimenting with the thought of 36-month plans in 2018, it has since gone again to providing solely 24- or 30-month plans.