Verizon recently made it even harder for people to unlock their postpaid phones. The carrier imposed a 35-day waiting period for unlocking devices if payments are made via the Verizon app or authorized retailers. Thankfully, it sounds like this won’t be a permanent restriction.
Verizon told Android Authority that it plans to provide immediate device unlocking for all payment methods “really soon”:
As you mentioned, we’ve already rolled out immediate unlocking for customers who pay at our corporate stores or use automated payment methods, since those systems can validate transactions in real-time. For other channels such as our app or authorized retailers, the 35-day window is strictly focused on fraud prevention, ensuring payments are fully cleared. That said, we recognize this is a pain point for our customers and our goal is to provide an immediate device unlock for all payment methods really soon. Our teams are diligently working to bridge that gap and we’ll update the website/policy when this is possible – happy to also reach out and let you know first.
The carrier currently allows immediate device unlocking for people paying via “secure” payment types at Verizon stores. It defines “secure” payment types as cash, contactless payments, or credit card with EMV chips. So our fingers are crossed that the carrier supports immediate unlocking for all payment methods sooner rather than later.
Verizon’s device unlocking policy page was only updated around February 11, but the webpage notes that this went into effect on January 27. This discrepancy raised concerns that Verizon was retroactively applying this restriction to people who bought devices before the updated terms were made public. However, the carrier asserted that this wasn’t the case.
“Regarding the website update timing, the new device unlocking policy went into effect on January 27th. Customers purchasing or upgrading from that date were (and are being) presented with the full terms of the new policy at their point of sale. We’ll make sure all our public-facing info is also clear and consistent across channels,” the carrier explained to us.
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