Over the past few months, Verizon has landed in hot water for a number of pricing changes that it enforced, which resulted in higher monthly bills for its phone customers.
As these price hikes rolled out throughout the year, some customers took to social media, threatening to cut ties with the company, and it appears that many kept their promise.
In Verizon’s third-quarter earnings report for 2025, the company reported a loss of 7,000 postpaid phone customers during the quarter, with churn reaching 0.91%.
This loss is a significant concern, since during the same quarter last year, the phone carrier attracted 18,000 new postpaid phone customers.
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Verizon’s top pricing changes for wireless plans in 2025:
- February: Verizon hiked the monthly rates for myPlan and New Verizon Plan accounts by $3 to $5, citing “rising operational costs.”
- March: Verizon increased the monthly price of its Verizon Mobile Protect Multi-Device plan and Verizon Mobile Secure Multi-Device plan by $8.
- August: Verizon’s device activation fee rose from $35 to $40.
- September: Several pricing changes went into effect.
Verizon hiked its tablet plans by $5 to $10, depending on the plan.Verizon’s Administrative and Telco Recovery fee increased by almost 30 cents, while the Verizon Regulatory Charge spiked by 3 cents.
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One announcement that appeared to be the last straw for some customers was when Verizon sent a message in August warning them that their loyalty discounts, which were renewable and typically ranged between $10 and $40, would be discontinued in September.
Outrage over the decision erupted, and a few days after the backlash, Verizon quietly rolled out new loyalty discounts by offering customers via the My Verizon app $20 off per phone line for 12 months.
Now, it appears Verizon is once again doubling down on loyalty discounts, as some customers recently took to social media platform Reddit to flag that they have automatically been granted discounts of up to $20 off per phone line for a year.
“Yesterday they gave me $10 off 4 lines for 12 months. They’re trying hard to stop the churn to ATT and T-Mobile,” wrote one Verizon customer in the comment section of Reddit post that flagged new loyalty discounts.
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“I received $20 off each of my three lines. Seems kind of random to what people are getting,” wrote another customer.
“Same thing happened to me yesterday. Then I generated a pin. Today I got 15% off my other line for a year. Not as good as $20, but still helpful,” wrote a Verizon customer.
The move from Verizon comes after it was expected to launch a new loyalty discount program on Sept. 1, which would be specifically tailored to each customer.
The program reportedly would be based on percentage-based loyalty discounts applied to total bill amounts and determined by the number of lines and plans a customer has on their account.
Verizon has not officially announced or confirmed this change.
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It is no surprise that Verizon is rolling out a new wave of loyalty discounts, as many consumers nationwide are seeking more affordable phone plan options due to the increasing cost of phone services.
How higher phone bills are impacting Americans:
- The average annual cost of an unlimited data plan for American families is $2,928.
- About 42% of Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T customers have seen their phone bills increase in the past year, which is 7% higher than average.
- Also, 58% of Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T customers are considering switching to a different phone carrier as prices go up.
- All three phone carriers risk losing a combined 230 million customers due to high mobile plan pricing.
Source: WhistleOut
“You can build the best 5G network in the world, but if the customer feels prices are going up and it’s a headache, people are going to leave,” said RTMNexus CEO Dominick Miserandino in a statement to TheStreet.
During an earnings call on Oct. 29, Dan Schulman, who became CEO of Verizon on Oct. 6, even admitted that price increases are a major reason customers are rapidly ditching the company.
“For the past few years, our financial growth has relied too heavily on price increases, a strategic approach that relies too much on price without subscriber growth is not a sustainable strategy,” said Schulman.
“Every year, it gets harder to grow as we lap past price increases and experience higher churn. This cannot continue, and there is no question that meaningful change is needed.”
Schulman also said that Verizon’s primary goal going forward will be “to build loyalty and drive significant improvements in retention.”
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“We must make it much easier to do business with us,” said Schulman. “You should expect bold execution powered by sophisticated and smart marketing, actions that strengthen loyalty and the elimination of practices and processes that detract from the customer experience. Raising rates without corresponding value rarely, if ever, delights customers.”
Additionally, he claimed that Verizon will “use AI as a key tool to simplify offers, improve the customer experience and reduce churn through smart, consistent and more personalized marketing and offers.”
In a recent analyst note, Morningstar analyst Michael Hodel wrote that despite Schulman’s efforts to win back customers, Verizon is still expected to lag behind its top rivals.
“Wireless competitive intensity has increased recently, but we expect Verizon and its two primary wireless rivals, T-Mobile and AT&T, to compete rationally in the coming years,” said Hodel. “That said, we expect Verizon to struggle to grow as fast as its rivals, even with new CEO Dan Schulman’s pledge to focus more intently on customer satisfaction than in the past.”
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