Verizon offers families up to $2,600 to switch

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In a season of cell phone deals, Verizon has dialed up a bold one of its own.

The industry-leading carrier is offering customers of its rivals as much as $650 per line to switch, advertising that a family of four could receive a $2,600 incentive for making the move. To be eligible, consumers must port their existing line to Verizon, purchase a 4G LTE smartphone from the company, and trade in the existing device from the previous provider. The new customers will then get a prepaid card that can be applied to either the new installment plan or to early termination fees from the previous carrier.

Read more: If Verizon or Sprint crammed fees into your bill, you have until Dec. 31 to act

While it’s not a cash offer, it has hefty financial value: The installment plan card comes loaded with $650 minus the trade-in value of the existing device, whereas the card covering termination costs is $350 minus the same amount. The company stipulates that consumers must keep the new line open for at least six months.

In making its announcement, Verizon specifically courted Sprint and T-Mobile customers, touting its ‘network quality and performance.’ Both of those competitors have also extended special offers to consumers this year.

Read more: Sprint promises 50% off any competitor’s plan

Sprint announced it would provide DIRECTV customers a free year of the satellite subscription for switching to its cell service — AT&T acquired DIRECTV earlier this year — and later promised to halve the rates of its competitors. T-Mobile also launched its own holiday deals, including promises that it would give $200 to ‘long-suffering Sprint customers’ or to AT&T customers toward a new 128 GB iPhone 6s.

Verizon’s latest bid continues the jockeying among carriers.

Read more: Smartphone and cell plan guide for 2015

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