well, they say you must switch to one of those plans, but that's not always the case. When i bought my renegade sprint/nextel with navigation. they told me i needed to switch to a new unlimited plan. I convinced them to let me keep my existing family plan, in exchange i can't get the push to talk feature. I do have a unlimited dataplan for $20 a mo, without unlimited navigation. I can choose to purchase navigation for $10 a month unlimited or $2.99 for 3days.

It's my understanding the reason they want you to switch is because of the navigation, because of the data pack and if you have a nextel hybrid, you'll be missing out on the push to talk.

bottom line, they've made exceptions for me so they can make make exceptions for you.

The instincts are systematically enforced to have 1 of 5 price plans. One of the family data share plans or one of the simply everything plans. I had customers call in wanting to use their old plans i.e. free and clear plan, but only to tell them that they are required to change their plan ( which they should have been told before the purchase). That was a big complaint when the instinct first came out and created problems for customer service reps (csr) that had no idea until after the fact. So unless you have a family data share plan or one of the simply everything plans, you will have to change your plan for your instinct to work in the system.
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former sprint csr

Originally Posted by amberthecolor

It depends on how you get the phone. If you buy an Instinct at retail value (at least $300) you can do what you like with it. However, if you buy it with a contract and get it at a discounted price you MUST use one of the Simply Everything plans that includes texting and data.

I was able to use my shared minutes family plan so when I added my sons phone It actually only increased my bill by $9. Its not any different really because it works just like the simply everything you just dont get unlimited day time. But the catch is, its hard to use your daytime minutes with unlimited . I think my son and I only use 40 a month on an average because everything else is unlimited.

It depends on how you get the phone. If you buy an Instinct at retail value (at least $300) you can do what you like with it. However, if you buy it with a contract and get it at a discounted price you MUST use one of the Simply Everything plans that includes texting and data.

When my son got his Instinct, we had to get a new plan for the phone...
Now our bill is $30 cheaper than the last two years.

First question:
can the instinct be used just as a phone w/ texting and no data? or does it need a specific plan?

Second question:
is there a restriction on phones because of an out dated plan?

-thanks