Do you know how to save $260 on your next cell phone?

One of my goals with Noobie is consumer awareness with technology products. In other words, I try to help people avoid getting ripped off when they go to the store or go online to purchase a technology product. Unfortunately, some stores make my job harder than others.

Here's a perfect example. A good friend of mine, Doug Karr, who runs The Marketing Technology Blog, sent me this pricing information from Verizon Wireless. Doug is in the market to upgrade his cell phone and has his eye on the new LG Voyager which, as an upgrade will cost him $409.99 (see below).

That's a lot of money to shell out for a new cell phone.

But with a little discovery, Doug found out that if he added a new line to his current Family Share package, the price of that same LG Voyager phone, presumably for the new family member, is only $149.99 (see below). That's a difference of $260.00!

The ironic part to this whole situation is that there really doesn't even need to be a new family member. Doug could just add the phone and line to his family share package and keep his current and new phone to himself. Better yet, if Doug were to take both phones to any local Verizon Wireless store, they would take care of switching phone numbers on the phones for free meaning Doug could have his current phone number switched to the new phone without paying a dime.

To be fair, I should mention that a new line on a Verizon Family Share package usually costs a minimum of $10/month extra. But presumably since Doug is looking for a new phone, his current 2 year contract on that phone is up for renewal so he could still just add the new line and a few days later drop his existing line after switching the phone numbers.

How many noobies do you think would have found this $260.00 savings on their own?