* Activating the Fi S24 phone
When you get the phone:
1. The SIM is already installed in the phone, although the phone box is sealed.
2. Turn on the phone, connect it to WiFi and log into the same Google account that was used to purchase the phone.
3. Download and install the Fi app from Google Play Store.
4. Leave WiFi ON. Run the Fi app. It will insist that you turn Data ON. Go ahead and turn Data ON. It might use a few MB of Data before switching to WiFi. If FI charges you for that Data at all, it will be 1-3 cents added to the 2nd bill.
5. Go through the activation process with the app which will transfer your Fi service from yourl old phone to the S24.
6. Your S24 phone should be activated on Fi then. Make some test calls/texts to make sure that the phone is working on Fi.
* Tracking Your Promo Discount
Log into your Fi account on the web site. There's a countdown in your Billing-->Fi Savings-->In Progress that shows how many more days your Fi service has to remain active. About 24 hrs after you activated the Fi SIM, the In Progress Tracker should show a checklist with entries like: Bought a phone, Got a discount, Activated the SIM, Stay xxx more days on Fi. Make sure the "Activate the SIM" entry is checkmarked and it shows 120 days to go. Then for a few days after that, keep checking the In Progress to make sure the countdown is decreasing each day. The countdown is updated at the same time each day (around the time of day that you activated the Fi SIM).
* How to Verify that your S24 promo was Earned
There's a countdown in your Billing-->Fi Savings-->In Progress that shows how many more days your Fi service has to remain active. The countdown will never say zero day. On the 120th day, it will stay at "1 more day". On the morning of the 121st day, the countdown should say "Stayed (past tense) active on Fi for 120 days in a row". Then later in the day, the In Progress column disappears, and the promo discount gets moved to the Earned column. At that time or later, it's safe to Cancel or Pause your Fi service.
You can use this Date Calculator: https://www.timeanddate
Enter your activation date as the Start Date, select Add 121 days and it'll show the date when it's safe to cancel/pause your Fi service.
* How to Cancel your Fi service
In your Fi account, click on Account-->Your Plan, scroll down until you see "Leave Google Fi". Click on that and follow the on-screen instructions. You'll have the options to Let Go your Fi phone number, or Transfer To Another Provider. (There used to be an option to port it back to Google Voice, but I think it's no longer available). If you choose to let go your Fi number, your Fi service will be cancelled IMMEDIATELY. If you choose to port out, your Fi service will remain active until your Fi number has been ported out to another provider.
* How to Pause your Fi service
In your Fi account, click on Account-->Your Plan, scroll down until you see "Pause Service". Click on that and follow the on-screen instructions. Your Fi service will be paused and Automatically Resumed after 90 days, unless you cancel it before 90 days are up. Once it's Resumed, you can leave it Active, or Cancel it, or Pause again (I don't know how many times you can Pause). If you have a lot of remaining referral Fi credit (which is not refundable), you can choose Pause instead of Cancel to wait and see if there will be new Fi promotions in the future to use up your Fi credit.
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Steps I took as a former Fi subscriber to get this deal: https://slickdeals.net/forums/showpost.php?p=
Strong recommendation: For people who activate service on a BYOD device to become an existing customer, wait a minimum of 24 hours (recommended 48 hours) before purchasing the S24. Those who activate and purchase the same day usually have major issues. The countdown timer will not be triggered and you will have no choice but to forfeit the discount or return the phone. You can try to contact support and ask to escalate to a specialist which may or may not have success and will likely eat up your return window.
For those that purchased same day, it seems that given early data points including mine that
Fi has manually approved the promo after escalating. Unknown if this will consistently be successful by others in future, though.
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Thought it's a 24 Month Bill credit?
"Get reimbursed over 24 months
Receive $27.09 off each bill for 24 months
The credit is tied to the person who activated the device"
Sorry for the ignorance but I'm new to Google Fi deals!
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Samsung trade-in would make sense only if the trade-in of the immediate previous generation devices was close to an even trade in.
Doesn't make sense at all to give Samsung a $700 trade-in device PLUS pay another $700 in addition.
2. is there any value to keeping the Google Fi as a backup sim if visible service is poor in a given area etc ?
You can keep the Fi pSIM in place and install Visible eSIM, then use the SIM Manager function in Settings to designate the eSIM as the primary and the pSIM as secondary.
Swappa selling fee is 3% plus the 3.5% PayPal fee.
- The phone will be listed for $515 ($500 + 3% buyer's fee).
- Buyer pays $515 + $51.50 sales tax = $566.50.
- After the sales, Swappa sends your payment by Paypal. You'll receive $500 - $15 seller fee - Paypal 3.x% on $566.50 (that's a crock of crap, why do I have to pay for Paypal fee on Swappa's commission and sales tax?). You'll also have pay for Shipping + required shipping insurance.
The screenshot below shows the Swappa calculation for the S23 256GB that I sold last month for $529. The buyer paid a total of $577 with sales tax. I received $492 from Paypal, and also had to pay $22 for shipping + shipping insurance. Netted $470.
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Exception: if you activate during the last 3 calendar days of each month, billing will start about 3-5 days later.
Galaxy S24 Ultra 1TB (Unlocked)
SM-S928UZONXAA
QTY: 1
Expected Delivery: Mar. 08
PRICE: $696.62 $1659.99
View User Manual/Software
Earn 697 points
Instant Trade-in Discount:
Samsung - Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
PRICE: - $600.00
S24 Ultra - 512GB = $650 plus tax - $100 (private sell Pixel 6 128GB) = $550
S24 Regular - 256GB = $350 plus tax - $260 (private sell S22 128GB) = $90
Love this deal!
I'd like to use my visible plus esim account for data, voice and text. Maybe I should just sock drawer the Google Fi psim like I did for the s23 ultra deal last year.
is there any value to keeping the Google Fi as a backup sim if visible service is poor in a given area etc ?
Chances are a bad actor will not show up there.
Never meet at your home/job/car drive-up/street, or other unsafe locations.
Swappa and eBay are risky too, and their fee is 12% plus the shipping fees.
Yep. Police station has safe trading zone but I still feel unsafe doing it in a parking lot
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WTF needs 1TB on a phone? 512gb is plenty (unless it was the old Gear VR compatible phones and you were storing lots of VR porn but those had microsd slots anyhow, not that I know first hand) I priced out comparing apples to apples for Plus and not having to give up my phone that I can easily sell for a few hundred and got a significantly cheaper price on Fi. Of course there is the cost of the 120 days service but I have usleess credits for most of that .
Oh , and you can easily net $400 for a Note 20 Ultra in fair condition on Swappa so your price is $600 + $400 = $1000
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