Could Santa pass the credit check?: The gift of wireless not always easy buy

Making wireless phone sales simple during the holiday season may seem like a no-brainer. But for customers, getting a wireless phone to tuck into someone else’s stocking or under the Christmas tree may mean jumping through some hoops-or side-stepping postpaid service and its contractual strings.
Prepaid is the simplest way to go: phone in a box, a few top-up cards, and the giftee is set for however long it takes them to talk down their minutes.
“The hardest thing about that is actually wrapping the thing,” joked Ian Gillott, president of iGR Inc. “Especially if you’re a man.”
If the recipient wants to continue the service, it’s as simple as buying new cards-but if they don’t like it or want something else, there are no contract strings (or credit check) attached.
Prepaid phones are also more likely to be picked up as an impulse buy at retail locations where customers may be shopping for other items, according to Allan Keiter, president of MyRatePlan.com. Cingular Wireless L.L.C. is promoting its GoPhone prepaid service with ads mimicking the holiday classic “A Christmas Story”, and Cingular spokeswoman Kelleigh Scott noted that the product is “designed for people to just literally grab and go. It comes pre-boxed with the phone and a prepaid card, so that’s a great option.”
However, Keiter says that wireless in general “is just not an easy thing to give,” because of the requirements of contracts for postpaid service.
“If you were trying to give them a phone as part of a contract, you can’t really sign them up in the person’s name, you have to sign it up in your name. The wireless carrier isn’t going to run [the credit check] on the person you’re giving the phone to,” Keiter said. And, he added, the end result of attempting to give a postpaid gift is “you’re stuck with a $50 bill [each month[ for two years. Merry Christmas! So it’s problematic that way.”
Unless, Gillott noted, the gift-giver is particularly generous and offers to foot the bill for the next two years.
But there are alternatives. If a customer knows which carrier the recipient has service with, it’s relatively easy to purchase a new phone (without a plan) from the carriers or via the Internet-although the operators aren’t going to grant the usual cushy device discount that comes with a two-year contract. And that can get expensive, fast. Unlocked devices also are available via the Internet or from sleek handset-and-accessory vending machines such as Motorola Inc.’s InstantMoto machines.
Season to share
Other than prepaid, the easiest option is adding another line of service to a family plan. With the industry standard charge for an extra line steady at $10 per month, it’s not terribly expensive. In the case of parents adding their children to their wireless plans, the child does not have to sign a contract-so the gift can be a Santa-worthy secret and still be postpaid. And that sort of add-a-line buying is what most companies say they’re seeing.
Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Brenda Raney said that if parents have not added their children to their wireless bills yet, they often feel like the holidays are the time to do it.
“A lot of people come in and add people to their Family Share plans,” she said.
InPhonic Inc., which operates online wireless retailer Wirefly.com, is “seeing a lot of family plans” being sold this quarter, according to Chairman and CEO David Steinberg. He said the company experienced a 60-percent year-over-year increase in sales on “Cyber Monday,” the Monday after Thanksgiving and an increasingly key indicator of how online shopping will fare during the holidays.
Additionally, Steinberg said, “You’re starting to see more people buying and giving accessories as gifts.”
Bling, skins, crystal
Those accessories range from the slick to the blingy to the fuzzy. From jewel kits that provide tiny colored crystals to stick onto handsets, to stick-on “skins” that can be printed with family photos or holiday designs, and of course the nearly ubiquitous Bluetooth headsets that provide what Verizon Wireless’ Raney called “wireless wireless.”
“What’s popular is personalization,” Raney added.
And if all else fails, there’s always the gift card route. Verizon Wireless has gift cards available, in stores or online in increments up to $250, which can be used as an indirect way to give the gift of a phone or help with a monthly bill. Cingular recently introduced gift cards that allow prepaid or postpaid customers to buy content including ringtones and graphics.