Virgin Mobile Gets iPhone 5 and Entices You With $100 to Switch

One of the big knocks on Virgin Mobile has been their lack of decent phones, but that changes today in a big way. As of June 28th, the iPhone 5 is available on the Virgin Mobile network, and you’re able to snag their dirt cheap no contract plans of $30-$55 a month. On top of that, if you switch to Virgin Mobile online between June 28th-July 7th, you’ll get a $100 bonus sent to your new account.

That’s right – Virgin’s throwing you a Benny for the switch – a pretty solid incentive during this Virgin Mobile deal. The only catch seems to be the greater upfront cost of the iPhone 5 vs. other networks with subsidized phones.

Here are a few pluses and minuses to switching from Verizon with the iPhone 5.

You’re paying $350 more for the iPhone 5 upfront at Virgin Mobile, but if you sucked up that cost and added up the numbers… a $50 unlimited plan at Virgin Mobile would only take 7 months to break even vs. Verizon’s cheapest $100 a month plan (and $199.99 iPhone 5). That’s 17 months short of the 2 year contract you get locked into at Verizon. If you kept Virgin Mobile for the whole period of that 2 year Verizon contract, you’d save $850. That doesn’t even include the $100 bonus you get sent to your account as a switch incentive.

Unless you live in states where Sprint has no coverage (Wyoming, Montana, the Dakotas…), there really are some huge savings to be had. If the math works out right for you, it’s probably worth the switch.