Earlier this week we posted an email from a man who said an AT&T salesman tried to charge him an “activation fee” to switch his daughter’s already-active SIM card to a GoPhone. We got a lot of useful (if sometimes contradictory) advice from readers in the comments section, and now an AT&T spokesman has written in with an official statement about it.

Saw your GoPhone post. I work with AT&T Corporate Communications, and wanted to clarify our policy related to this.

There is no activation fee with GoPhone. Customers can buy the GoPhone and activate but they cannot use service until they add airtime to their account. Customers can buy airtime for as little as $15 in over 200K locations. We do offer a promotion where if you buy $25 worth of airtime to start we will give you $10 in bonus airtime.

Customers also have an option if they are looking for a replacement device for postpaid to buy a Nokia 2610 for $39.99 in COR and not sign a contract extension. That program launched in mid-January.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,
Brad

So there you have it: if your existing postpaid phone goes kaput and you don’t want to switch to the GoPhone program, buy the $40 Nokia 2610 from AT&T. Or just buy a cheap unlocked phone elsewhere—our readers left various tips on where to find them.

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“AT&T Says They’ll Charge $25 ‘Activation Fee’ To Move SIM From A Broken Phone To A GoPhone”

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