It might be good if Verizon had an "early upgrade" program where customers could pay more to upgrade early.  For instance, say you hate your phone and want to upgrade to a new phone that cost $650 at full retail with no new contract or $200 by signing a new contract at your normal upgrade time of 20 months or more.  Maybe they could let you upgrade at anytime by paying $650 less $22.50 per month of service completed.  So, for instance, at the end of 12 months you could upgrade to a new phone by signing a new 2 year contract and paying $650 - $270 = $380.  Might need to sweeten the deal a little so it's significantly better than paying EFT plus $200 for new phone.  For instance, they could wave the upgrade fee.