All major cell phone carriers will now allow customers to network unlock their devices, provided those customers meet certain conditions. So if you’re a Verizon customer with a Verizon-bought device, you may be wondering what you need to do to take your tech to a competing carrier.

Fortunately, and surprisingly, Verizon has the most relaxed unlocking policy of the big four carriers, because the company doesn’t actually lock the majority of its smartphones.

Unlocking checklist

All Verizon 4G LTE devices are network unlocked straight out of the box.  So if you want to cancel your Verizon service and head somewhere else, you’ll only need to meet the following requirements:

• If your phone was purchased on a two-year contract, you must have fulfilled the terms of your service plan – all 24 months of payments must be made, and you’ll need an account in good standing.
• If your phone has been financed via Verizon Edge, or a two-year device payment plan, you must have paid off the device completely and again, have an account with no overdue bills.
• The device itself must not be reported as lost or stolen, and can’t be associated with fraudulent activity.

Exceptions and Prepaid

The only postpaid exception is Verizon’s non-iPhone Global Ready 3G Phones, but the good news is that the carrier is happy to provide an unlock code for these devices: try 000000 or 123456 to use these phones on a different carrier.

As for prepaid, Verizon’s Prepaid Phone-in-the-Box devices are locked to the carrier for the first 12 months after activation (the exception is for customers who are deployed military personnel).  After this, you can use the same simple codes provided for Global Ready devices – either ‘000000’ or ‘123456’ – and attempt to unlock your phone yourself, or call Verizon to request assistance.

Before you Unlock

As Verizon is a CDMA carrier, it operates on a different technology than AT&T and T-Mobile. However, you should still be able to use your unlocked Verizon 4G LTE device on AT&T or T-Mobile plans, as most handsets will be compatible with both carriers’ LTE bands. This isn’t guaranteed, however, so you’ll need to check with your intended new carrier.

Although Sprint is also a CDMA network, you won’t be able to take your phone to a Sprint plan – the carrier (mostly) operates on different bands of spectrum to Verizon, and currently won’t activate any non-Sprint device on its network.

If you’re happy with Verizon’s network but don’t like the carrier’s prices, you can always take your phone to one of Verizon’s MVNOs.

Boss Cellular (CDMA) is a great option!