This page covers eight brands

Verizon Value operates all of these under one unlocking policy, so the rules below are identical whichever one you are on. Searching for any single brand tends to turn up vague answers, because the policy is not published per brand.

• Straight Talk
• Total Wireless
• Tracfone
• Net10 Wireless
• SimpleMobile
• SafeLink Wireless
• Walmart Family Mobile
• Clearway

How long you have to wait

Two things decide it: when the phone was activated, and which network it was activated on.

Note the wording the policy uses throughout: paid and active service. Months when the line was suspended or unpaid do not count toward the total, so a phone you have owned for over a year may still not qualify.

Not sure which network your phone was activated on?

This is the awkward part, because Verizon Value brands have used all three major networks and your phone may have been moved between them since. The network shown in your phone's settings tells you where it is now, which is not necessarily where it was activated — and it is the activation network that decides your waiting period.

The activation record is theirs, not yours. The fastest route is to call 1-888-442-5102 and ask when and where the phone was activated. That is the same number that handles the unlock, so you can settle both questions in one call.

What else has to be true

Whichever rule applies, the device also has to clear these:

• The phone must be in working condition and turned on.
• It must not have been reported stolen or lost, and there must be no indicators of fraud.
• It must have been activated with Verizon Value service by purchasing and redeeming an airtime plan on that specific phone.

Notably absent: any requirement that the device be paid off. Eligibility here is about time in paid active service, not device financing — which is unusual, and works in your favour.

Deployed military: no waiting period

Placed high on this page because it is the one case where the waiting periods above do not apply at all. Verizon Value customers in the military who receive relocation orders outside the coverage area can request an unlock even during the lock period. You do not need to wait out the 365 days.

How to request it

Only the pre-January Verizon-network case unlocks by itself. In every other case you have to ask, and a phone waiting on a request you never made looks exactly like a phone that is not eligible yet.

• Online — use the form on Verizon Value's Unlocking Policy page. It takes a phone number or a serial number, and asks you to pick your brand.
• By phone — 1-888-442-5102.

Phones that support it are unlocked remotely. Where that is not possible, Verizon Value supplies an unlock code instead.

Total Wireless will unlock early — for a fee

This appears to be unique in the market. If you have not met the required minimum period of active service, Total Wireless may still unlock the device for a charge of up to $300, scaled by how long the service was active before you asked.

Whether that is worth paying is arithmetic against what the phone is worth and what a different plan would save you. It rarely is at $300. It is here because no other carrier offers the option at any price — everyone else simply makes you wait.

Two related points from Total's own support material: paying full price for the phone does not by itself make it unlockable, and there is no exception for longtime customers. Loyalty does not substitute for the waiting period.

How to tell whether your phone is locked

Worth checking before you request anything — a phone bought secondhand or brought from elsewhere may never have been locked at all.

• iPhone — Settings, then General, then About. Scroll to Carrier Lock. "No SIM restrictions" means unlocked; "SIM locked" means locked.
• Samsung released before September 2025 — Settings, About phone, Software information, then Service provider software version.
• Samsung released after September 2025 — Settings, Connections, More connection settings, then Network lock status.
• Any phone — insert a SIM from another carrier. If it connects, the phone is unlocked. This is the only test that cannot be misread.

What Verizon Value cannot unlock

Any phone not sold under one of its brands. If you brought your own phone to Straight Talk or Total Wireless, Verizon Value cannot unlock it — and it was almost certainly never locked by them in the first place. It may still be locked by whoever originally sold it, and that is who to ask.

Once it is unlocked

An unlocked phone is worth more secondhand and removes the main reason people stay on a plan they have outgrown. Two things before you move: check the handset supports the bands your new carrier uses, and re-pick the plan rather than porting the old one across.

One more thing: Line Lock is not device unlocking

Total Wireless and Straight Talk both offer a feature called Line Lock, and it gets confused with device unlocking constantly. Line Lock prevents your phone number being transferred away without your say-so — it protects the number, not the handset.

You can toggle it yourself in your account or the app, and the change takes about 30 minutes. Turning it off does not unlock your device, and unlocking your device does not affect Line Lock. If you are switching carriers you will probably need to do both.