Verizon iPhone prep: Save your old voicemail, it's not coming with you

Thinking of picking up a new iPhone 4 for your Verizon account in the coming weeks? Macworld's review is already up, as are Engadget's, Techcrunch's and Wired's (spoiler: it's an iPhone 4!). But if you want to save any of those all-important legacy voicemails during the setup process, be sure to read this tip over at Verizon called Getting Ready for iPhone 4 - Saving Your Existing Voice Mail.

Depending on whether or not your old phone supports Verizon's Visual Voice Mail service, there are two sets of directions to make sure you don't lose any of your messages when setting up your new voice mailbox. It's important to note that once your new iPhone 4 is activated, you will no longer have access to your existing voice mailbox, so it's vital that you follow the instructions provided if you want to keep any messages.

For those with savvy devices, you can add the US$2.99 Visual Voice Mail service pack, which lets you download voicemails to your computer. If you have a phone that doesn't work with Visual Voice Mail, Verizon suggests contacting a third-party service provider to offload the voicemails ... at which point you might consider whether you really want to hold onto them. You can always play them back into your computer microphone for recording if you absolutely need them.

Earlier today, Megan Lavey filled us in on the availability of Verizon's Transfer app for migrating your contacts to VZW iPhones. This free app will make sure your contact list doesn't get lost when setting up your new device.

The Verizon iPhone 4 is available to qualified customers for pre-order as of February 3. I already heard from my brother that he's going to get up early to get his order in. How many of you will be doing the same?