Use cell phone as wifi substitute?

[Pghpooh]

HI
Wasn't sure how to phrase the title.......
Being curious I want to get some info before I call VZ to make changes in my service.
I currently have a "dumb" phone that just does texting. My contract has been up for 2 years and never had a need to upgrade.
I want to buy a IPAD Air, or other tablet that will be wifi only. A few months from now I will have the need for the features of a "Smart" phone. I've been looking around and at this point in time the Galaxy 5s will work for me.
Here is where I get confused. I "think" I can use the Galaxy phone as a wifi hot spot. If I can,, the one thing I want to be certain of is if I connect the tablet to the phone I will be using the data allowed for the phone.
Other people told me I need a separate line and other things. Do I need another line when linking the tablet to the phone???
Whatever help and explanations is needed here as I an completely smart phone illiterate!!! LOLOL

 

[nickbits]

With a wifi ipad you connect to the smartphone wifi and it uses your cell data plan. You only have a separate plan for the cellular ipad.

 

[paperwastage]

Most likely Verizon will not allow you to upgrade your existing contract, and push you to a "More" plan. (You could go for the 2GB "Loyalty" Verizon plan for $60 which is NOT a data-bucket plan, or prepaid)

For "More", you pick a data bucket(eg $50 for 2GB), then pay per device you put on this bucket ($40 for smart phones, $10 for tablets)

basically, the $10 tablet fee (+more expensive cellular-iPad) is a convenience fee... either you load 100MB youtube video from cellular-enabled iPad, or load 100MB youtube from iPad tethered to phone... still comes from the same data bucket. your phone's battery may take a hit from tethering