AT&T plan question

Personally, the new Mobile Share Value plans work for us (4 lines). On the old plans, I've always felt compelled to upgrade on schedule so I don't waste the subsidy. Now, I get to save if we keep our phones longer. If/when I upgrade I'll just buy the phone full price or go AT&T Next 12/18. Besides, I find unlimited data isn't all that useful when you get throttled. We're just on the 10GB plan and it's nice being able to use 6-8GB since the rest of the family doesn't use a lot of data.

If you're fine with a 2-year upgrade cycle and you ever decide to switch to the new plans, I suggest going for AT&T Next 18 instead. Monthly fee will be slightly higher compared to going on 2-year contract but at least you avoid the upfront cost and the $40 activation. As long as you keep your phones long enough to pay off the loan, Next should save you money in the long run.

I've got to ask though, your cellphone bill is over $300 per month ($150 20GB + $15*5 + $130 savings)? How come it's so high?

I recently switched our 8 lines, 5 unlimited and 3 on regular data plans to a 30GB Mobile Shared and my phone bill should drop from $580/month to $330/month.

Here is basically the research I did and it took quite a bit of snooping before I got all of the information laid out to make a decision.

So here goes:

30GB data plan = $225/month
includes unlimited talk and text

each 10 GB increment is + or - $75

so a $40GB plan would cost $300
a 50GB would be $375
or a 20GB plan would be $150
and on and so forth

each phone line you want to add to that plan will cost you (here's where things were initially confusing)
$40 per line IF you entered a 2 year contract after Feb of 2014.
$15 per line IF you were in a 2 year contract before Feb 2014.
IF you have an ATT Next plan, then you add yet another $25 or more /month cost on top of this plus you have to give ATT the phone back when you upgrade OR

So, if you are on a mobile shared data plan and you upgrade to the iPhone 6, you will pay $40/month to use the mobile share plan.
If you outright buy your iPhone 6 from Apple or ATT at full cost you will pay $15/month.

Also after doing the math the pricing is cheaper for me to just outright buy new iPhones than to upgrade. Even on the older unlimited plan, you save more if buying the phone outright.

I also get mobile hotspot on every phone for no extra cost and I can monitor data usage easier now.
Having mobile hotspot capabilities on the phones let me cancel my ATT MiFi that was also costing $50+/month in a 2 year contract wether we used it or not. Actually I paid the early termination fee of $94, or I could have continued paying $50/month for another 9 months...No sir.
So I went from 8 lines to 7 and lowered the bill by $250/month before fees and taxes of course.

Another example :
if you are on a mobile share plan currently and you just entered a contract
you are paying $40/month so $25 more per month than if you own the phone.
if you upgrade to the iPhone 6 16GB that's $200
you will have to pay your Early Termination Fee which after a year is typically $200-$225
you pay a $40 upgrade fee to upgrade
you pay a $40 phone activation fee to activate your upgrade

So to upgrade your phone every year through ATT you are looking at spending right at $800 to upgrade every year, which is more than the cost of a 32GB iPhone.

4 of my lines upgrade every year and the other 3 get the previous model and then the 2 year old model gets sold along with a single 1 year old model.
So this year 4 lines get an iPhone 6, 3 lines get an iPhone 5s that were currently have and I sell 1 - 5s and 3 - iPhone 5. Repeat and put the cash made against the phone bill.

tl01 said:

The bill is over $300 a month. The two lines that aren't unlimited have their own data plans and we have a lot of minutes and pay $30 a month total for unlimited texting... The first line I believe is $180 a month... Plus all the additional. This is with a good FAN discount. It all just adds up.

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$180 for first line? Ouch. Must be a lot of minutes. On the 700 minute plan, 5 lines with family unlimited text and each line on unlimited data would have just been $280 per month before taxes and FAN.

tl01 said:

So if you upgrade every 18-24 months... Then you keep the $15 line fee and don't have to pay $40 a month for the line? That would be fine with us I guess.

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With Next, you get to keep the $15 per line fee regardless of when you upgrade. However, you do have to make loan repayments for the devices so for a top model iPhone 16GB, that's an additional $32.50 on Next 12 ($650/20) or $25 on Next 18 ($650/26) per device per month until the device is paid off (up to 20 months for Next 12, up to 26 months for Next 18). With 5 new top of the line iPhone 16GB, that's an additional $125 (Next 18) to $162.50 (Next 12) per month.

Of course, if you get a less expensive device such as the 4s or 5c or perhaps one of the countless Android devices available, that means lower monthly loan repayments.

mmomega said:

each phone line you want to add to that plan will cost you (here's where things were initially confusing)
$40 per line IF you entered a 2 year contract after Feb of 2014.
$15 per line IF you were in a 2 year contract before Feb 2014.
IF you have an ATT Next plan, then you add yet another $25 or more /month cost on top of this plus you have to give ATT the phone back when you upgrade OR

So, if you are on a mobile shared data plan and you upgrade to the iPhone 6, you will pay $40/month to use the mobile share plan.
If you outright buy your iPhone 6 from Apple or ATT at full cost you will pay $15/month.

Also after doing the math the pricing is cheaper for me to just outright buy new iPhones than to upgrade. Even on the older unlimited plan, you save more if buying the phone outright.

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A few corrections:

The cost per line is $15 per month for Next, not $40.

You only have to return the phone if you want to upgrade via AT&T Next before you pay off the 20- or 26-month loan. Once you've paid off the loan, the device is yours to keep. There's no penalty for early loan repayment.

The plans and phone will cost the same whether you're on Next or if you buy outright. The only difference is with Next, you just pay in installment and the other, you pay right away.

That said, if you do buy outright, it might be a good idea to buy the Verizon version. With the 5c/5s, the AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon versions were essentially the same except the Verizon version is activated for CDMA so you've got more carrier choice. There's a good chance the same will happen with the upcoming iPhones.

I'm on grandfathered unlimited as well. However, I think the mobile share plans are now a better deal for *families*.

I'm on an individual line, and the mobile share is still more expensive in my case--even if you consider the grandfathered unlimited plans to really be 5GB plans.

tl01 said:

Last question I think!. Okay... If I buy a new phone under next plan.... Then say I compete the next plan term and the phone is mine... And so I sell the old phone for $250... And I pay $250 toward the phone to make the payments less? I'm sure that isn't an option... But am just curious. Thanks again everyone! I think we just might let the unlimited go bc there are benefits to having the mobile share.

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You can check if that's an option at AT&T corporate stores. If not, you can always use the $250 to pay your monthly cellphone bill.

tl01 said:

Last question I think!. Okay... If I buy a new phone under next plan.... Then say I compete the next plan term and the phone is mine... And so I sell the old phone for $250... And I pay $250 toward the phone to make the payments less? I'm sure that isn't an option... But am just curious. Thanks again everyone! I think we just might let the unlimited go bc there are benefits to having the mobile share.

Click to expand...

Actually no. Once you finish paying off the phone, when you wanted to upgrade again, you'd have to trade in your phone to att. You can't just sell it. Think of it as a lease. The phone isn't ever really yours. So the point of NEXT is to upgrade every year and only pay a portion of the full phone price. If you don't and you pay the phone off, you'd be giving att ~$700 (the full price of the phone, which you paid). I always tell customers, the NEXT plan is for people that want a new phone every year.

jnappleseed said:

Actually no. Once you finish paying off the phone, when you wanted to upgrade again, you'd have to trade in your phone to att. You can't just sell it. Think of it as a lease. The phone isn't ever really yours. So the point of NEXT is to upgrade every year and only pay a portion of the full phone price. If you don't and you pay the phone off, you'd be giving att ~$700 (the full price of the phone, which you paid). I always tell customers, the NEXT plan is for people that want a new phone every year.

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From AT&T website: http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB420710

Do I own the smartphone? Or is this a leasing offer?

The smartphone is yours and you’re responsible for 20 or 24 monthly payments. You’re also responsible for any loss, theft, or damage to the smartphone – both during the installment agreement period and after. We recommend you purchase the optional Mobile Insurance to protect your investment.


Will I be able to pay off this smartphone early?

Yes, you have the option to pay off your installment agreement, but the full outstanding balance will be due immediately.


What payments are due if I cancel AT&T Next?

The full outstanding balance on your installment agreement becomes due.


What if I don't want to trade in my smartphone after 12 or 18 months and I want to keep it?

You don’t have to trade the smartphone in, you own it. After 12 or 18 payments, you can trade it in and upgrade to a brand new smartphone – again with no down payment – or you can keep using the smartphone and have no more payments after 20 or 24 months.

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I'd get some paper, or a large white board, and do some long-term math. a 2 year pricing on all the plans.

I did that and the 2-year contract pricing was around $100 more. The buy out-right and the NEXT were the same. the Pre-paid plans with phone bought out-right was cheaper BUT I have 2 lines and so the Mobile Share is cheaper.

Also, and with your data, it won't be too much an issue, but at certain levels the price is cheaper or the same for the next tier up with how things become discounted once you move to certain tier levels.

We just gave up our "unlimited" AT&T plans for a shared 10GB plan because it made a lot more sense for our family.

For a bit less than we were paying we rolled our iPad (previously a separate $30/mo plan) into the pool for $10 and can also move my 13 year old from his $10/mo RAZR dumbphone to a $15/mo smartphone.

For right now he'll get my old iPhone 4, but I might pick him up a Moto G which is a great deal for ~$200 flat.

We also get the ability to tether in a pinch which we did not have with the iPad or iPhones before. Even at the same cost, the features we were locked out of with the grandfathered plan make it more worthwhile.

It might not make quite as much financial sense without the $25/line/mo credit for bringing our own devices. We'll see when the new iPhones come out.

B

rui no onna said:

From AT&T website:

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"After 12 or 18 payments, you can trade it in and upgrade to a brand new smartphone – again with no down payment"

I also gave up my unlimited data plan to move to the new share plans. It's only me, but I have two lines. My second line was strictly the lowest voice plan available as it's a test device. But with the new plans I found I could get rid of the plan my Nexus is on, add it to the family share, and pay the same amount I was paying before, plus I now have unlimited voice and text on both iPhone and Android - and I'll never use the 10GB between the two, even when I now occasionally use personal hotspot.

BJMRamage said:

I'd get some paper, or a large white board, and do some long-term math. a 2 year pricing on all the plans.

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It's actually better if you do it on a spreadsheet so it can auto-calculate if you switch scenarios. That's what I did to see if going with new plans makes sense for us. For us (4 lines), 10GB costs around the same as 2GB and it's actually cheaper than the 4-6GB. Even factoring our current upgrade habits (2 new phones every year), the Mobile Share+Next saves us $880 for two years.

jnappleseed said:

"After 12 or 18 payments, you can trade it in and upgrade to a brand new smartphone – again with no down payment"

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That's only if you want to do an early upgrade. Once you've paid off the loan (Next 12 - 20 pmts, Next 18 - 24 pmts), the phone is yours to keep.

What if I don't want to trade in my smartphone after 12 or 18 months and I want to keep it?

You don’t have to trade the smartphone in, you own it. After 12 or 18 payments, you can trade it in and upgrade to a brand new smartphone – again with no down payment – or you can keep using the smartphone and have no more payments after 20 or 24 months.

Click to expand...

Honestly, if you're willing to pay off your phone and keep it, the AT&T family plan is the way to go. Until we upgrade, our plan is pretty cheap.

jnappleseed said:

Actually no. Once you finish paying off the phone, when you wanted to upgrade again, you'd have to trade in your phone to att. You can't just sell it. Think of it as a lease. The phone isn't ever really yours. So the point of NEXT is to upgrade every year and only pay a portion of the full phone price. If you don't and you pay the phone off, you'd be giving att ~$700 (the full price of the phone, which you paid). I always tell customers, the NEXT plan is for people that want a new phone every year.

Click to expand...

jnappleseed said:

"After 12 or 18 payments, you can trade it in and upgrade to a brand new smartphone – again with no down payment"

Click to expand...

Stop spreading misinformation. NEXT isn't a lease, it's a 0% interest loan that you pay back over 20 or 24 months. If you choose to upgrade before that time is up, you have to play by AT&Ts rules and trade the phone in.

When you fully pay off the phone it belongs to you. If you DON'T fully pay off the phone before you upgrade, it doesn't. Is that a surprise?

T5BRICK said:

NEXT isn't a lease, it's a 0% interest loan that you pay back over 20 or 24 months. If you choose to upgrade before that time is up, you have to play by AT&Ts rules and trade the phone in.

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Mind, effective trade-in value via Next is pretty bad so you're likely better off just selling your phone. Next 12 seems comparable to offers on Gazelle, etc, though in case you don't want to deal with the hassles of selling.

Next 12
iPhone 5s 16GB $260
iPhone 5s 32GB $300
iPhone 5s 64GB $340

Next 18
iPhone 5s 16GB $162.50
iPhone 5s 32GB $187.50
iPhone 5s 64GB $212.50

T5BRICK said:

Stop spreading misinformation. NEXT isn't a lease, it's a 0% interest loan that you pay back over 20 or 24 months. If you choose to upgrade before that time is up, you have to play by AT&Ts rules and trade the phone in.

When you fully pay off the phone it belongs to you. If you DON'T fully pay off the phone before you upgrade, it doesn't. Is that a surprise?

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Sad thing is he works for Best Buy Mobile and misinformation like that will steer customers towards 2-year contracts. For individual users, sure the 2-year contracts are likely cheaper. Those getting the 10+ GB plans though are better off with Next.