Best Buy Offering Free 16GB iPhone 5s With Trade-In of iPhone 4s or 5

MacRumors · Feb 28, 2014

Best Buy is introducing another special deal this weekend, offering a minimum of $150 for trade-ins of working iPhone 4s and iPhone 5 smartphones. Customers must buy a new smartphone with two-year contract on AT&T, Sprint or Verizon, however. The offer is good through the end of the day tomorrow, March 1. The chain has also reduced the price of the base 16GB iPhone 5s to $150 to match the buyback.

With a number of carriers moving away from two-year contracts for its customers -- instead focusing on non-subsidized, but cheaper, monthly plans -- it may be affecting the bottom line of retailers like Best Buy because plans like AT&T Next do not, in many cases, require customers to pay money up front.

For upgrade-eligible iPhone-owners looking to move to the iPhone 5s, this promotion could be an inexpensive way to do that.

Article Link: Best Buy Offering Free 16GB iPhone 5s With Trade-In of iPhone 4s or 5

theanimala · Feb 28, 2014

This is a horrible offer, you can sell an iPhone 4s or iPhone 5 for much more than the 199 are offering. Just a few months ago I traded in a totally worthless eight-year-old BlackBerry and got $99 off my iPhone 5s. That was a good trade in deal, this one is not.

tevion5 · Feb 28, 2014

Do Amercans really think they are getting a phone for "free"? They are paying MORE than what you would straight from apple only overtime.

It's essentially what's known as "hire purchase". It's more expensive than off the shelf. Ideal would be to buy an unlocked direct from apple, considering you have the cash up front.

Even still, of you are on a budget, these contracts cost far more.

praterkeith · Feb 28, 2014

My iPhone 5 is still kicking ass but he knows his time is up this fall, most likely! So no thanks, Best Buy. I'll wait for the iPhone 6.

Almetacon · Feb 28, 2014

How exactly do Americans end up paying more on a contract? I thought they paid less, but were forced to stick with the company for 2 years.

CEmajr · Feb 28, 2014

Not a good deal if you own an Iphone 5 or an AT&T iPhone 4S as both of those are worth more than $200.

Good deal for those with a Sprint or Verizon 4S though.

BlazednSleepy · Feb 28, 2014

iPhone 6 in-bound.

alent1234 · Feb 28, 2014

Almetacon said:
How exactly do Americans end up paying more on a contract? I thought they paid less, but were forced to stick with the company for 2 years.

Newer plans penalize you with higher prices if you buy on contract

pgiguere1 · Feb 28, 2014

Slightly misleading title.

Would you call a house with $0 down payment on its mortgage a free house?

Of course not. You would just call it what it is: no down payment.
Why is it different with smartphones?

Boatboy24 · Feb 28, 2014

pgiguere1 said:
Slightly misleading title.

Would you call a house with $0 down payment on its mortgage a free house?

Of course not. You would just call it what it is: no down payment.
Why is it different with smartphones?

Not to mention that the phone isn't free at all. You are getting store credit, that's it. So unless you are ready to purchase something from Best Buy, this offer isn't worth much.

iamMacPerson · Feb 28, 2014

I was considering it when they sent me the email with this offer, as the minimum trade in value was $150 for a 4s. I thought maybe they'll give me $300 for my iPhone and I can use the remaining amount to buy some other things.

Nope. A measly $230 for my iPhone 5, Verizon (Factory Unlocked), 32GB white. I'll stick to my iPhone 5 until later this year when the new iPhone 6 is announced. Plus, I signed up for the free $50 gift card promo, so as long as I upgrade by the end of the year I get a free $50 gift card.

I'm already planning to camp out for around 8 hours or so on launch day.

C DM · Feb 28, 2014

pgiguere1 said:
Slightly misleading title.

Would you call a house with $0 down payment on its mortgage a free house?

Of course not. You would just call it what it is: no down payment.
Why is it different with smartphones?

Bcause if you get the phone for free you pay $50/month to use it (for example) and if you pay for the phone you still pay $50/month to use it.

xmichaelp · Feb 28, 2014

tevion5 said:
Do Amercans really think they are getting a phone for "free"? They are paying MORE than what you would straight from apple only overtime.

It's essentially what's known as "hire purchase". It's more expensive than off the shelf. Ideal would be to buy an unlocked direct from apple, considering you have the cash up front.

Even still, of you are on a budget, these contracts cost far more.

Sadly i think so... I tried to explain the concept of buying unlocked and unsubsidized and how you can get much cheaper monthly bills to my step brother and sister's husband and they just had no idea what I was talking about. People really think they can get high end smartphones for 0-100 dollars and they're getting a good deal.

I'm sure loads of people will be running in and trading in their iPhones this weekend and thinking they're fleecing Best Buy.

It kind of scares me how much the average consumer never researches things and just throw their money away. Just the fact that Gazelle and those cash 4 gold services are successful enough to advertise on TV leaves me scratching my head.

ChasInVictoria · Feb 28, 2014

BlazednSleepy said:
iPhone 6 in-bound.

No.

The iPhone 6 is unlikely to appear before the fall. Possibly late summer.

A promotion on an entry-level model does not mean the entire product line will be EOL'd.

pnoyblazed · Feb 28, 2014

all about the iphone 6 at this point

Michael Scrip · Feb 28, 2014

What does Best Buy get out of this?

Apple will get the profit from the sale of the phone... and the carrier will get your monthly service fees.

Best Buy gets what... a couple dollars here or there?

Maybe this is why Best Buy stores are kinda in trouble... razor-thin margins and all...

C DM · Feb 28, 2014

xmichaelp said:
Sadly i think so... I tried to explain the concept of buying unlocked and unsubsidized and how you can get much cheaper monthly bills to my step brother and sister's husband and they just had no idea what I was talking about. People really think they can get high end smartphones for 0-100 dollars and they're getting a good deal.

I'm sure loads of people will be running in and trading in their iPhones this weekend and thinking they're fleecing Best Buy.

It kind of scares me how much the average consumer never researches things and just throw their money away. Just the fact that Gazelle and those cash 4 gold services are successful enough to advertise on TV leaves me scratching my head.

How do you get lower monthly bills getting full priced phones? Are you referring to the new AT&T plans which only apply to that carrier and just came out in the last month or so? Seems like for regular service the price is the same whether you get a discounted contract phone or pay much more and bring your own phone (the contracted term being the main difference essentially).

joelvega125 · Mar 1, 2014

2 yr contract? People still sign up for those?

pgiguere1 · Mar 1, 2014

C DM said:
Bcause if you get the phone for free you pay $50/month to use it (for example) and if you pay for the phone you still pay $50/month to use it.

True in some cases, but it depends on your carrier. That's mainly true in the US but even then T-Mobile doesn't do that.

Honestly I find this very weird.

To take my mortgage analogy again, it's like if you still had the same mortgage payment amount no matter the cashdown you made. How does that make sense?

Here in Canada some carriers offer 10% off your plan if you BYOD, but that's still ridiculous: roughly 30% of my carrier fees actually go torwards financing my phone when on-contract, not 10%. I'd be losing around 20% of my bill amount per month by choosing to give a 100% cash down. What is this, a loan with negative interest rate?

Illogicial stuff gets justified by other illogicial stuff. It's like carriers make stuff nonsensical on purpose in an attempt to confuse consumers to better rip them off.

I like T-Mobile's transparency when it comes to phone subsidies and I wish something similar in Canada would exist.

C DM · Mar 1, 2014

pgiguere1 said:
True in some cases, but it depends on your carrier. That's mainly true in the US but even then T-Mobile doesn't do that.

Honestly I find this very weird.

To take my mortgage analogy again, it's like if you still had the same mortgage payment amount no matter the cashdown you made. How does that make sense?

Here in Canada some carriers offer 10% off your plan if you BYOD, but that's still ridiculous: roughly 30% of my carrier fees actually go torwards financing my phone when on-contract, not 10%. I'd be losing around 20% of my bill amount per month by choosing to give a 100% cash down. What is this, a loan with negative interest rate?

Illogicial stuff gets justified by other illogicial stuff. It's like carriers make stuff nonsensical on purpose in an attempt to confuse consumers to better rip them off.

I like T-Mobile's transparency when it comes to phone subsidies and I wish something similar in Canada would exist.

Well, that's basically the example that applies to a lot of people in US (although it's starting to change). Even if you use the mortgage example, would you pay $50K down and then have a monthly payment on a $500K loan, or pay $0 down and have the same exact monthly payment on the same exact $500K loan (with just a requirement that you can't sell the house for the next few years)? It might seem that the numbers shouldn't be like that, but that's how it basically is still with let's say Verizon (the largest North American carrier), so logically it would make sense to go with $0 down (if you don't care about leaving the carrier in the next couple of years, and plenty stay with one for years on end).

maxwelltech · Mar 1, 2014

Free with 2 year contract after trade-in? No thanks, I have already dumped contracts in favor of AT&T's new Mobile Share Value plans (10GB of data for 3 lines for $145).

C DM · Mar 1, 2014

maxwelltech said:
Free with 2 year contract after trade-in? No thanks, I have already dumped contracts in favor of AT&T's new Mobile Share Value plans (10GB of data for 3 lines for $145).

Where you are basically financing the phone (on their Next program)?

alent1234 · Mar 1, 2014

C DM said:
Where you are basically financing the phone (on their Next program)?

cheaper than using 2 year contracts now

TheGenerous · Mar 1, 2014

I haven't had any a phone for almost 2 years, but sometimes I'd like having an iPhone.
I was using a Nokia that can make and receive calls and send 300 characters text messages.

Tiger8 · Mar 1, 2014

Michael Scrip said:
What does Best Buy get out of this?

Apple will get the profit from the sale of the phone... and the carrier will get your monthly service fees.

Best Buy gets what... a couple dollars here or there?

Maybe this is why Best Buy stores are kinda in trouble... razor-thin margins and all...

They get a cut from all three on monthly basis, that's why they no longer do t mobile

Best Buy Offering Free 16GB iPhone 5s With Trade-In of iPhone 4s or 5

macrumors bot

macrumors 6502

macrumors 68000

macrumors 6502

macrumors newbie

macrumors 601

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 603

macrumors 68020

macrumors 65816

macrumors 68040

macrumors Sandy Bridge

macrumors 68000

macrumors newbie

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 604

macrumors Sandy Bridge

macrumors regular

macrumors 68020

macrumors Sandy Bridge

macrumors 6502

macrumors Sandy Bridge

macrumors 603

macrumors 65816

macrumors 68020

Our Staff