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Carrier $30 Carrier Upgrade fee with iPhone Upgrade Program?
- Thread starter Armendegga
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I financed through Apple/Citizens Bank (not iUP, but the 24 month, 0%) and also got charged the $30 fee for ATT “one-time upgrade fee.” Interestingly, ATT’s website says their activation fee is $45. I’ve always had pretty good success getting these fees waived as well. I guess we’ll see. I remember a day and time where carriers were so worried about you jumping to another carrier when your 2 year contract was up, they’d offer you discounts, free phones, etc. just to get you to renew. Now, they basically punish you if you stay with them and don’t switch carriers. I guess they figure they basically have a hostage customer. Almost makes me want to switch carriers. Almost.
If you buy SIM free and install the old SIM in the new phone before you turn it on, you don't get charged. My experience
I didn’t know that, thank you will definitely insert it before I turn it on next Friday.
Nope. The carrier doesn't know. You just need to swap out your SIM and it's all good.
Last year (my first year on IUP), we didn't pay this $30 fee. Now both myself and my wife are being charged that fee. Are we not able to just take the SIM card out of our current phones and put those into the new phones, before turning them on? I mean, we're going to take them out before we send the phones back to Apple anyway, so will this not work?
This worked last year but you had to have the sim in BEFORE turning on the phone
[doublepost=1536930279][/doublepost]
Right under your phone number:
iPhone XS Max 64GB Space Gray, AT&T
AT&T Information
Phone Number:
•••-•••-••**
AT&T Terms:
No Commitment
One-Time Upgrade Fee:
$30.00
So that's weird. Some of us got the fee last year, and some of us didn't. I am looking at my order confirmation for last year and there was definitely no upgrade fee. I also checked my bill, and was not charged. (AT&T)
Depends on your plan and also some FAN accounts waive activation/upgrade fees. Mine did until I switched to the new plan that doesn't allow a FAN discount.
yeah i've always gotten a fee. for my 3GS, iP4, iP5, iP6 and wifes iP5s & her iP6 (maybe even my original iPhone) we've always gotten it reversed pretty easily with chatting with them online. Last year with my X i wasn't able to. i didn't upgrade this year but my wife did last night to the Xs so i'll see if we can get it reversed again.
But if you remove that prior to turning the phone on and putting the "old" SIM from last year's X in there...won't that avoid the $30 fee?
I dont think you can use old sims. At least thats what att told me on the iPhone 7+
x-evil-x is correct, you can no longer use old SIMs (off the bat). If you buy a carrier version of the phone, its security locked to the SIM card that is included. You must activate that SIM card first, then you can swap SIMs if you would like. Last year I bought an X under my mother's account and put my SIM in, it wouldn't activate. Had to activate it under her account first, before putting my SIM in.
So they basically do it just to make people pay the $30 upgrade. Very nice. I never thought I would miss the good old days of carrier subsidies. As someone who likes to get a new phone every year, it's getting harder and harder to justify paying $50/month for the rest of my life just to carry a new phone (my choice, I know). And then they nickel and dime you with these bs fees that are clearly nothing more than a money grab. This industry is ripe for a disrupter to come in and change the way things are done.
Yeah, its really getting ridiculous now. I have been able to upgrade yearly since the 3G. Originally because AT&T offered the primary a yearly upgrade, then when they took that away, early upgrade discount and now IUP. This might be the last year that I do the IUP, which is making me question my device choice. I was hesitant on getting the Max, because although I love my Plus, its slightly too large. So I figured I would get the Xs and if I don't like it, upgrade in a year. Need to rethink my plan now.
While $30 is not a lot, to me its the principle behind the matter. AT&T is making $30 for absolutely nothing. But yes, the cost of phones going up every single year is also giving me pause. When I first started the IUP, its $36 a month for the middle tier 6s. Last year it was $45 for the middle tier 8Plus and now its $56 for the middle tier Xs. So $11 more a month for a "smaller" phone. Its only a matter of time until the entire industry, carriers and manufacturers are disrupted.