Yup...and you just supported my point about timing. These plans change often, so what might be most economical today may not be tomorrow.
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Apple Store No Longer Sells iPhone With 2-Year Contract on AT&T
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Yup...and you just supported my point about timing. These plans change often, so what might be most economical today may not be tomorrow.
You can choose payments in 12, 18, 24 or 30 months. After that time, you own the phone.
You can also pay off the phone completely in whenever you want inside that time frame, and then buy a new phone without giving it back to AT&T.
So, it's all up to you.
I don't have any idea about unlocking anything.
Wow, this is a pretty arrogant move on their part. Guess I'll be buying my iPhone full price unlocked from now on.
This is an outdated analysis I made a while ago, but I think it still generally holds true. Your phone subsidy was already included in your line access fee in the two year contract. With NEXT, you have to pay an addition 'subsidy' and you don't get to sell the phone you kept for one year unless you pay it off completely.
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How so? AT&T Next has been really good for us. We bought two iPhone 6 devices last year using it, and saved money.
The $21.64/month plan is for 30 months, not 24 months. => $21.64 x 30 = $649.20
I have the unlimited data plan which by the way is absolutely limited. A few years ago I needed to transfer some large files using my phone and I hit the "top whatever %" that gets throttled. My speed dropped to about 1-3 kbps. It was unusable, even maps took forever to load. I could have let that phone continuously try to download a large file for weeks and I would have barely been able to use any data.
The way I look at it, ATT was kicking in some money toward my phone purchase (and threatening heavy fees if I broke my contract) in return for me staying with them for 2 years. So $200 upfront was a deal, and then getting at least $150 or $200 for the trade after two years made it like paying nothing for a new phone. Currently I have two iPhones on my unlimited plan and I pay $160/month. Are the next plans cheaper than that?
The way I look at it, ATT was kicking in some money toward my phone purchase (and threatening heavy fees if I broke my contract) in return for me staying with them for 2 years. So $200 upfront was a deal, and then getting at least $150 or $200 for the trade after two years made it like paying nothing for a new phone. Currently I have two iPhones on my unlimited plan and I pay $160/month. Are the next plans cheaper than that?
The Next plan is a good deal for some situations, but not others. AT&T is screwing up their relationship with people that don't need the Next plan.
Ok, so with 3 smartphones and 1 basic phone, I use about 5GB per month with a couple of months in the last year as high at 8-9GB.
The Family plan for 10GB is $100 + $40x3 (for each smartphone) + $15 (for the basic phone). That's $235/month not including the tax.
I pay $218 (total) now. Am I missing something?
The Family plan for 10GB is $100 + $40x3 (for each smartphone) + $15 (for the basic phone). That's $235/month not including the tax.
I pay $218 (total) now. Am I missing something?
OK, so for years I've had the cheapie 2GB data plan, unlimited text, and 250 voice minutes (I'm a shut-in, loser, don't get out much, don't use phone much, etc). I pay about $75 a month. My current 2-year contract is up when the 6S comes out, and I want to upgrade to the 6S. My wife is also on ATT with an iPhone 5S. I think she's grandfathered in with unlimited data plan.
So I can assume, then, that moving to Next will cost me more per month, correct? Should I and the wife get a shared plan?
So I can assume, then, that moving to Next will cost me more per month, correct? Should I and the wife get a shared plan?
Does your bill actually go up $25 a month when you get a new device? seems like mine just stays the same.
That's $135/mo including the cost of the phone. Please show us your NEXT math so we can compare apples to apples. Just showing the 24 month cost means nothing without the alternative's 24 month cost.
Well, as far as money goes, doing Next is the same, you just pay over time, rather than all at once. I guess the unlocking might play a difference there, depending on what the rules are around that with Next. (With Verizon, for example, it's not a factor since all the LTE phones are factory unlocked.)
With Next you pay for the phone monthly but you get a monthly discount to offset the included subsidy. The prices and discounts in that analysis are off as far as what they are today, so that might change things to some degree. Next is still not necessarily best for everyone, but for quite a few on the current plans it can be at least a somewhat better deal.
Why would they? This doesn't affect anyone's current contracts in any way. (Not to mention that the contract option isn't actually going away since it will still be possible to get them from AT&T directly.)
Well, you can still get contracts from AT&T directly it seems, so it's not like that part is going away.
If you are on Next on any of those lines, or simply using your own equipment that isn't on contract, then there's a discount of $25/month for each such line.
It depends on how much data your wife would need to see what shared plan you might need (and how much she is paying for her line now, in order to factor that in to see what's better).
Agreed. But why would AT&T decide not to allow a place like the Apple Store bring them more wireless customers? That doesn't make any sense...
"It depends on how much data your wife would need to see what shared plan you might need (and how much she is paying for her line now, in order to factor that in to see what's better)."
She pays about $80 a month (including $30 for unlimited data). I don't imagine either of us would need a ton of data, but I guess she should look at her usage stats (lots of FB). I never come close to 2GB. Wife was almost a year out of contract, and her 5 was broken, so she just signed up for a new 2-year contract with a new 5S via an Apple Store.
She pays about $80 a month (including $30 for unlimited data). I don't imagine either of us would need a ton of data, but I guess she should look at her usage stats (lots of FB). I never come close to 2GB. Wife was almost a year out of contract, and her 5 was broken, so she just signed up for a new 2-year contract with a new 5S via an Apple Store.
*if you have a mobile share plan you do not receive this discount and it's still $40 per phone. http://www.cultofmac.com/296669/att-tacks-40-monthly-fee-iphone-6-two-year-contract-upgrades/
That's if you are on a contract, which makes sense, since they have to make up for the subsidy somewhere. If you are not on contract (basically either just have your own equipment, buy outright, or use Next) then you get the discount.
It also comes down to that for those of us on older plans w/ subsidies switching over the new plan with next works out to be more expensive.
Probably because they want to phase out contract pricing in general, but perhaps not all at once. And in the process move more people onto their current plans (and off of older plans).
not quite because it's a permanent cost. it doesn't go away once your subsidy amount is paid off. so it's essentially a scheme to get people off the subsidies permanently.
I don't think AT&T wants to sell 2-year contracts any more.
By stopping retailers like Apple from selling them, and forcing people to come into an AT&T store to get one, AT&T then has control over that customers experience, and can try and switch them over to Next.
So together you are paying about $155/month right now. If you were to get let's say the 6 GB shared plan that would be $70/month, plus $25/month for each phone (if you got it on Next let's say), plus whatever the monthly phone payments would be, which is probably around $30/month for each phone, so you are looking at about $180 or so plus taxes/fees minus any employee discounts you might have. If you used more data it might be a little better as far as the phones being a little cheaper per line. In your case, it might not be as worthwhile, as is the case for various people with only one or two lines who either don't use much data or have unlimited data.
My bad then. So you pay x amount a month and if you want a new phone before you would have paid it off you trade it in, then just keep paying the same amount per month.