AT&T contract question...

[PaulMoore]

Hello- sorry for the rather basic question but I couldn't face trying to ask someone in an AT&T store...

As a current AT&T customer is there any way of me buying an iPhone and putting my current SIM card in (without activating a new 2-year agreement)?

Sorry if this is a stupid question!

Thanks

 

[GoCubsGo]

My understand is iTunes makes you activate unless you hack the phone.
But you can put your current sim into the iPhone purchased from Apple...I am not sure if the phone will work though.
AT&T doesn't let you leave without signing a new 2 year contract.

 

[harcosparky]

My understand is iTunes makes you activate unless you hack the phone.
But you can put your current sim into the iPhone purchased from Apple...I am not sure if the phone will work though.
AT&T doesn't let you leave without signing a new 2 year contract.

They ( AT&T ) let us walk out with a new iPhone and no contract.

Oh they tried to get us into a contract telling us it was " corporate policy ".

I informed them the iPhone was to be used as a gift and the gift recipient would take care of any contract issues. Again the clerk protested but after I informed him that the real policy was to get the " NAME and EMAIL address of the purchaser " he sold us the phone.

Then the guy tried to tell me " oh they changed that policy ! "

I asked " when did they change it? LAST NIGHT ? "

I told him to quit harassing us and sell me the phone or I would call corporate myself and report him and the store!

How did I know that to be the policy, the night before I bought mine my son bought his at the same store from the store manager.

 

[PaulMoore]

They ( AT&T ) let us walk out with a new iPhone and no contract.

But once you have the phone how do you activate it without signing up for 2 years? Can you pop in an existing AT&T SIM tied to an active account or do you have to generate another 2-year contract?

 

[hexonxonx]

Hello- sorry for the rather basic question but I couldn't face trying to ask someone in an AT&T store...

As a current AT&T customer is there any way of me buying an iPhone and putting my current SIM card in (without activating a new 2-year agreement)?

Sorry if this is a stupid question!

Thanks

You can't simply pop in a sim from anothet AT&T phone and expect the iPhone to work. It needs to be activated. Also, with the new 1.1.3, inserting another phones sim such as a GoPhone sim will no longer work in the iPhone. I was using one of my iPhones as a GoPhone in this way till I upgraded, then my GoPhone sim no longer works in the iPhone. I gave up and activated a new GoPhone account and now my second iPhone is a GoPhone once again. Now at least if I have to format the iPhone, the iPhone will activate with this sim card installed. Before when I was using my GoPhones sim in the iPhone, the iPhone would not activate with the sim in it after a restore. I would have to insert my other iPhones sim in it to actiavate it, then switch sims again.

Hops this gives some understanding.

 

[harcosparky]

My son popped in a SIM from a PREPAID account and made calls on it.

HOWEVER you will eat up that PREPAID card in a hurry.


ALSO you can activate an iPhone via iTunes without a 2 year contract, with a PREPAID PLAN.

It's a 'trick' but legal.

When you get to where you enter in your SS#, you input 999-99-9999

It then flips you to where you activate it under a " PickYourPlan " pay as you go thing. ( a prepaid plan for the iPhone )

I will try to find more information and post it here.

 

[harcosparky]

But once you have the phone how do you activate it without signing up for 2 years? Can you pop in an existing AT&T SIM tied to an active account or do you have to generate another 2-year contract?

Here is ONE WAY ........

IMPORTANT: DO NOT TRY TO SET IT UP WITH AT&T ---- READ THE ARTICLE AS QUOTED HERE

http://www.tuaw.com/2007/07/02/iphone-prepay-the-right-way/

TUAWWEB

SEND US TIPSRSS FEEDSMACWORLD COVERAGE
iPhone: Prepay the right way
Posted Jul 2nd 2007 7:30PM by Erica Sadun
Filed under: iTS, How-tos, iTunes, iPhone
It is now about 5:00 Mountain Time as I write this. I spent most of the day at the AT&T store from about 9 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon. Then I spent several more hours at home talking to AT&T and Apple support personnel. I have swapped SIMs so often that I deserve a SIM merit badge. I have set up no fewer than six separate phone accounts. My credit card has been beaten and battered funding those accounts.
Here's what I learned: If you want to set up your iPhone as a prepaid account, do not--no that's not emphatic enough--do NOT, DO NOT attempt to set up the account in advance with AT&T.

Just don't. Trust me. Here's how you should do it:

Buy the iPhone. Connect it to iTunes. Sign up using 999-99-9999 as your social security number. After failing the credit check, select a GoPhone plan. After signing up for a GoPhone plan and being assigned a number and passcode, connect to the AT&T GoPhone funding page as prompted, enter your credit card or debit card information and you're good to go. DO NOT attempt to fund your iPhone over the phone with AT&T. DO NOT set up your iPhone prepaid account in advance with AT&T.

 

[dacreativeguy]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3)

The reason that iPhone puchasers are being harassed at the AT&T store is because cell phone store employees work on commission. They must hate the iPhone because it cuts into their pay.

Apple store employees aren't paid on commission. I didn't have any problem buying my iPhone at the apple store.

 

[cjbrx3115]

Hello- sorry for the rather basic question but I couldn't face trying to ask someone in an AT&T store...

As a current AT&T customer is there any way of me buying an iPhone and putting my current SIM card in (without activating a new 2-year agreement)?

Sorry if this is a stupid question!

Thanks

Although you won't be able to do that, if you still want your original AT&T phone number, you can just import it to your iPhone when you sign up via iTunes. All you have to do is buy the iPhone, connect it to your computer, then when iTunes comes up and asks you whether you want to import an existing cell phone number, select that and off you go!

 

[hexonxonx]

The all 9's SS# will no longer work when signing up in iTunes, it will tell that number is invalid as is all 1's and so on.

You can probably make up one but be careful, it now checks to make sure it is valid such as starting with 523 or another valid number.

I signed up my second iPhone this way and got a prepaid account.

Oh and I bough this iPhone at AT&T and was not offered to activate it there or preauthorize. I told the guy I was signing it up for a pre pay.

 

[ScottFitz]

Will this prepaid method allow you to then use a Tmobile sim card?

 

[fedup flyer]

All you have to do is buy the iPhone, connect it to your computer, then when iTunes comes up and asks you whether you want to import an existing cell phone number, select that and off you go!

The phone itself has nothing to do with cell phone #. The number is contained in the SIM card.