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AT&T Takes Up to $1,000 Off iPhone 15 Models Ahead of iPhone 16 Launch
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When your current carrier either kicks you off your grandfathered plan or raises the price.
I've been with AT&T for over 20 years and I can't remember the last time they raised the price even when I switched out of my grandfathered plan. The new plan is better (unlimited data and text plus HBO Max) and the same price as the old plan. I'm sure the cost of the old plan went up at some point but it has not changed in years. Yet. And if and when it does, then I'll rethink it.
Also I take advantage of autopay for which AT&T gives me $10 credit a month.
For some people it makes sense to do something different for various reasons, but I've done the math for my scenario (postpaid with corporate discount and autopay plus 0% interest financing) and I think it is a good deal for getting a new iPhone Pro phone every three years on a carrier that I plan to stick with.
Edit to add that the cost may be higher for new customers. Existing customers can keep their eligible plans at the same rate. Maybe a reason not to switch carriers?
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iPhone SE has been $1.99 a month for the entirety of 2024.
I'm personally waiting until October/November when the iPhone 15 will go to $5 a month with no trade in required. iPhone 14 had the exact same deal last year.
If you do the upgrades at Costco, you get $100 Costco card per upgrade, waived activation fees, and a $50 bill credit on each line (spread out as $5 a month for 10 months).
I'm personally waiting until October/November when the iPhone 15 will go to $5 a month with no trade in required. iPhone 14 had the exact same deal last year.
If you do the upgrades at Costco, you get $100 Costco card per upgrade, waived activation fees, and a $50 bill credit on each line (spread out as $5 a month for 10 months).
To each their own, but anyone willing to pay $1,000 when they don't have to must have too much money!
You spend way too much for service, that's the difference.
I'm currently spending a flat $17.50/month for three cell lines, with no taxes/fees on top.
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That's the reason why I ONLY buy unlocked phones. Besides you need to be an accountant to figure out the wacky ways these cellular companies create their monthly bills. I did away with all of that and went with Mint Mobile 4 years ago and I now pay $15 per month plus tax and I get 5GB data per month which can be used for hotspot data and unlimited everything else.
I wonder how many additional people have upgrade fatigue. I definitely do.
I really love my iPhone, but prices are expensive and the awful 36 month lock-in with the carrier (unless you pay full cash price or pay off early), makes me cringe. They also do not pay that $1k up front. It is over the 36 months. You pay off early and you lose the remaining installments of your trade-in.
I am keeping my paid off 15 Pro until security updates are no longer released for it. That is, unless I come into a lot of extra cash.
I really love my iPhone, but prices are expensive and the awful 36 month lock-in with the carrier (unless you pay full cash price or pay off early), makes me cringe. They also do not pay that $1k up front. It is over the 36 months. You pay off early and you lose the remaining installments of your trade-in.
I am keeping my paid off 15 Pro until security updates are no longer released for it. That is, unless I come into a lot of extra cash.
AT&T will continue to give you installment bill credits if you pay off your device early. However, you will lose the bill credits if you upgrade that paid off device before the bill credits are finished.
Oh, I was not aware of this with AT&T. We ported from Verizon two months ago and lost the remaining credits we had. Thanks for clarifying.
Yep, AT&T makes it as least appealing as possible to pay off the devices early. I have three iPhone 12 minis I want to upgrade, but they all have a few months of bill credits left that I would lose if I paid them off early and upgraded them.
So ya might as well just wait until the installment plan completes.
That's how trade-ins work online when financing but I wasn't sure what the process would be if someone wanted to pay the full price of the phone upfront and had a trade-in. Trade-in doesn't seem to be an option online if paying full retail price and not financing.
I wish carriers did more "no trade-in required" deals as not everyone wants to trade a device and may instead prefer to keep it as a backup or give it to a family member. Essentially go back to the early days when multi-year plan (contract) discounts didn’t require a trade.
The best time for the carriers to attract new business is when they are selling a new phone and I presume kick-backs from the phone manufacturers. Second best time is when someone already has a phone that they want to keep using. Probably why it's this way.
They lost me when they jacked up my original grandfathered unlimited plan to $90.
I pay $35 now for the same without all the hoops.
That's the game now. They can't do contracts, and now the operator pool has shrunk to AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon.
They have to think up some way to keep people there paying for overpriced plans, as corporate wants low customer churn rates. It's tough as there aren't many new customers as everyone has a cell phone now, so they entice people to move with "free" phones.
It's true that financing is required to get the deal and that's probably how they lure in long-term customers but there is no interest and no prepayment penalty so there's not much downside, just pay off the phone with the first billing statement.
That's how they force people out of the old plans. But I have no hoops. I just keep paying the same amount every month but I get a new phone every three years for $1,000 less than the retail price. Perhaps I could save $10-20 if I jumped through some hoops, such as changing carriers and paying upfront for the phones, but it's not worth it to me. I have a fixed budget for cellular and it covers the combined costs of service and devices year after year.
I have to agree. I gave up on these games a while ago. It's just easier to buy a new phone outright.
It shouldn't be this hard.
It's not hard. Here's what I did:
1) Go to apple.com
2) Select new iPhone and choose AT&T financing with trade-in
3) Go to Apple Store, transfer data from old phone to new phone and activate new phone with AT&T
4) Hand in old phone (or FedEx it into Apple)
5) Go home with new phone and $1,000 credits applied automatically
It doesn't seem any harder than buying it outright? Maybe another step if a new customer.
I realize there can be marketing advantages to running promotions requiring trade-ins (e.g., making the "savings" seem larger than it is) but phone incentives/deals shouldn't necessarily have to require a trade.
In the early years, carriers would offer a new phone at a discount if you signed up for a multi-year contract. Today, that discount is rolled into an inflated trade-in value and spread over two to three years. The net result is basically the same (a discount with long-term carrier commitment) but deals today too often require a trade.
That is the "game" now which isn't drastically different than the "game" of years ago, the main difference being the (potentially misleading) trade-in component. Instead of tying deals exclusively to trade-ins so often, I wish they would take the discount/incentive portion alone and discount the phone without a trade. It doesn't mean trade-in deals would have to go away. They can offer deals with trades and deals without. In both cases, they'd still be able to spread the monthly bill credits over years to "lock" people in.
Sure, sell your 15 Pro Max to Apple for $380 and call it a day, instead of getting $1,000.