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ATT just hooked me up with a sweet workaround to allow me t upgrade to the new iPhone

It's pretty clear the original poster has eyes bigger than his pocket book and with his reasoning will always be tight on money. That's obvious.

What is not so obvious is the guys who jump in here and brag about just buying the darn thing at full price and avoiding a contract. That only makes sense if you get some credit on your bill for owning the phone rather than having the carrier subsidize it. You don't, you pay the same either way. I understand the carriers love you, but why do you just shovel money in their pockets? You can always buy out after a year for $250 (at least on ATT) if you choose.

If the carrier subsidy is $400 then you are paying about $17 a month in repaying subsidy (ignoring the complications of interest, fees etc.) or about $200 paid in the first year. If you buy the phone outright you still pay the $17 and it goes into the carriers pocket. If you keep the purchased phone to full term, you pay for it twice. If in the worst case you switch at 12 months you pay a $50 premium for doing so. In a couple of more months the premium disappears and it becomes a wash. As long as the carrier gives you no credit for buying the phone, then you shouldn't buy the phone.

So while the first guy is truly messed up, I'm not sure the braggers are any better off in their logic. It's called unconscious incompetence or as Rumsfeld said not knowing what you don't know.
 
LOL people are brutal on MacRumors tonight!

Although in everyone's defense, you could have spent wiser. If you cannot afford the new device, you should probably wait. I mean, I'm sure you knew that the 4S was a marginal upgrade (arguably [until Wednesday], the new iPhone could also be another marginal upgrade), so you probably should have waited.

Those who can afford to upgrade annually should do so if they so desire...however many others choose to do so and pinch their finances a bit, all the power to them if they so choose though.

/end financial advice you didn't ask for :p

But honestly, this "workaround" isn't anything new or special, unfortunately. When I was working at Best Buy Mobile, customers would always just add a line to get the upgrade.
Or use an upgrade on their spouse's or child's line.
Or just call in to Sprint, VZW, or ATT and ask (beg :p ) for an earlier upgrade.

I am glad that you got this and are happy about it...go ahead and bask in your moment haha. But unfortunately it's not too "sweet" of a workaround...but so long as you're happy!

But yeah. There are other ways to do this. For example, you say you have 3 lines or whatever...maybe one of those has an upgrade available you could take. I dunno. What you got is just one of the many options around.
 
norcalbear84 said:
Who are you to judge my spending habits? Go annoy someone else.
And if you had read my thread, you would notice that i'm not really spending an extra $10 since I am saving $10 by switching to a cheaper plan that offers me 100 less anytime minutes per month (which doesn't really affect me since I never use all my anytime minutes as it is and also have a huge rollover surplus) but that also allows me to add up to 2 additional lines (since the one im on now is capped at 3)
Click to expand...

Don't get pissed at him when you come here saying how tight money is and then procede to tell us all how you're able to afford to get the i5. YOU opened the door for any one and any one to "judge" you by coming onto an open forum and telling us all this information about yourself. I back his opinion, IF money is so tight maybe spending $300 or so for a new iPhone isn't in your best financial interest.
 
norcalbear84 said:
Apparantly there are lots of bitter Bobs on tonight who are likely venting their frustration of not being able to get the new iPhone by trolling in others threads. To those who this thread helps out in any way, grats and enjoy your new iPhone! That's all for now! Peace PS- it's better to not say anything at all if you don't have anything nice to say, just a friendly tip ;)
Click to expand...
Apparently when you start a thread in a public forum you believe you are entitled to receiving only favorable responses. Oh wait, that has to be the case considering you believe that by AT&T forcing you to buy an iPhone at a subsidized price whereby you're required to carry out the majority of your contract is an "unfavorable" situation to you and all other subscribers.

norcalbear84 said:
It's not about the credit. It's about ATT offering a resolution to a unfavorable situation that (judging by past threads in the recent days), i'm not the only one experiencing. Anyways, i'm over it. I'm happy and stoked for Sept 12, Later!
Click to expand...
Unfavorable situation? You mean being asked to carry out the majority of a 24 month contract? Yeah, I call that unfavorable. Stop signing contracts if you don't intend to carry them out. Yeah **** you AT&T and all companies who expect you to carry out a contract ... those unfavorable asstards.


Oh wait, congratulations on finding a loophole to get you a new iPhone early at the subsidized price because paying more would have put you in financial distress.
 
jessica. said:
Oh wait, congratulations on finding a loophole to get you a new iPhone early at the subsidized price because paying more would have put you in financial distress.
Click to expand...
I like your signature. I've noticed a lot of people putting what devices/computers they own in their signature and thought how silly it was. Not sure why they think anyone cares but yet they list them there all the same. Think I may steal that for my sig..... I'll give you credit of course.
 
My first thought was to tell the OP to get a better/second job if an iPhone is such a high priority. Converting an account to a family plan and adding an additional line has always been an option available to anybody on any carrier. The free rollover mins,, meh. I suppose that might be the only real perk that AT&T extended to the OP. But, temporary cache of voice mins cost them nothing to distribute to a handful of people out of the millions who are using less voice and more text/data these days.

Not sure there was any big reveal of a loophole here. Nothing occurred that the OP couldn't have done himself on the AT&T web site when he upgraded.
 
AFDoc said:
I like your signature. I've noticed a lot of people putting what devices/computers they own in their signature and thought how silly it was. Not sure why they think anyone cares but yet they list them there all the same. Think I may steal that for my sig..... I'll give you credit of course.
Click to expand...

Steal away buddy.
 
I've done this in the past NorCal. It's kind of like a payment plan on a new phone.

One problem I see. If you're tight on cash, what if the problem changes and you have to terminate the line? The fee for terminating a line with a smartphone is higher than a dumb phone. Remember, this line was used to purchase an iPhone. It doesn't matter if you put no phone or a crappy phone afterwards. AT&T will still charge you the higher ETF because of the iPhone. Just a thought for you.
 
AFDoc said:
I like your signature. I've noticed a lot of people putting what devices/computers they own in their signature and thought how silly it was. Not sure why they think anyone cares but yet they list them there all the same. Think I may steal that for my sig..... I'll give you credit of course.
Click to expand...

In the old MacRumors days before this practice became commonplace, we'd have posters asking each other what device they have (e.g., "Hey, thanks for the advice. What iMac do you have?" in the iMac forum.). So, no, not everybody is like you and Jessica and don't care.
 
JayLenochiniMac said:
In the old MacRumors days before this practice became commonplace, we'd have posters asking each other what device they have (e.g., "Hey, thanks for the advice. What iMac do you have?" in the iMac forum.). So, no, not everybody is like you and Jessica and don't care.
Click to expand...

Agreed. It can be helpful on equipment forums when trying to resolve an issue for someone. At least that is my experience participating in photography related forums.
 
One problem with this plan is that an extra $10/mo line usually costs like $12.50/mo after taxes and fees. OTOH, if you actually have a family member who could use a dumb phone, then it is a decent idea.
 
i hate threads like this. for starters, the OP's are usually trying to express their excitement, but come off looking particulary odd given their situation/priorities. secondly, all the replies are from people being judgemental and thinking their own ***** doesn't stink. both sides disgust me. time to skip this thread.
 
Congrats on saving some cash every month! Don't pay any attention to the jealous people who feel the need to chime in with negative comments...
 
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