That is true...but with the trade in we end up not paying for the phone anymore.
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Best Buy Offering Free 16GB iPhone 5s With Trade-In of iPhone 4s or 5
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That is true...but with the trade in we end up not paying for the phone anymore.
No, all of the phones are bought before I switched plans so I did not have to pay any add-on fee (they don't charge monthly fees for relatively new phones either like the iPhone 5S). I have did the math and found out that this plan is still cheaper than contracts even after buying 2 iPhone 5S's outright.
By buying a subsidized iPhone (~$200 instead of ~$600) you essentially take out a loan and promise to pay back the phone as part of the two-year contract. The only problem is that the quasi-interest rate is probably like 30% per year. In other words, the carriers are not only making money with their min/text/data plans but also by charging $1000+ for a phone that you could have bought for $649 from Apple directly. It's not really a scam but people actually think that phones only cost a couple hundred dollars.
Just for reference, AT&T made $18,000,000,000.00 in profits last year. I wonder why.
Maybe I'm missing something here and you can help me with it. As far as I know, getting service from a mobile provider has the same price across the board, whether you transfer your existing smartphone to them (without contract, obviously) or if you purchase a two year contracted phone through them. A 10gb data plan for that iPhone 5 you bought unsubsidized at the Apple store is still going to cost you $80 some odd dollars. If you don't plan on switching service providers for a couple of years, what's the down side of getting that phone at the contracted, subsidized price, essentially saving you a few hundred bucks?
I see the draw of having no contract if you want to jump from Verizon to Tmo to AT&T year after year, but honestly with the network coverage getting better from all service providers, why even bother with the hassle? On the subject of no-contract service, I get it if you want to have the newest device every year with a Next program or whatever, but that's essentially leasing a phone. Why do that too?
Like I said, maybe I'm missing something here. I don't see the harm in having a 2 year contract with a network I plan on staying with for 2+ years, and I get to keep the phone afterwards.
With the 10g mobile share plan you only pay $15 a month for the line if you bring your own phone. You pay $40 a month if you have a contract.
Thats a new thing and really only on one or two carriers, so not even close to everyone. And up until recently practically no one had that either.
Buy new iPhone = $650
(Can't afford that all at once? Put it on a credit card and pay it off in 6 months.)
Sign contract with AT&T?
$199 up-front + $36 activation fee + $25 a month addition on bill for subsidy + 2-year contract = $835 for the same phone.
Make note of this stuff. This says Best Buy is offering a *** FREE *** iPhone. You just have to trade in your worthless old phone.
Even if you got the $199 up-front cost waived by giving them your old phone, you're still out $636.
1) The iPhone you get is not "free" - it costs you a lot more than if you just bought it direct from Apple.
2) They are ripping you off. They are giving you a few bucks for something that you could sell for $300 elsewhere. After paying you $150 for your old iPhone, they will turn around and sell the same phone for around $635 to $735 to the next sucker that signs up for this.
Why $735? Look at the above cost for signing a contract with AT&T. They will discount the device $100-$200 for being older. They still make a LOT of money on this.
Recommended:
1) Sell your old phone on someplace like eBay, Craigslist, or Swappa.
2) Use the money from your old phone toward buying the new phone outright.
I am contract free but I couldn't convince my brother not to do so. For him, it makes sense to sign a contract as he gets discount from his employer, He also upgrades on the dot every two years. so it actually ends up being cheaper.
No one size fits all.
$636 seems cheaper than $650.
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Yup, there are all kinds of things like discounts and other deals that people have that can make a contract more appealing and cheaper than buying full price or something similar to that.
You give them a $200-$300 phone to get a $649 iPhone for only $636.
Does that make sense?
You're trading in a phone (worth $200-$300) to get just $13 off the cost of an iPhone.
i see what you meant in that comparison.
However, take Verizon for example, trade-in aside, no monthly discount for brining your own phone, so going with a contract with some sort of a deal/discount might be a better idea for someone (especially if there's some work discount or something else factored in too).
Bingo, that's my point. I'm with verizon so there's no monthly discount if I bring my phone in or not. I thought it was ALWAYS this way, until i saw that AT&T just recently start charging extra for a subsidized phone on the monthly statement. What rip offs!
In addition to that, my work gives me a 25% discount on my monthly bill through Verizon. You're right-- one size doesn't fit all, but I still don't see the draw of buying a phone outright if you plan on keeping the same carrier for more than a couple of years, barring AT&T as a carrier option.
This actually isn't that bad of a deal coming from Best Buy. Especially for those who really want the 5S. Personally, I would rather sell my older phone privately since I could probably fetch more money that way than trading it into a retail store.
I don't see how this is as bad a deal as people are making it out to be. Most other trade-in sites will give me $85 for my 4s, and also not getting the discount on the 5s. I'm bummed that I missed this offer. I wonder if there's a way to get this offer another way?
Or you can just
1) sell your phone to UpgradeSwap and get a much more fair payout
2) use the money to get the 5S
3) great success
1) sell your phone to UpgradeSwap and get a much more fair payout
2) use the money to get the 5S
3) great success
Probably a good "Deal" for trading in a 4s, but getting 150 for your iphone...you're getting ripped off.