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If you upgrade at 12 months and give the iPhone back to AT&T do you have to pay the remaining payments or are they nullified by returning the phone?

Trading in the phone after a year is usually a bad choice because you've essentially leased the phone.
You make a year's worth of payments and walk away with nothing.
Might be a better choice to pay off the iPhone 6 before upgrading to the 6S and then selling the 6.
 
No need to do anything tricky or complicated.
I work for Verizon. What you're wanting is an "alternate upgrade".
We do them every day!!!!! Easy as pie, the rep will know EXACTLY what you're talking about.

Note: be aware that it WILL put your dad's line on a contract again of course; so don't do it if he's leaving VZ anytime soon, lol!

Do you know if I can do all that above but get the phone at Walmart because they are having a deal. First go to Verizon and get all the lines worked out and switch phones, take the 200 credit to Walmart and get the iPhone plus for 279 (pay the 79 dollars out of pocket)?
 
Do you know if I can do all that above but get the phone at Walmart because they are having a deal. First go to Verizon and get all the lines worked out and switch phones, take the 200 credit to Walmart and get the iPhone plus for 279 (pay the 79 dollars out of pocket)?

Not sure I'm fully comprehending...
If you're only getting one phone, you can EITHER get it at Verizon proper (my suggestion) or Verizon Walmart... obviously you can't buy one phone at two places... so I'm not clear on how you'd use your upgrade at Verizon & trade in your old phone to get a $200 credit toward your new iPhone... but then take that $200 credit to Walmart & use it to buy the same phone, using the same upgrade. Lol, am I misunderstanding what you're wanting to do??
You know you ONLY get the $200 from Verizon if you actually upgrade, right?
You can't go get $200 for your old 4S, THEN take that upgrade to Walmart. The upgrade is gone... you used it to get the $200 rebate card!!!!
Btw, they take two weeks to get there in the mail- so you need all the cash up front.
In a nutshell- at VZ proper, you can pay $299 for the 6+ & get reimbursed $200, making it $99.... at Walmart you can pay $279 & have it stay $279.
 
For example, an AT&T user who purchased an iPhone 5s on release day on a two-year contract would be able to purchase an iPhone 6 for $649 on pre-order day, but would also be eligible for an early upgrade on September 21, which provides a $200 discount. This option also displays what Next monthly fees would be.

Really? I just checked my upgrade eligibility and I am interested in the Early (1-yr.) upgrade for $200 less than retail. I bought my 5s on RELEASE DAY, but it still says not yet eligible because you couldn't pre-order the 5s last year. It just doesn't make any sense that they wouldn't be "in sync" by now and not mess around with a few days here and there. WTF! I've successfully upgraded every year since the iPhone 4 this way. :-(

Does this mean on the day or sometime tomorrow, they will change it???

As for outright buying it, there was an option going through apple.com's for AT&T for the full price and it said (no contract extension required)

These two things are totally unclear to me from the article. PLEASE HELP!!!
 
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Really? I just checked my upgrade eligibility and I am interested in the Early (1-yr.) upgrade for $200 less than retail. I bought my 5s on RELEASE DAY, but it still says not yet eligible because the 5s you couldn't pre-order last year.

Does this mean on the day or sometime tomorrow, they will change it???

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the situation, but it isn't September 21st yet. Even the part of the article you posted says you aren't going to be eligible at launch.
 
Suppose you made the first 12 AT&T Next payments and now become upgrade eligible, but have to trade in your phone.. do you FIRST have to mail your phone into AT&T before ordering the new model, or can you mail it in after starting the new AT&T Next upgrade plan? In other words, can you wait to mail the phone back in till your new phone arrives?

I'm looking for this info as well and can't find it.

Does AT&T need the phone back FIRST before you can get a new phone? Whether you have paid the 12 months or plan to pay-up.....do you need to send in the phone first?

-Kevin
 
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the situation, but it isn't September 21st yet. Even the part of the article you posted says you aren't going to be eligible at launch.

Thanks, bud! You're totally right. I just re-read the article and at the end it says you have to wait until 9/21. 9-day differential. How lame. They should make it EASY for customers.

One last question about AT&T Next, though: If I'm understanding everything correctly, I would benefit from going through Next, seeing that my contract is from before January 2014, and that it would be canceled without ETF. Will I then be able to do a full 2-year subsidy next year after paying the phone off, only to sell it instead of trading it in?
 
Does anyone know what information I need in order to pre-order my iPhone 6 on Apple's website? What is the process? I've never pre-ordered from Apple before.
 
This helped me quite a bit actually: Yes, they are slightly oversized with the cardboard so I could theoretically account for the Apple leather case. :)

5l3pm02.jpg

I did that too. While the 6+ did seem pretty big when you cut it out i could hold it in my had fine and fit it in my pocket.
 
And someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but if you use AT&T Next to upgrade every 12 months....in the long run aren't you paying MORE because AT&T is getting you to pay 12 months on the phone?

For example if you used Next and went a full 24 months, your phone payments stop after 20 months. But if you upgrade after 12, then over those same 24 months, you'd be paying 12x12 for the 2 phones and have nothing to show in the end? Whereas after the 24 months you'd have a phone you could sell.

-Kevin
 
And someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but if you use AT&T Next to upgrade every 12 months....in the long run aren't you paying MORE because AT&T is getting you to pay 12 months on the phone?

You're not paying more but you're not getting value for what you are paying.
You make a year's worth of payments and you end up with nothing.
Next gives you that option but to me it's a bad option.
Of course, I'd never lease a car but millions of people do that also.
It's all about choices and what works for you.
 
You're not paying more but you're not getting value for what you are paying.
You make a year's worth of payments and you end up with nothing.
Next gives you that option but to me it's a bad option.
Of course, I'd never lease a car but millions of people do that also.
It's all about choices and what works for you.

Also seems that Next can be a savings for single lines.....but once you add a second line, every calculation I do, the 2yr agreement ends up being less.

2 phones on Next, 2GB data over 24 months = $3,460.00
2 phones on 2yr, 2GB data over 24 months = $3,360.00 (this includes the price of both phones and the activation fees)

I notice that ALL the AT&T examples only deal with 1 line.

-Kevin
 
Also seems that Next can be a savings for single lines.....but once you add a second line, every calculation I do, the 2yr agreement ends up being less.

Hard to check your numbers but for me, with two phones on a Mobile Share Value plan, the Next price and the contract price are almost identical.
Only difference is that contract pays more up front.
 
Does anyone know if there is a financial incentive to buy the phone outright more than just being able to cancel your contract without a penalty? Will my monthly payment to At&t be reduced if I buy the phone with no contract?
 
Hard to check your numbers but for me, with two phones on a Mobile Share Value plan, the Next price and the contract price are almost identical.
Only difference is that contract pays more up front.

For my example I used:

(2) - iPhone 6 16GB for either $199 on contract or $32.50/month on Next
$40 activation fee x2 for the contract phones

2GB data plan for $40/month
Next service for each line would be $25/month
Contract service for each line would be $40/month

So on Next:

($32.50 + $32.50) x 20 months = $1,300.00
($40 data + $25 line + $25 line) x 24 months = $2,160.00
Total after 24 months = $3,460.00

For 2 yr contract:

($199 + $199 + $40 +40) one time fees = $478
($40 data + $40 line + $40 line) x 24 months = $2,880.00
Total after 24 months = $3,358.00


Am I missing something?

-Kevin
 
So is AT&T not really subsidizing the phone? My contract is up on 9/14 so when I check my upgrade availability it's showing a 6+ 64gig phone is $399 but with the NEXT payments at $42.45. Does that mean I'm still going to have to pay an extra 42.45 per month?

Basically I'm obviously not understanding what this whole NEXT thing is.
 
So is AT&T not really subsidizing the phone? My contract is up on 9/14 so when I check my upgrade availability it's showing a 6+ 64gig phone is $399 but with the NEXT payments at $42.45. Does that mean I'm still going to have to pay an extra 42.45 per month?

Correct, with Next there is no one time fee for the phone. You instead pay over either 20 months or 24 months that fee.

Read through this post.....it explains it best:
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/19619501/

-Kevin

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Does anyone know if there is a financial incentive to buy the phone outright more than just being able to cancel your contract without a penalty? Will my monthly payment to At&t be reduced if I buy the phone with no contract?

Yes. Per this page:
http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html

Is you have a phone that you bought outright, your monthly service is either:

$25/month if your data is 300MB - 6GB plans
$15/month if your data is 10GB - 50GB plans

Although with Next, AT&T is basically leasing you the phone interest free.....so you can either pay it all up front or with Next spread out the payments.

-Kevin
 
AT&T Next is really a scam! Do your research people.. you will end up paying more with the Next plan. Just look at the review videos on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdBuiDrook4

That's old info. AT&T has updated the NEXT plans. I completely understand why people are skeptical. I didn't switch to NEXT when it originally came out last year. I also like to pay for the device in full up front. However, I did a cost comparison when I went into AT&T last week and NEXT is cheaper for me. I can also pay off the full cost of the device on day 1 and my wireless bill is much cheaper ($130 for two lines vs. $169 under old contract plan). NEXT also gave me access to wireless hot spot and tethering which I didn't have under the old grandfathered unlimited plan.
 
So is AT&T not really subsidizing the phone? My contract is up on 9/14 so when I check my upgrade availability it's showing a 6+ 64gig phone is $399 but with the NEXT payments at $42.45. Does that mean I'm still going to have to pay an extra 42.45 per month?

Basically I'm obviously not understanding what this whole NEXT thing is.
Yours is the same as mine.

$399 is the subsidized price on a 2-year contract.

$42.45 is your monthly fee if you choose NEXT.
 
Wow, I gotta say, reading through all these posts and some things are confusing. I people comparing Next vs 2yr contract but using the 20mo in the AT&T Next plan vs 24mo in a 2yr contract. So for my purposes, I wanted to compare Apples to Apples (see what I did there?) and how much would each option be over 24mo, here goes...

Preface: I pay for 2 iPhones (mine and my mother's). One is a grandfathered unlimited plan, other is a 2GB plan. I have a 21% FAN discount.

AT&T Next
10GB Shared plan = $100/mo
Per Line charge x 2 = $30/mo
iPhone, 128GB = $47.45/mo
Per AT&T Support, FAN only applies to the shared plan, not the line charges so:
79*24 + 30*24 + 47.45*20 = $3565

Current Plan
550min Family Talk = $60/mo ($50+$10/line)
2GB Data Pro = $25/mo
Unlimited Data = $30/mo
Unlimited Shared Texting = $30/mo

With 21% discount on all the above x 24mo= $2950.56
Upgrade Fee=$40
iPhone 6+, 128GB = $499
Total = $3489.56

As I don't expect to leave AT&T any time soon, I get an upgrade every year from each line, and over the life of the contract, I am saving $75.44 plus I get to keep my unlimited data plan. Guess Next seems ok, just not for me. :)
 
So is AT&T not really subsidizing the phone? My contract is up on 9/14 so when I check my upgrade availability it's showing a 6+ 64gig phone is $399 but with the NEXT payments at $42.45. Does that mean I'm still going to have to pay an extra 42.45 per month?

Basically I'm obviously not understanding what this whole NEXT thing is.

NEXT is you pay $0 when buying the phone and it will be your bill plus $42.45 per month for 2 years. after two years the $42.45 will fall off the bill. or you can pay full price when buying it and no extra payments

----------

Wow, I gotta say, reading through all these posts and some things are confusing. I people comparing Next vs 2yr contract but using the 20mo in the AT&T Next plan vs 24mo in a 2yr contract. So for my purposes, I wanted to compare Apples to Apples (see what I did there?) and how much would each option be over 24mo, here goes...

Preface: I pay for 2 iPhones (mine and my mother's). One is a grandfathered unlimited plan, other is a 2GB plan. I have a 21% FAN discount.

AT&T Next
10GB Shared plan = $100/mo
Per Line charge x 2 = $30/mo
iPhone, 128GB = $47.45/mo
Per AT&T Support, FAN only applies to the shared plan, not the line charges so:
79*24 + 30*24 + 47.45*20 = $3565

Current Plan
550min Family Talk = $60/mo ($50+$10/line)
2GB Data Pro = $25/mo
Unlimited Data = $30/mo
Unlimited Shared Texting = $30/mo

With 21% discount on all the above x 24mo= $2950.56
Upgrade Fee=$40
iPhone 6+, 128GB = $499
Total = $3489.56

As I don't expect to leave AT&T any time soon, I get an upgrade every year from each line, and over the life of the contract, I am saving $75.44 plus I get to keep my unlimited data plan. Guess Next seems ok, just not for me. :)


since you said you buy a phone every year, add another line item for that second phone
 
What options do you have after 2yr contract

Can anyone tell me.....after you satisfy your 2yr contract on AT&T....technically the phone is yours, but your plan doesn't change. You're still paying the $40/month/phone on the plan....you are now just month-to-month.

What options do you have? How do you reduce that cost? Do you have to signup for a new Next plan....but now you are brining your own device (since it's paid off)? How does that work term wise? Are you locked into a length or term since you wouldn't be making phone payments?

-Kevin
 
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