Deals: A Look at the iPhone 13 Sales Offered by AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Best Buy, and More

[sirozha]

We actually needed to replace my daughter's 8+ before she left for a semester abroad earlier this month, and the best deal I found at the time was getting an ATT installment deal on a 12 Pro Max (it was cheaper than getting her an SE at the time!). But we didn''t realize until it was too late that the phone is locked on ATT until the installments are done, so she couldn't get a local SIM card. The only option was a)to immediately pay off the balance of the phone (which was possible, so the answer to your question is yes), or b)go with ATT's international plan, which turns out to be $100 per month if you use it all month. We opted for the latter.

My other daughter has an 8+ as well and I am debating this ATT deal as well, but frankly all the credits, tracking the trade-in, etc drive me up a freaking wall.

I always paid cash for my iPhones. As long as I remember anyways. Last year, T-Mobile had an offer I couldn’t resist to go on an installment plan. I traded in my iPhone 7 and got the iPhone SE (second generation) with 128 GB for $1.39 per month or something like that stretched out for 24 months. They told me they would unlock it after 60 days of service. Since I knew I was stuck in the US due to COVID, I thought I could wait for 60 days. When I called them 60 days later, they unlocked my iPhone.

Also, T-Mobile has low-price (or free) international roaming and free data (non-LTE) in most of the world. In Canada and Mexico, the data is LTE and you get to keep your US maximum, which I think is 29 GB per month or something like that. Calling to Canada and Mexico from the US is also free, so when you are in those countries, you can call any local numbers for free.

Since my international travels include mostly Canada, I feel completely at home there with T-Mobile. Moreover, I have a choice of carriers that I can switch to with a flick of my finger, so if one has poor coverage, I can choose another one, which even Canadians can’t do.

So, even though I always buy unlocked iPhones, with T-Mobile, I really don’t even need an unlocked one because their international plans are so freaking awesome. By the way, I switched to T-Mobile in 2017 because I had a business trip to Canada coming up, and my carrier - AT&T wanted to charge me $1.99 per minute roaming in Canada with no other choices. I thought they were crazy, so I switched to T-Mobile and never looked back.

 

[Jdavis21]

Where are the Cricket sales?! Who still uses these overpriced, ripoff carriers? I was paying $173 a month on Verizon for a whopping 4GB of data with an iPhone and iPad. I now pay $50 on Cricket for that same iPhone and iPad for unlimited data.

 

[dmylrea]

Where are the Cricket sales?! Who still uses these overpriced, ripoff carriers? I was paying $173 a month on Verizon for a whopping 4GB of data with an iPhone and iPad. I now pay $50 on Cricket for that same iPhone and iPad for unlimited data.

You are on a slim-margin carrier and get lower monthly rates instead of free phones. You can't have it both ways.

Clearly, you were getting ripped off by Verizon if that was just for the two devices.

 

[Jdavis21]

You are on a slim-margin carrier and get lower monthly rates instead of free phones. You can't have it both ways.

Clearly, you were getting ripped off by Verizon if that was just for the two devices.

True, but Cricket does have some good sales at times. They had the SE 2020 on sale for $49 earlier this year. Guess I shouldn't expect sale priced on brand new phones. I still love my 12 anyways.

 

[GuruZac]

Wasn't going to upgrade, was actually vocal here about keeping my 11 Pro another year, but Verizon is giving my wife and I $1000 each to trade our 11 Pros to a 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max for her. I went with Graphite and she did Gold. It's costing us $13/mo more on our Verizon bill than what we were paying. That's too good of a deal to pass up.

 

[coasterider]

Was not going to upgrade but then my XS battery got too unhealthy and it was battery replacement or upgrade.

Xfinity Mobile offering $300 cash back for upgrading to any iPhone. That plus $235 from Apple for iPhone XS makes this easy to upgrade to a 13 Mini. 24 month payment plan, $12 full protection plan that includes AppleCare for 24 months.

 

[crispywisp]

I've just received a notification from my UPS app.

 

[cale508]

How much was it new?

$1,199

 

[cale508]

And what plan do you have to purchase?

Play More Unlimited Plan.

 

[erinsarah]

I always paid cash for my iPhones. As long as I remember anyways. Last year, T-Mobile had an offer I couldn’t resist to go on an installment plan. I traded in my iPhone 7 and got the iPhone SE (second generation) with 128 GB for $1.39 per month or something like that stretched out for 24 months. They told me they would unlock it after 60 days of service. Since I knew I was stuck in the US due to COVID, I thought I could wait for 60 days. When I called them 60 days later, they unlocked my iPhone.

Also, T-Mobile has low-price (or free) international roaming and free data (non-LTE) in most of the world. In Canada and Mexico, the data is LTE and you get to keep your US maximum, which I think is 29 GB per month or something like that. Calling to Canada and Mexico from the US is also free, so when you are in those countries, you can call any local numbers for free.

Since my international travels include mostly Canada, I feel completely at home there with T-Mobile. Moreover, I have a choice of carriers that I can switch to with a flick of my finger, so if one has poor coverage, I can choose another one, which even Canadians can’t do.

So, even though I always buy unlocked iPhones, with T-Mobile, I really don’t even need an unlocked one because their international plans are so freaking awesome. By the way, I switched to T-Mobile in 2017 because I had a business trip to Canada coming up, and my carrier - AT&T wanted to charge me $1.99 per minute roaming in Canada with no other choices. I thought they were crazy, so I switched to T-Mobile and never looked back.

Funny you mention that...I've been on ATT since my first cell phone in the early 90's. I actually just had a thought this morning about checking whether we could switch JUST my one kid over to T-Mobile. Time for some research.

 

[VTECaddict]

I hate all this bill credit crap. Just give me a decent discount up front. They're just turning around and selling the traded in devices for more than they give you anyway. I don't want to finance the phone. I want to pay for it and be done.

The bill credits are just the early termination fees from yesteryear repackaged.

The carrier has absolutely zero incentive to give you a flat equipment discount without any guarantee you will stay with them. The whole reason they offer a discount is to lock you in for a certain period of time so they can make their money back. Now that everyone has dropped “service contracts” they have switched to equipment contracts. If you leave your provider then you don’t get the rest of your bill credits/discounts and still have to pay off the device.

If you want to be one and done and own your phone then pay full retail.

 

[applesque]

Play More Unlimited Plan.

Thanks for the info!

 

[lakerchick4life]

this is my first iphone..I have tmobile(Family plan) and I see on best buys site if you order through them, the phone is 100 bucks off..sounds good right? Not sure if anything additional is required other than my brother in law putting in his info on checkout