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Other Directly from Apple or From Carrier?

N

Ncage1974

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 25, 2012
58
12
For those getting a new iphone are most of you getting your new phone through your carrier or apple directly. Honestly i would prefer to get mine directly from apple unlocked but there were a couple reasons i chose to get my phone directly through my carrier (Xfinity)(which will be locked). The biggest reason is they were offering $400 off the phone (even for current subscribers) which is just too good to pass up. The 2nd reason for me was i have a gift card through apple from selling them an old macbook. Apple makes it a hassle to use to use the gift card. If you choose to do the monthly installments through the apple card there is no way to enter a gift card so you must call apple to be able to use it which was impossible of course last friday.

I guess the big disadvantage would if i do international travel and i want to buy cheap service where i'm at which i don't know will work as well anymore because of esim but i'll be stuck because it will be locked.
 
Direct with Apple. I am with Xfinity also and if you go through Xfinity, your monthly plan goes up $10 because you’re paying for 5G then whereas if you just swap sims, you still get 5G and keep the original “cheap” price.

I believe they force you to the unlimited plan as well?? Maybe someone can comment on if I am accurate on that but we use the 10gb plan as we’ve never need more so I don’t want to be pushed to another level. FWIW, my family has 5 phones and our monthly with Xfinity is $60 before taxes. Not too shabby.
 
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I used to go through my carrier upgrade program but much prefer buying up front direct from Apple now. I trust Apple's process a lot more and they are a lot easier to deal with in terms of returns and repairs. Another big reason is I like having an unlocked device. Even though I don't switch between carriers at the moment I like having the option to add another esim plan if need be.
 
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I saved $800 using Verizon with trade, so direct with Apple would leave a lot of money on the table. Plus Verizon phones are unlocked.
 
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Also I believe that buying from Verizon carrier, it is locked for 60 days oppose to buying it directly from apple, which remains unlocked. That's another reason.

I travel so need an unlocked phone.
 
Went through apple and used the carrier with them for my wife’s mini to 14. You don’t have to go through your carrier. It’s the same deal either way apple has access to their systems.

She got $800 for her 13 mini (T-Mobile) and i used the apple site.
C9135325-58E5-465A-B904-E62425E9C3D7.png
 
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Shadowbech said:
Yes really, if it was android maybe, but for iphones, i'm on IUP so.
Click to expand...
The problem with going through the carrier for android phones is that android carriers tend to lock parts of android for their own benefit and they also install garbage games and other apps. My Verizon Note 20 Ultra came with an handful of games and other crap that could not be uninstalled, as well as a bunch of Verizon apps. They also hid the setting to switch between 5g and 4g and removed all of Samsung and androids native spam blocking features so that they could try and upsell their own spam blocking. If I am not mistaken, carriers are not allowed to modify iPhones like that.
 
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MacAndMic said:
Direct with Apple. I am with Xfinity also and if you go through Xfinity, your monthly plan goes up $10 because you’re paying for 5G then whereas if you just swap sims, you still get 5G and keep the original “cheap” price.

I believe they force you to the unlimited plan as well?? Maybe someone can comment on if I am accurate on that but we use the 10gb plan as we’ve never need more so I don’t want to be pushed to another level. FWIW, my family has 5 phones and our monthly with Xfinity is $60 before taxes. Not too shabby.
Click to expand...

I’m with xfinity mobile. I’m looking at the $400 off deal, and I don’t see anything stating they would force me to the unlimited plan (I use pay by the gig, the 3 gb plan).

Also hadn’t heard about being forced to pay more per month for 5G with the upgrade— I was about to pull the trigger, but will go back and look at the fine print.

Update:
I read through the fine print on the xfinity mobile site for this upgrade deal, and there isn’t any mention of having to upgrade to unlimited data or having to pay more this time around for 5G. The only catch to get the deal is having to buy the device on a 24 payment plan instead of paying cash.
 
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Shh said:
Apple. You can't get an unlocked phone from a carrier. And I hate contracts and being locked into carriers.
Click to expand...

$300 discount on iPhone 13 pro last November.
60 days with Verizon, then unlocked.
Nearly 30% discount for sticking with Verizon for 2 months.
Nothing wrong with that!
(Still with them BTW).
 
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Splitrail said:
$300 discount on iPhone 13 pro last November.
60 days with Verizon, then unlocked.
Nearly 30% discount for sticking with Verizon for 2 months.
Nothing wrong with that!
(Still with them BTW).
Click to expand...
I suppose that's true, I just hate being tied to them in any way. With my Apple Card though, I can sell my phone while it still has money left on it, use the money to pay off the rest of the phone, then put that money toward a new phone. Maybe I'm just nuts. 😅
 
jm31828 said:
I’m with xfinity mobile. I’m looking at the $400 off deal, and I don’t see anything stating they would force me to the unlimited plan (I use pay by the gig, the 3 gb plan).

Also hadn’t heard about being forced to pay more per month for 5G with the upgrade— I was about to pull the trigger, but will go back and look at the fine print.

Update:
I read through the fine print on the xfinity mobile site for this upgrade deal, and there isn’t any mention of having to upgrade to unlimited data or having to pay more this time around for 5G. The only catch to get the deal is having to buy the device on a 24 payment plan instead of paying cash.
Click to expand...

I just looked at their plans and found this.

For accounts opened after 5/18/20, with By the Gig lines, a minimum $15.00 charge applies per month
Click to expand...

This is what I was referencing with the 5G cost upgrade. A few years ago, their plans were $10 per line but if you bought a 5G capable phone, you were pushed to the $15 per month. This sounds like it has changed from my last experience as if I read this correctly, if you have an existing number (not opening a new line) you should be able to still retain the $10 per line rate.

Are you paying $10 or $15 per line? I am currently paying $10 per line per phone (5 lines) as all of our phones are bought separately from the account and just sim swapped but all of our phones are 5G.

Good to see they are not forcing people to the unlimited plan. Even though their unlimited plan is still a good deal in comparison to other providers.
 
I’ve been buying direct from apple since the iPhone 6. I haven’t bought bought a phone or walked into an AT&T store in years.
 
I've bought both from carriers and Apple in the past; the iPhone 12 was purchased from Apple, but with AT&T chosen as the carrier.

With this last one, considering the deals with T-Mobile were no different than with Apple, I simply purchased an unlocked phone straight from Apple themselves.
 
With the eSim my understanding is all iPhone 14s are the same (hope Iʻm not wrong), so I purchased directly from Apple this time. Last 2 iPhones were from T-Mobile with trade ins, this round Iʻm keeping my 11 as a music player. T-mobile has been okay but they screwed my last vacation by not having the coverage they promised and some other carriers like Visible are interesting.
 
Personally, I always buy through the carrier because they give away free phones or give you a hefty discount in exchange for a lock-up period. When I can save money I do -- especially when I plan to keep the phone for two years or more anyways. It's really not a hard decision.
 
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Madhatter32 said:
Personally, I always buy through the carrier because they give away free phones or give you a hefty discount in exchange for a lock-up period. When I can save money I do -- especially when I plan to keep the phone for two years or more anyways. It's really not a hard decision.
Click to expand...
My 60 day "lock up period" with Verizon saved me $300 on the phone!
 
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Kung said:
I've bought both from carriers and Apple in the past; the iPhone 12 was purchased from Apple, but with AT&T chosen as the carrier.

With this last one, considering the deals with T-Mobile were no different than with Apple, I simply purchased an unlocked phone straight from Apple themselves.
Click to expand...
So, was the iPhone AT&T branded?
 
I buy from the carrier (Verizon in my case). Carriers usually have the best deals. I’ve never paid more than $200 for the newest iPhone, and already had the unlimited 5G plan so that didn’t affect me. Sure, I need to stick with them to get the full benefit of the trade-in, but I have no intention of switching carriers and I upgrade every two or three years anyway.

Being “locked in” doesn’t have the same meaning as it did years ago. Most carriers don’t do contracts with termination fees anymore, so you really aren’t locked in. (Verizon and AT&T will unlock their phones 60 days after activation. T-mobile will unlock their phones 40 days after activation.) If you want to switch to another carrier, just pay off the remainder of your phone balance and leave. It doesn’t cost any more than if you had bought it outright. It’ll actually be less since you would have used some of the monthly trade-in credits. The other carrier might even offer to pay you to leave to join theirs.
 
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