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Do you buy your phone off-contract or with contract?

To answer the OP, we're currently on contract with AT&T. If I upgrade, I'm still unsure whether to go with AT&T Next or buy a Verizon iPhone from Apple at full price.

AT&T Next
pro: can order online
con: can only be unlocked once device is paid off

full price Verizon iPhone
pro: factory unlocked, works on both CDMA and GSM
con: have to line up at Apple store to buy

To be honest, it's just the having to line up part that's acting as a serious detriment to the Verizon iPhone. If I can purchase it online full price without hassle, my decision would have already been made.
 
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On contract.

I don't plan on leaving Verizon and they don't seem to charge any less when the contract expires on our business account so I don't see a reason to do otherwise.
 
Always off contract. I like the freedom to change networks if and when necessary.
 
Off-contract.

I travel often that I never use the minutes anyway, plus when I did my calculation of my usage it turned out to be cheaper for me to buy it outright and add a prepaid mobile account.

But then again I don’t live in the US and I’m aware prepaid plans are rather horrendous there. I find it funny though whenever someone from States thinks iPhone is so much cheaper there because they’re only paying 200-300 (plus contract) as opposed to 800-1000 (outright) elsewhere.
 
I purchased my 5s for around $450 directly from AT&T (I had the 5 and my contract wasn't up, so I qualified for a partial discount). For the 6, however, I plan on paying full price since I want it to be factory unlocked. This is probably how I will proceed moving forward.
 
tiartrop said:
But then again I don’t live in the US and I’m aware prepaid plans are rather horrendous there. I find it funny though whenever someone from States thinks iPhone is so much cheaper there because they’re only paying 200-300 (plus contract) as opposed to 800-1000 (outright) elsewhere.
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The prepaid plans are actually getting better (even if you need to have AT&T or Verizon MVNO). However, we have family plans in the US and depending on your usage, cost of service on postpaid can be around the same or even lower than having a separate prepaid line for each device.
 
Contract bi-annually, and I occasionally purchase something inbetween if it grabs my fancy and I'm cash rich. I'll be picking up either the iPhone 6 or the Note 4 off-contract as my renewal date is June 2015.
 
I've never signed a carrier contract, and I never will. I didn't bother with smartphones until reasonably priced contract-free plans with realistic data allowances became available.

I paid $750 for an unlocked 5s on the release date, and $30 per month for service. Because I own the phone outright, I retain the option to take my phone to a different carrier at any time, if someone makes me a better offer.
 
runningtowin said:
Wait... Can you really not buy an off-contract online??
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You can buy the GSM iPhone off-contract from Apple Store online. Alas, that's not going to work with Verizon and the Verizon version is pretty much the only reason I'd be willing to buy outright instead of going through Next.

Woochifer said:
Because I own the phone outright, I retain the option to take my phone to a different carrier at any time, if someone makes me a better offer.
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Lol, what better offer? My only realistic options are Verizon and AT&T. I'd have to go out to the parking lot or to the roof to even get signal at work with T-Mobile and Sprint. Because of this, an unlocked GSM iPhone pretty much holds the same value as an AT&T locked iPhone to me. If ever I need to unlock (e.g. international travel), I can always just pay off the loan and request an unlock from AT&T. As I mentioned earlier, the only iPhone I'd consider buying unlocked is the Verizon iPhone since that actually gives me a choice between AT&T and Verizon. :rolleyes:
 
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tiartrop said:
But then again I don’t live in the US and I’m aware prepaid plans are rather horrendous there. I find it funny though whenever someone from States thinks iPhone is so much cheaper there because they’re only paying 200-300 (plus contract) as opposed to 800-1000 (outright) elsewhere.
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That picture has changed a lot since the beginning of last year. MVNOs like Straight Talk have supported the iPhone for a while, but T-Mobile got the ball rolling last year when they eliminated contracts. That forced GSM carrier AT&T to improve their prepaid and BYOD options. Now, there's a lot of competition with new and improved family plans. If nothing else, the data allowances have greatly improved (provided you don't have a grandfathered unlimited plan).
 
runningtowin said:
Wait... Can you really not buy an off-contract online??
Click to expand...

Through Apple, you can.

Generally, at launch (in the US at least) you would buy the T-Mobile iPhones. Since T-Mobile eliminated contracts, all of their iPhones come factory unlocked when purchased through Apple. All you need to do is pop out the unactivated SIM card, and you're good to go with whatever GSM carrier will support that particular model. That's why the T-Mobile versions were the hardest ones to find when the 5s launched.

The AT&T and Verizon models sold by Apple also come factory unlocked, but you need to specify the phone-only version. Otherwise, you might end up with a carrier-locked phone. Not sure if you can specify this version when shopping online. All of the Sprint models are carrier locked, and they will not unlock the phone for you even after you pay it off.

If you buy through a carrier store (including T-Mobile's), the phones will be carrier locked. If you pay for it outright, the carriers each have different requirements before they will unlock the phone. AT&T seems most lenient, as they will unlock any phone that's fully paid. T-Mobile requires that you pay for 40 days of service before they will unlock the phone. Not sure about Verizon. Sprint's just dick-headed about the whole thing.
 
Woochifer said:
The AT&T and Verizon models sold by Apple also come factory unlocked, but you need to specify the phone-only version. Otherwise, you might end up with a carrier-locked phone. Not sure if you can specify this version when shopping online. All of the Sprint models are carrier locked, and they will not unlock the phone for you even after you pay it off.
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Nope, can't buy the Verizon factory unlocked online for full price. When I try to buy one, it asks for my phone number, billing zip code and last 4 of SSN.

Woochifer said:
Not sure about Verizon.
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Verizon phones with LTE are factory unlocked per FCC mandate when Verizon won the auction for the 700MHz spectrum.
 
My first phone was an iPhone 5S off contract and after that I will never get another phone on contract ever again
 
rui no onna said:
Lol, what better offer? My only realistic options are Verizon and AT&T. I'd have to go out to the parking lot or to the roof to even get signal at work with T-Mobile and Sprint. Because of this, an unlocked GSM iPhone pretty much holds the same value as an AT&T locked iPhone to me. If ever I need to unlock (e.g. international travel), I can always just pay off the loan and request an unlock from AT&T. As I mentioned earlier, the only iPhone I'd consider buying unlocked is the Verizon iPhone since that actually gives me a choice between AT&T and Verizon. :rolleyes:
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In my area, T-Mobile's a very viable option. Very happy with the service, and I have decent HSPA+ or LTE reception just about everywhere I go on a regular basis. Just in the 10 months that I've had their service, the network improvements (at least in the metro areas) have been very impressive. Rural coverage is their primary weakness.

At first glance, the new AT&T family plans look pretty good (knowing them, it might look more and more like a turd once I read the terms and conditions). If my wife and my parents want to upgrade to smartphones, then I can bundle four lines and transfer my phone over to AT&T at any time.

Or if Straight Talk or another MVNO introduce a more attractive offer, I have the option to move over to them as well.

Or if I switch over to AT&T, and then T-Mobile ups the ante yet again, I always have the option to switch back.

I've done the math numerous times, and I flat out refuse to sign a carrier contract. Doesn't matter to me how good their purported network quality is -- I won't sign a contract and I won't buy a locked-down phone. Give me a reasonably priced BYOD or prepaid plan with a decent data allowance, and the carrier gets my business. It's really that easy, and surprising how long it took the telcos to finally offer what I wanted.
 
Woochifer said:
I've done the math numerous times, and I flat out refuse to sign a carrier contract. Doesn't matter to me how good their purported network quality is -- I won't sign a contract and I won't buy a locked-down phone. Give me a reasonably priced BYOD or prepaid plan with a decent data allowance, and the carrier gets my business. It's really that easy, and surprising how long it took the telcos to finally offer what I wanted.
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For me, the primary consideration when choosing a network is coverage and quality. Price comes after that. Imho, it's kinda pointless to choose a network based purely on pricing when you can't actually use the service 95% of the time. :rolleyes:

T-Mobile seems to work well for you and that's great. For me though, if I actually want to have coverage, I'd best stick to Verizon or AT&T (or one of their MVNOs). That said, I'm very grateful to T-Mobile for shaking up the industry. If not for them, we wouldn't have discounts for BYOD on AT&T and Verizon. Heck, the earlier iterations of Next and Edge were just plain awful. They pretty much just made you pay for your phone twice. T-Mobile was instrumental in changing all that.
 
Always Unlocked and off Contract Verizon iPhone's to use on T-Mobile's network in the US and to travel with.
 
Do you buy your phone off-contract or with contract?

Woochifer said:
In my area, T-Mobile's a very viable option. Very happy with the service, and I have decent HSPA+ or LTE reception just about everywhere I go on a regular basis. Just in the 10 months that I've had their service, the network improvements (at least in the metro areas) have been very impressive. Rural coverage is their primary weakness.

At first glance, the new AT&T family plans look pretty good (knowing them, it might look more and more like a turd once I read the terms and conditions). If my wife and my parents want to upgrade to smartphones, then I can bundle four lines and transfer my phone over to AT&T at any time.

Or if Straight Talk or another MVNO introduce a more attractive offer, I have the option to move over to them as well.

Or if I switch over to AT&T, and then T-Mobile ups the ante yet again, I always have the option to switch back.

I've done the math numerous times, and I flat out refuse to sign a carrier contract. Doesn't matter to me how good their purported network quality is -- I won't sign a contract and I won't buy a locked-down phone. Give me a reasonably priced BYOD or prepaid plan with a decent data allowance, and the carrier gets my business. It's really that easy, and surprising how long it took the telcos to finally offer what I wanted.
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I've priced out a non contract 2 line family plan and an on contract 2 line family plan.

The contract is cheaper almost every time.

For example, 2 lines on AT&T with 6gb shared data is several hundred dollars cheaper over 2 years on contract compared to off contract. Same is true for 10gb as well.
 
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Depends on the contract. With my 4S I bought on a two-year contract because the subsidy was worth it and due to coverage restrictions with living behind a hill I only had the one provider available.

By the time the two years were up, there was a second provider available at about half the monthly price. I switched across the day after my contract expired.

This year with the 6, I'll need to weigh up the options again. It's rumoured that new plans will be released tomorrow over here...
 
afurry13 said:
I've priced out a non contract 2 line family plan and an on contract 2 line family plan.

The contract is cheaper almost every time.

For example, 2 lines on AT&T with 6gb shared data is several hundred dollars cheaper over 2 years on contract compared to off contract. Same is true for 10gb as well.
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How are you doing the calculations? With a 6 GB AT&T Mobile Share plan, the BYOD rate comes out to $360 less per line, which is less than the total subsidy over two years, assuming the $450 iPhone subsidy per line. However, with a data allowance of 10 GB or more, the price gap increases to $600 per line over two years. So, the contract price can work out less, if you upgrade devices every two years.

However, this all goes out the window though if, for example, I bring along my current phone, and only add one new phone or zero new phones.

I currently use a $30 prepaid plan with a 5 GB soft data cap. No individual on-contract plan that I've looked at even comes close, even after deducting the subsidy value. Because I own the phone outright, I have the flexibility to switch plans at any time. Whether family or individual, prepaid or postpaid, contract-free or on-contract, all options remain open.
 
Th

This will be my first time buying off contract. If I plan to use an ATT mobile share plan with it should I buy at ATT or at Apple?
 
Used to buy on contract with dummy lines. Now I will use VZW Edge and just edge up every 6 months or pay off the balance and upgrade if I want to upgrade sooner.
 
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