Getting around activation fee- AT&T

[coreytime]

If I bought a phone from AT&T but did not use the sim card in the new one but instead i swapped out my old sim. Will I still get an activation fee?

 

[blhoward2]

In the past yes, but almost every year I have gotten it waived by chatting with them and asking them to waive it.

 

[coreytime]

what if it's an AT&T phone but purchased from APPLE?

 

[pippakay]

In the past yes, but almost every year I have gotten it waived by chatting with them and asking them to waive it.

thanks for this...i've never thought to ask. will definitely try this year.

 

[ZipZap]

Moving the SIM from you old phone to a new one should not cause upgrade fees.

 

[pippakay]

Moving the SIM from you old phone to a new one should not cause upgrade fees.

i thought the same thing, but it did last year. showed up on the bill a month or so after i had the new phone.

 

[dave006]

Moving an existing active SIM works and there is no Activation Fee and there can't be since you are not "Activating" anything on AT&T. You are reusing an existing SIM and only activating your iPhone X with Apple's activation servers.

It does no matter where you purchase the iPhone. If you don't use the new pre-installed SIM, there can be no activation so no Fee!

Dave

 

[Sappharad]

For what it's worth, last year I bought an unlocked (full price) AT&T iPhone 7 at launch directly from Apple. I activated using the included SIM card, and they did not charge me an upgrade or activation fee. They knew I switched to a new phone though, the 7 shows up on my account.

I'm outside of a contract now though, grandfathered into an old unlimited data plan that is still cheaper than their new one. (Cheaper based on total price, including small voice & text allocations which are separate charges on the old plan)

I don't know if it's because I paid in full, but I was honestly expecting them to charge me a fee based on what I read, and they did not.

 

[840quadra]

I just call in every year, and they have always waived it. If they hesitate, I confront them asking why I am being taxed to stay on their service, and, that if I was going to pay for activation fees, I may as well migrate everything since porting numbers is a non-issue these days.