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How to Get a New iPhone every year!

How did you buy your iPhone 6/6s

  • Carrier Payment Plan

    Votes: 22 33.3%

  • Carrier 2 Yr Agreement

    Votes: 9 13.6%

  • Outright From Carrier

    Votes: 5 7.6%

  • Outright From Apple

    Votes: 30 45.5%
  • Total voters
    66
zaquinho17

zaquinho17

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 16, 2015
229
53
Sydney | to | New Jersey
Every year, I have managed to get the new iPhone. For everyone out there still contemplating the massive prices, I wanted to tell people how I do it, along with many others I'm sure..

1. Buy it on a monthly payment plan (eg. $31 a month)
With most plans you'll actually make a savings on your talk/text/data aspect for this. verizon takes 50% off your line costs for going on this payment plan.

2. After 12 months (when the next iPhone comes out) you would have paid 50% so far of the phone correct?
The best thing about these plans is there is no ETFs if you're sticking with your carrier when upgrading the plan.. so, you would have spent, with my example, $372 or $400 by the time the new iPhone is sent out.

3. Sell your phone to cover final payout of your device (i got $480 for my iPhone 6), pay off the remainder

4. Pre-order, and enjoy your new iPhone every year.

This is my second year in this process, and (verizon) has never had a problem. Infact, they make the same amount and you're the only one that benefits!


Im sure people know this, but I've also seen people complain about pricing, so this is for them
 
Carrier 2 Year Agreement by far the Cheapest way. And all they care about is that your 2 year contract is in place you can have ANY device on your plan

When the iPhone 7 comes out next year, sell your 6S and you can get $450 to $500 and buy your new 7 for $200 bcuks
 
TheRealAlex said:
Carrier 2 Year Agreement by far the Cheapest way.
Click to expand...
In many situations, the 2-year agreement is not the cheapest way.

Like the OP mentioned, carriers give a monthly discount on service when you're not in a 2-year agreement. You don't get that discount if you sign a 2-year contract.

This discount on the service often makes the total price (after two years) of not using a 2-year agreement cheaper than using a 2-year agreement.

That, and you can upgrade yearly (if you want) without having to drop $199+ up-front (on the years you renew your 2-year contract, or $649+ up-front on the years you're in the middle of a 2-year contract).
 
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aristobrat said:
In many situations, the 2-year agreement is not the cheapest way.

Like the OP mentioned, carriers give a monthly discount on service when you're not in a 2-year agreement.

This discount on the service often makes the total price (after two years) of not using a 2-year agreement cheaper than using a 2-year agreement.
Click to expand...

This. If you have an old unlimited data plan then yes, the 2 year contract is the way to go still and I did the upgrade swap between 2 lines to get a new phone every year in the past. Now with a shared data plan, the 2 year contract does not make sense financially so the next plan or buying outright is the way to go in this case.
 
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TheRealAlex said:
Carrier 2 Year Agreement by far the Cheapest way. And all they care about is that your 2 year contract is in place you can have ANY device on your plan

When the iPhone 7 comes out next year, sell your 6S and you can get $450 to $500 and buy your new 7 for $200 bcuks
Click to expand...

This is what i started doing.
 
Cheapest IMO is outright and being prepaid.

$35 monthly cell phone bill saves me anywhere from $30-$60 a month depending on the carrier (post paid)

If you take that into account, I break even or come out much cheaper than people on post paid. The old phone sells for $500 and the new one cost $800 after taxes. Add in the monthly plan savings and at a minimum I saved $360 a year on service.

$800 (new phone) - $500 (old phone) - $360 (plan savings) and I put $60 in my pocket.
 
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TheRealAlex said:
Carrier 2 Year Agreement by far the Cheapest way. And all they care about is that your 2 year contract is in place you can have ANY device on your plan

When the iPhone 7 comes out next year, sell your 6S and you can get $450 to $500 and buy your new 7 for $200 bcuks
Click to expand...

I'm not following. If you're on 2-year contract then you have to pay full retail price after year one. So if you sell the 6s for $450 that wouldn't cover the cost of the 7. Unless you have multiple free upgrades that you're using?

zaquinho17 said:
Every year, I have managed to get the new iPhone. For everyone out there still contemplating the massive prices, I wanted to tell people how I do it, along with many others I'm sure..

1. Buy it on a monthly payment plan (eg. $31 a month)
With most plans you'll actually make a savings on your talk/text/data aspect for this. verizon takes 50% off your line costs for going on this payment plan.

2. After 12 months (when the next iPhone comes out) you would have paid 50% so far of the phone correct?
The best thing about these plans is there is no ETFs if you're sticking with your carrier when upgrading the plan.. so, you would have spent, with my example, $372 or $400 by the time the new iPhone is sent out.

3. Sell your phone to cover final payout of your device (i got $480 for my iPhone 6), pay off the remainder

4. Pre-order, and enjoy your new iPhone every year.

This is my second year in this process, and (verizon) has never had a problem. Infact, they make the same amount and you're the only one that benefits!


Im sure people know this, but I've also seen people complain about pricing, so this is for them
Click to expand...

That's been my logic exactly. With the line discount I'm only paying $10 more a month for the 64gb 6s+ so that only comes out to $120 at the end of year one. Much cheaper than paying outright. I will still hopefully make profit when I sell it and pay it off. I don't understand why so many people bash the monthly plans.
 
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mattopotamus said:
Cheapest IMO is outright and being prepaid.

$35 monthly cell phone bill saves me anywhere from $30-$60 a month depending on the carrier (post paid)

If you take that into account, I break even or come out much cheaper than people on post paid. The old phone sells for $500 and the new one cost $800 after taxes. Add in the monthly plan savings and at a minimum I saved $360 a year on service.

$800 (new phone) - $500 (old phone) - $360 (plan savings) and I put $60 in my pocket.
Click to expand...
At the end, if you were on post-paid, it should be the same $ spent (down to the penny) if you used an installment plan to do that (vs. buying out-right).
 
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I am on 2 year contract with ATT and I purchased the 6 last year so I am now about a year into my contract. Right now I have an option to get another 2 year contract but only get $200 off a phone. So a 6s 64gb is 550 instead of 299 when my 2 years are up or the 750 for full price.
 
mattopotamus said:
What installment plan could you do with prepaid? The apple upgrade program does not work with prepaid.
Click to expand...
You're right. I misread your post. If you're pre-paid, buying outright is pretty much your online choice, no?

I edited my post to clarify that.
 
The issues with 2 year contract is that you lose a monthly discount and you also have to pay a good chunk of the device up front and you're locked for 12 months. they do allow early upgrades, usually if its after 12months they waive the fee... HOWEVER: with ATT, they won't let you go on a 2yr again if you break contract. you may get a rep or someone you can strong arm into allowing it, but policy is that you must switch. (thus i ported to verizon, as they are more lenient and cheaper)
 
GnarleyMarley said:
Are we 100% sure that's correct?
Click to expand...

It says on Apple's website that activation is required with either ATT, tmobile, verizon, or sprint. Prepaid does not register as a qualified account. People have called ATT and been told the same thing. I would like to hear from someone with verizon (actually verizon) prepaid confirm/deny if their account information is recognized.

In my case, I tried an ATT prepaid account (with ATT) and the account information did not get recognized as an ATT account.
 
mattopotamus said:
It says on Apple's website that activation is required with either ATT, tmobile, verizon, or sprint. Prepaid does not register as a qualified account. People have called ATT and been told the same thing. I would like to hear from someone with verizon (actually verizon) prepaid confirm/deny if their account information is recognized.

In my case, I tried an ATT prepaid account (with ATT) and the account information did not get recognized as an ATT account.
Click to expand...

Hmmmm I guess we'll have to wait and see on the 25th. I just switched from AT&T post paid to Cricket. It just seems weird that they would require you to have an account for an unlicked, full price phone. It would be like them requiring a phone line for full price purchase of an unlocked iPhone. I hope it's not the case since I plan on trying to take advantage of the upgrade program.
 
GnarleyMarley said:
Hmmmm I guess we'll have to wait and see on the 25th. I just switched from AT&T post paid to Cricket. It just seems weird that they would require you to have an account for an unlicked, full price phone. It would be like them requiring a phone line for full price purchase of an unlocked iPhone. I hope it's not the case since I plan on trying to take advantage of the upgrade program.
Click to expand...

It will definitely be a no with cricket. It specifically says ATT, t-mobile, verizon, sprint. Using ATT towers is not ATT service. The reason they are requiring a major carrier and postpaid is b.c they still value that relationship with carriers.

If people could get the phone from apple without service (on installments), more and more people would switch to prepaid, which the carriers do not want. This plan is basically a rebranded NEXT program through apple directly.
 
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I have an old unlimited data plan but we are going with the iPhone upgrade program. We won't be held to any carriers anymore, and will be able to get a new iPhone every year. Makes a lot of sense for us.
 
melman101 said:
I have an old unlimited data plan but we are going with the iPhone upgrade program. We won't be held to any carriers anymore, and will be able to get a new iPhone every year. Makes a lot of sense for us.
Click to expand...

it is a great idea, but you don't get any discount on your postpaid account, you also get held to certain contracts anyway. the real benefit is the ability to always upgrade
 
zaquinho17 said:
it is a great idea, but you don't get any discount on your postpaid account, you also get held to certain contracts anyway. the real benefit is the ability to always upgrade
Click to expand...

Exactly. Definitely. But now I can cancel at any time, not that I will.
 
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