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iPhone 4: Contract VS Uncommitted Pricing?
- Thread starter idyll
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Why?
I am an account owner of a family plan and was thinking about buying an iPhone 4 and adding a new line and then cancelling it.
I think AT&T will catch on if you cancel your account soon after the purchase, then try and use it on another line. I may be wrong.
As far as the credit, It shouldn't hurt, since your paying a fee. If they report it, I would demand my money back.
As far as the credit, It shouldn't hurt, since your paying a fee. If they report it, I would demand my money back.
It used to be cheaper back when the ETF was $175. Back then, after you factored in also having to pay for the first month's worth of service, it was only marginally cheaper.
With a $375 ETF, and no correspondingly significant increase in the size of the subsidy, I'm not sure you'd still end up ahead.
I just did some research and found that I would pay $399 for the iPhone 4 (16GB), and I've only had my 3GS for 5 months. A few more $$ and you don't need to worry about your credit.
I just did some research and found that I would pay $399 for the iPhone 4 (16GB), and I've only had my 3GS for 5 months. A few more $$ and you don't need to worry about your credit.
I suppose I could do that as well, but I would still be signing a 2 year contract I believe. I do not plan to keep it that long so I'd really like to get an iPhone that is contract-free, and it seems like buying it for $200 and then paying the ETF seems like the cheapest option.
Let's see:
Buy 4G 16GB phone with full subsidy: $199
ETF: $325
Total so far: $524
No-commitment pricing on 4G 16GB phone: $599
Assuming you'll be using AT&T as your primary carrier for the first few months either way --so there's no need to bother factoring in the price of first month's service-- I guess you'd have a savings of at least $50.00 if you go the ETF route.
In fact, if you plan to stick with AT&T for several months, then the pro-rating of the ETF will make the ETF option progressively more attractive than the no-commitment option as time goes by.
Keep in mind, after you invoke the ETF option to terminate your contract, AT&T will not let you back on their network for 6 months.
I may be wrong too but I specifically asked this question to AT&T several times. Each time they told me there would be no problem re-activating the phone in the future if I were to cancel within the first 30 days and pay the ETF.
I'd be shocked if there were any impact to one's credit report as you are simply taking advantage of the carrier's 30-day trial period.
This would all be avoided if AT&T/Apple simply offered the phone for sale under the no commitment pricing they advertised. The problem is they probably won't begin to do this for many months after launch.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)
As long as you pay the full amount of the ETF, nothing happens to your credit, and the phone is yours to do what you want with.
As long as you pay the full amount of the ETF, nothing happens to your credit, and the phone is yours to do what you want with.