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dubs83

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 31, 2011
132
6
I see bestbuy and some other stores are offering gift cards if you buy an iphone 7 on a device payment plan. When you buy through bestbuy, target etc. does this mean you are simply financing through the store itself? I wanted some kind of insurance, so leaning towards buying from apple directly so i can get applecare. Does best buy offer any kid of insurance for drops etc?
 
When buying from Best Buy, you are still financing through your respective carrier. Best Buy is just the "middle messenger". You can also buy AppleCare at Best Buy when you get your phone
 
You finance through the carrier (i.e. ATT next). Best Buy gets a kick back from the carrier. They are offering you $250 to get you through the door.

T-Mobile is doing a free iPhone 7 with trade in on T-Mobile one. That's thebbest deal I've seen assuming you have an iPhone 6 or better to trade.

You can buy Apple care from Best Buy and it's your only option for insurance outside of carrier insurance. They no longer offer geek squad protection.
 
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So basically there is no reason to buy directly from Apple then, if I get a gift card from Best Buy?

I assume the financing + apple care through Best Buy is no difference in price than buying directly through Apple?

Can I upgrade my iphone when the new 8 comes out next year too?

thanks guys!
 
So basically there is no reason to buy directly from Apple then, if I get a gift card from Best Buy?

I assume the financing + apple care through Best Buy is no difference in price than buying directly through Apple?

thanks guys!

Correct.

Some people like buying through apples upgrade or installment program because then they have the freedom to switch carriers whenever they want.
 
Correct.

Some people like buying through apples upgrade or installment program because then they have the freedom to switch carriers whenever they want.

So buying through best buy will still allow me to upgrade to the new iphone 8 next year, or do I have to wait the full 24 months to upgrade? I wish it stated this on checkout so I know for sure I can upgrade next year to the new 8.
 
So buying through best buy will still allow me to upgrade to the new iphone 8 next year, or do I have to wait the full 24 months to upgrade? I wish it stated this on checkout so I know for sure I can upgrade next year to the new 8.

I'd be careful if you know you want to upgrade to the 8. There are many things at play in these iPhone 7 offers and they are not clearly defined.

As I understand it, Best Buy will give you $100 for a 32 or 128 GB iPhone 7 and $250 for a 256 GB iPhone 7 IF and only IF you sign up for a monthly or term lease plan. If you want to upgrade before the term is up, you will have to pay your carrier extra in order to even qualify to trade your phone in for the iPhone 8 or pay an early termination fee. So the phone 7 will be yours to lease for 10 months, hypothetically, and then you'll likely have more than $250 to spend to trade in your iphone 7 (assuming a 24 month exit option), meaning the $250 you get now in a BB gift card is likely not even enough to cover getting you to the iPhone 8, to say nothing of the gift card only being good at BB and not worth anything with your carrier.

Given you seem interested in AppleCare+, I'd think Apple's IUP program would be a better fit in that you have a planned upgrade at 12 months of payments and the coverage built-in.

Many experts on this forum so YMMV.
 
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I'd be careful if you know you want to upgrade to the 8. There are many things at play in these iPhone 7 offers and they are not clearly defined.

As I understand it, Best Buy will give you $100 for a 32 or 128 GB iPhone 7 and $250 for a 256 GB iPhone 7 IF and only IF you sign up for a monthly or term lease plan. If you want to upgrade before the term is up, you will have to pay your carrier extra in order to even qualify to trade your phone in for the iPhone 8 or pay an early termination fee. So the phone 7 will be yours to lease for 10 months, hypothetically, and then you'll likely have more than $250 to spend to trade in your iphone 7 (assuming a 24 month exit option), meaning the $250 you get now in a BB gift card is likely not even enough to cover getting you to the iPhone 8, to say nothing of the gift card only being good at BB and not worth anything with your carrier.

Given you seem interested in AppleCare+, I'd think Apple's IUP program would be a better fit in that you have a planned upgrade at 12 months of payments and the coverage built-in.

Many experts on this forum so YMMV.


yeah, I wish they were more clear with this stuff. Doesn't sound like I can automatically upgrade when the 8 comes out, unless I go with apples iphone upgrade program.
 
If you want to upgrade before the term is up, you will have to pay your carrier extra in order to even qualify to trade your phone in for the iPhone 8 or pay an early termination fee. So the phone 7 will be yours to lease for 10 months, hypothetically, and then you'll likely have more than $250 to spend to trade in your iphone 7 (assuming a 24 month exit option), meaning the $250 you get now in a BB gift card is likely not even enough to cover getting you to the iPhone 8, to say nothing of the gift card only being good at BB and not worth anything with your carrier.

This is not true....

If you finance through your carrier and want to upgrade next year then the carrier will simply require you to pay off the existing phone that under payments..

I am going to Sams Club tomorrow because they are offering a $250 card for any iPhone 7 activation.. In order to free up my line for the upgrade I had to pay off my existing payment plan.. They don't charge you any extra to pay off a phone under payments..

In my case, I am on AT&T and had an iPhone 6s that was still under payments. I logged into AT&T and selected upgrade and it gave me 2 options. Trade in the iPhone 6s to AT&T and get a discount for the upgrade or pay off the iPhone 6s.. I selected pay it off. I was not charged any extra to do so and was charged exactly what I owed.. After making the one time payment to pay it off, my full upgrade ability was instantly available..

I owed $150 on the iPhone 6s and paid that off. Tomorrow I will get an iPhone 7 for zero down, the same monthly payment I had before and a $250 gift card..
 
This is not true....

If you finance through your carrier and want to upgrade next year then the carrier will simply require you to pay off the existing phone that under payments..

I am going to Sams Club tomorrow because they are offering a $250 card for any iPhone 7 activation.. In order to free up my line for the upgrade I had to pay off my existing payment plan.. They don't charge you any extra to pay off a phone under payments..

In my case, I am on AT&T and had an iPhone 6s that was still under payments. I logged into AT&T and selected upgrade and it gave me 2 options. Trade in the iPhone 6s to AT&T and get a discount for the upgrade or pay off the iPhone 6s.. I selected pay it off. I was not charged any extra to do so and was charged exactly what I owed.. After making the one time payment to pay it off, my full upgrade ability was instantly available..

I owed $150 on the iPhone 6s and paid that off. Tomorrow I will get an iPhone 7 for zero down, the same monthly payment I had before and a $250 gift card..

Same here. Why are you choosing Sams Club? instead of Best Buy or Target both of whom are offering the $250 gift card. Just curious as I had decided on Best Buy.
 
Same here. Why are you choosing Sams Club? instead of Best Buy or Target both of whom are offering the $250 gift card. Just curious as I had decided on Best Buy.

I shop at Sams Club all the time so that is part of the reason. The other is that I am probably going to get the 32gb version and BB is only offering $100 for that version. Sams is $250 regardless of storage option... I hardly ever shop at Target so I won't bother with them..

Another option is Walmart.. They are offering $250 with the iPhone 6s, iPhone SE and iPhone 7...
 
This is not true....

If you finance through your carrier and want to upgrade next year then the carrier will simply require you to pay off the existing phone that under payments..

I am going to Sams Club tomorrow because they are offering a $250 card for any iPhone 7 activation.. In order to free up my line for the upgrade I had to pay off my existing payment plan.. They don't charge you any extra to pay off a phone under payments..

In my case, I am on AT&T and had an iPhone 6s that was still under payments. I logged into AT&T and selected upgrade and it gave me 2 options. Trade in the iPhone 6s to AT&T and get a discount for the upgrade or pay off the iPhone 6s.. I selected pay it off. I was not charged any extra to do so and was charged exactly what I owed.. After making the one time payment to pay it off, my full upgrade ability was instantly available..

I owed $150 on the iPhone 6s and paid that off. Tomorrow I will get an iPhone 7 for zero down, the same monthly payment I had before and a $250 gift card..


I'm probably misunderstanding the difference between the best buy offer and the upgrade option with Apple...

So with the BB offer, if I want to upgrade next year (assuming the 8 comes out in sept), I essentially have only paid 9 monthly installments and will be required to pay off in full the final 15 months of the payment plan before upgrading? If I went with apples upgrade program, I could upgrade and just begin a new 2 year device payment plan. Seems like having to pay off the final 15 months of my plan (with the bb offer), is essentially an early termination fee, because I wouldn't have to do that with the apple upgrade program...

I might be off base here, but that is what it seems like to me.
 
If you buy from Best Buy and get the $250 gift card then yes if you wanted to upgrade to the iPhone 8 you will need to pay off the remaining balance.. You do keep the iPhone 7 and can sell it on the aftermarket.

I have no clue how Apples payment plan works so I can't comment on it.. Does Apple allow you to put zero down, use the phone for a year then trade it in on a new one for zero down? I doubt they do... In most cases the phones will come out to being the same price no matter what. With the Black Friday only deal you are getting a $250 gift card that has to be entered into the equation..

Using the BB scenario, you'd get an iPhone 7 tomorrow for zero down and a $250 gift card. 8 months from now you'd need to pay the remaining balance off so depending on which size you got that payment amount will vary. Lets say it cost you $600 to pay off the iPhone 7 so you could upgrade to the 8... You could probably sell the iPhone 7 to cover that (or come close) and you would have gotten that $250 gift card as well..

In my opinion, there is no better deal than the Black Friday gift card one..
 
Agree. If you can't buy it outright, walk away.

Bad advice....

Here is what I did:

1. Got an iPhone SE from Walmart and financed $450 for the 64 GB version @ $15 a month and no down, no interest ect....
2. Got a $250 Gift Card on the spot
3. Will pay it off next month after it adds to my account. I will probably have made one $15 payment so I will owe $435 when I get around to paying it off..

Now lets do some math:

$450-$250= $200

So, once the dust settles I got the iPhone SE 64GB for $200 and will be under no contract or payments whatsoever..

Even if you don't pay the phone off it still ends up the same except you are making the monthly payments..
 
When buying from Best Buy, you are still financing through your respective carrier. Best Buy is just the "middle messenger". You can also buy AppleCare at Best Buy when you get your phone
Best Buy is offering $160 on the SE. But they have no SE models anywhere. They won't let me order and pick up whenever they get more stock. They won't let me order for home delivery. They won't give me a rain check.
 
Best Buy is offering $160 on the SE. But they have no SE models anywhere. They won't let me order and pick up whenever they get more stock. They won't let me order for home delivery. They won't give me a rain check.

Try your local Walmart... They are doing $250 on the SE and my area was hit an miss. A few had them and a few did not so you might have to call them all.. The one I went to had several in stock..
 
I'm probably misunderstanding the difference between the best buy offer and the upgrade option with Apple...

So with the BB offer, if I want to upgrade next year (assuming the 8 comes out in sept), I essentially have only paid 9 monthly installments and will be required to pay off in full the final 15 months of the payment plan before upgrading? If I went with apples upgrade program, I could upgrade and just begin a new 2 year device payment plan. Seems like having to pay off the final 15 months of my plan (with the bb offer), is essentially an early termination fee, because I wouldn't have to do that with the apple upgrade program...

I might be off base here, but that is what it seems like to me.

You're leaving out one important part.

When you pay the phone off under an installment plan, you get a new phone and your old one is yours to keep, sell, give away, whatever.

If you upgrade under the iPhone upgrade program (or any other trade-in program) you you get a new phone in exchange for your old one.

The advantage of IUP is that it theoretically removes the hassle of upgrading if you want to do so every year. But it's generally not the best "deal", financially speaking.
 
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