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JDMFSeanP

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 6, 2007
126
0
Hey, new user here with a few questions I'm sure someone here can clarify for me.

My friends dad will be buying me an iPhone and I will be paying him back as I don't have a credit card, we will be at an apple store, so I can have him purchase it then activate it for me right?

Second, If I activate the phone right now is there an activation fee? Do I have to pay for anything else on top of the phone when I buy it like a sim card?

I'm going to be putting it onto a family plan, so its just the line free then the iphone data plan right?

Also, should I wait until the end of the month to use the iphone plan? If I don't I'm not sure how my sms will be charged as i have 400 and iphone plan is only 200.

If I use a new iphone sim card or whatever, do I keep my old number?

Thanks for anything you guys can give me!

Come Friday I hope to be an avid iPhone owner,
Sean.

Also, If I activate it under a new plan do I sign up for a full two year contract? Can I avoid a new two year contract as my current one on my family plan ends in like two months, so not signing up for a new plan would be great.
 
If you don't already have a SIM card, AT&T will give you one when you activate your family line.

I believe there is an activation fee charged by AT&T, like $36 or something.

I'm not sure how the 200 texts works with your previous 400. I don't know if the new data plan with 200 texts cancels out the 400, so you only get 200 texts a month, or if they add the data plan to your existing plan and you get 600?

I do think that they can transfer the number over to a new SIM card.
 
Hey, new user here with a few questions I'm sure someone here can clarify for me.

My friends dad will be buying me an iPhone and I will be paying him back as I don't have a credit card, we will be at an apple store, so I can have him purchase it then activate it for me right?

Parental consent aside, yes you can :)

Second, If I activate the phone right now is there an activation fee? Do I have to pay for anything else on top of the phone when I buy it like a sim card?

No, you only need to pay for the phone plus any sales tax. Activation fees normally show up on the next month's bill, though looking back at my bill when I got my iPhone, I don't see where I was charged an activation fee. So I'm guessing there is none. I could be wrong though.

I'm going to be putting it onto a family plan, so its just the line free then the iphone data plan right?

Correct.

Also, should I wait until the end of the month to use the iphone plan? If I don't I'm not sure how my sms will be charged as i have 400 and iphone plan is only 200.

SMS use might be prorated, but data isn't because its unlimited. So you can use data, though your SMS will obviously be reduced. You can sign up for additional SMS packs though.

If I use a new iphone sim card or whatever, do I keep my old number?

Yes you keep your phone number.

Also, If I activate it under a new plan do I sign up for a full two year contract? Can I avoid a new two year contract as my current one on my family plan ends in like two months, so not signing up for a new plan would be great.

This will be a sticking point, I'm afraid. Buying an activating an iPhone pretty much means that your contract will reset for another two years.
 
Some people have said they just stick there cingular sims into the phone form their old phones and activate the phone on itunes with that and it doesn't add onto their old plan or auto subscribe them to iphone plan.

I want to stick with the cingular though and we will be extending out plan when it expires, so nothing should go out of wack.

I'm going to go to the apple store tomorrow and ask them some of these questions to see what answers I can get.


So just to clarify, I can just add the AT&T iPhone with the new sim to my family plan although I may get tied into a two year contract, but the AT&T iphone with unlimited data will work on family plan?
Oh and itunes allows you to keep the same number don't they?
 
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