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iPhone Upgrade Program vs 2 year contracts

K

kingdf

Cancelled
Original poster
Feb 18, 2014
125
35
United States
So I'm one of those people who bought an iPhone 6 two years ago on contract ($400 for the 64gb 6+) and I'm still happy with my phone and didn't care to upgrade until I read about the differences between contracts and installment plans.

So I'm on a family plan on Verizon and my line is roughly $40 for "smart line access". The 7 is listed about $41/month for the 128gb.

Does this essentially mean I won't pay anything up front if I order the 7 and instead of paying the $40 line access I'll just pay the $41 for my line for the new phone? Is that how it works?
 
I believe that Verizon charges $20 a month line access fee for a smart phone if you are not subsidized on a contract; so you could be paying the device fee to VZ, to Apple, buy the phone outright etc, you will still pay Verizon $20 a month for access to the line on a smartphone.
 
zachy85 said:
I believe that Verizon charges $20 a month line access fee for a smart phone if you are not subsidized on a contract; so you could be paying the device fee to VZ, to Apple, buy the phone outright etc, you will still pay Verizon $20 a month for access to the line on a smartphone.
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$20 extra? If that's the case I'll happily stay with my 6+. I thought doing device installment plans were cheaper than contracts.
 
It depends on your plan. If you are on an older plan then you are still paying the $40 for your line and then would separately pay for the phone, so you are better off getting a contract for that if you can. If you are on a newer plan then you would get a discount for going with a financed phone, so basically instead of paying $40 for it every month you'd be paying something lower, depending on your plan (could be $25, $20, or $15) and then you'd have that separate financing payment for the phone.
 
C DM said:
It depends on your plan. If you are on an older plan then you are still paying the $40 for your line and then would separately pay for the phone, so you are better off getting a contract for that if you can. If you are on a newer plan then you would get a discount for going with a financed phone, so basically instead of paying $40 for it every month you'd be paying something lower, depending on your plan (could be $25, $20, or $15) and then you'd have that separate financing payment for the phone.
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I'm on the More Everything Unlimited Talk & Text 15GB plan. If what ur saying is true then upgrading to the new phone on a device installment plan would cost me at least an additional $15/month? Since my line is currently $40/month for my phone and the 7+/128 is $41/month. If thats the case I'll gladly keep my 6+/64 and cheaper plan, it still works totally fine, I was only intending to upgrade to the 7+/128 if it costs me nothing.
 
kingdf said:
I'm on the More Everything Unlimited Talk & Text 15GB plan. If what ur saying is true then upgrading to the new phone on a device installment plan would cost me at least an additional $15/month? Since my line is currently $40/month for my phone and the 7+/128 is $41/month. If thats the case I'll gladly keep my 6+/64 and cheaper plan, it still works totally fine, I was only intending to upgrade to the 7+/128 if it costs me nothing.
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I think you are getting the line access fee and cost of phone mixed up.

I believe its just like AT&T. So you are paying $40 for your line because you are under contract. If you begin paying $41 a month for the phone, your line access fee should drop from $40 to $20-30. So yes, your bill will be more expensive, but you are paying less for service because you are no longer under a contract.
 
kingdf said:
I'm on the More Everything Unlimited Talk & Text 15GB plan. If what ur saying is true then upgrading to the new phone on a device installment plan would cost me at least an additional $15/month? Since my line is currently $40/month for my phone and the 7+/128 is $41/month. If thats the case I'll gladly keep my 6+/64 and cheaper plan, it still works totally fine, I was only intending to upgrade to the 7+/128 if it costs me nothing.
Click to expand...
So on that plan you should be getting $25/month off for a line that has a phone that is being financed. Which means that with a the phone that you want to get costing $41/month, you would basically be paying $16/month more for it. Now if you were to get it on contract let's say and stay with $40/month you'd generally probably need to pay something like $400 to get the new phone you are talking about up front on contract. So over 2 years paying $16/month more comes out to be $384. Compare that against $400 (and perhaps taxes that might be involved) and it seems that it might be slightly cheaper to go with financing over contract.

If you are staying with your old phone and your contract is up you might want to see if Verizon can still offer you a discount for owned equipment so that you aren't paying $40/month for your line, otherwise you are paying for a subsidy that is built into that $40/month price without making use of it (without getting a new phone).
 
Mlrollin91 said:
I think you are getting the line access fee and cost of phone mixed up.

I believe its just like AT&T. So you are paying $40 for your line because you are under contract. If you begin paying $41 a month for the phone, your line access fee should drop from $40 to $20-30. So yes, your bill will be more expensive, but you are paying less for service because you are no longer under a contract.
Click to expand...
Ah ok, then it looks like I'll just stay with my 6+, thanks.

C DM said:
So on that plan you should be getting $25/month off for a line that has a phone that is being financed. Which means that with a the phone that you want to get costing $41/month, you would basically be paying $16/month more for it. Now if you were to get it on contract let's say and stay with $40/month you'd generally probably need to pay something like $400 to get the new phone you are talking about up front on contract. So over 2 years paying $16/month more comes out to be $384. Compare that against $400 (and perhaps taxes that might be involved) and it seems that it might be slightly cheaper to go with financing over contract.

If you are staying with your old phone and your contract is up you might want to see if Verizon can still offer you a discount for owned equipment so that you aren't paying $40/month for your line, otherwise you are paying for a subsidy that is built into that $40/month price without making use of it (without getting a new phone).
Click to expand...
So basically the device installment is more per month but then once the phone is paid off, which should be roughly 2 years, it becomes cheaper than the 2 year contract plan. Interesting...my contract is up this week so it would be awesome to get a discount on our bill since some of us want to keep our current phones. Thanks for the info.
 
Will I still be able to buy the phone at contract price on Verizon? I'm eligible for an upgrade now, but the Apple preorder page only shows full price and monthly payments through Verizon.
 
kingdf said:
I'm on the More Everything Unlimited Talk & Text 15GB plan. If what ur saying is true then upgrading to the new phone on a device installment plan would cost me at least an additional $15/month? Since my line is currently $40/month for my phone and the 7+/128 is $41/month. If thats the case I'll gladly keep my 6+/64 and cheaper plan, it still works totally fine, I was only intending to upgrade to the 7+/128 if it costs me nothing.
Click to expand...

The upgrade plan is meant to be started a year before you upgrade. In other words you would buy the phone outright this year sign up for the upgrade plan and then next year you get to upgrade for free. So if you wanted to sign up for it this year you would pay your regular cell bill + $41 upgrade bill through Apple. They are separate companies so the plan doesn't carry over to Verizon or any cell company.
 
kingdf said:
Ah ok, then it looks like I'll just stay with my 6+, thanks.


So basically the device installment is more up front but then once the phone is paid off, which should be roughly 2 years, it becomes cheaper than the 2 year contract plan. Interesting...my contract is up this week so it would be awesome to get a discount on our bill since some of us want to keep our current phones. Thanks for the info.
Click to expand...
It's not really more up front, it's you paying off the phone over time. The contract works in a similar fashion, and is actually more like more upfront since you would typically pay a few hundred dollars right away to get the phone and then pay the usual (non-discounted) monthly line access fee.
 
dwendz23 said:
Will I still be able to buy the phone at contract price on Verizon? I'm eligible for an upgrade now, but the Apple preorder page only shows full price and monthly payments through Verizon.
Click to expand...

Depends on Verizon, they should start putting those prices up before the end of the week or early next week. It usually takes the cell companies a couple of days to get their marketing in order after the keynote.
 
magrat22 said:
Depends on Verizon, they should start putting those prices up before the end of the week or early next week. It usually takes the cell companies a couple of days to get their marketing in order after the keynote.
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Hopefully when they are up for preorder.
 
C DM said:
It's not really more up front, it's you paying off the phone over time. The contract works in a similar fashion, and is actually more like more upfront since you would typically pay a few hundred dollars right away to get the phone and then pay the usual (non-discounted) monthly line access fee.
Click to expand...

Ur right, that is true. Because my 6+/64 was $400 and the 7+/128 is about the same I believe on a 2 year plan. I guess I'm just more concerned with keeping the bill down if it means putting more up front because I normally sell my previous phone to help recoup the cost. I'll see if I can get my bill lowered since my contract is just about up but if not I'll probably just stick with my 6+ either till it breaks or gets slowed to a crawl by future updates.
 
kingdf said:
Ur right, that is true. Because my 6+/64 was $400 and the 7+/128 is about the same I believe on a 2 year plan. I guess I'm just more concerned with keeping the bill down if it means putting more up front because I normally sell my previous phone to help recoup the cost. I'll see if I can get my bill lowered since my contract is just about up but if not I'll probably just stick with my 6+ either till it breaks or gets slowed to a crawl by future updates.
Click to expand...
Well, I gave an example of a breakdown between the two options in an earlier post that shows that over 2 years, given the plan that you have, financing can be somewhat cheaper (assuming the numbers are about right). You'd basically need to work out the different options with actual numbers that would apply and see what would come out better for you.
 
C DM said:
Well, I gave an example of a breakdown between the two options in an earlier post that shows that over 2 years, given the plan that you have, financing can be somewhat cheaper (assuming the numbers are about right). You'd basically need to work out the different options with actual numbers that would apply and see what would come out better for you.
Click to expand...

Yep thats what I intend to do. Whatever keeps the bill lower.
 
I'm thinking maybe I should just keep my 6+ since it works fine and only upgrade if something bad happens to it since it's no longer under warranty
 
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