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Not the primary account holder, what do i do???

W

wolfattack

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 27, 2008
76
0
I was given a 200 dollar apple gift card to get an iphone as a moving away present (i just moved from Texas to California). I just called the apple store down the street and found out you must be the primary account holder to purchase a 3g iphone, and you can't just be an authorized user. They said i could probably get one at at&t, because they use a different system, but then i would be wasting my 200 dollar gift card!

Does anyone have any idea of what i should do? My dad is the primary account holder and he is 1,300 miles away in Texas!!
 
Mail him the gift card and he will mail you the SIM card. I would also suggest getting a spare SIM before he purchases it. When he does, your phone will be deactivated and only a new sim can be activated. At this point, you call AT&T and update your SIM. You will then have you iPhone shipped from Papa, pop the new activated sim in the iPhone, sync it and you're good to go.
 
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have them put you on the account as an authorized user and then have the last four of their SSAN, then call 611 from your AT&T cellphone and let them know that you are going to the Apple Store to purchase a new 3G iPhone. You're good to go!
 
SFStateStudent said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5B108 Safari/525.20)

have them put you on the account as an authorized user and then have the last four of their SSAN, then call 611 from your AT&T cellphone and let them know that you are going to the Apple Store to purchase a new 3G iPhone. You're good to go!
Click to expand...

Do you know that will work, or is that just what you would do? Sounds fairly simple if it will work. Jayden0606's idea seems like it would work too, but seems way more complicated.
 
SFStateStudent said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5B108 Safari/525.20)

have them put you on the account as an authorized user and then have the last four of their SSAN, then call 611 from your AT&T cellphone and let them know that you are going to the Apple Store to purchase a new 3G iPhone. You're good to go!
Click to expand...

Wont work in an apple store. must be the primary account holder. Will work in an ATT store.
 
SFStateStudent said:
That's what I did for my son living in Seattle, Washington and I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area. He went in and picked-up his 3G iPhone Black on July 11th, '08. And I'm the account holder.
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Did he buy it at an apple store or at an at&t store? thanks!
 
wolfattack said:
I was given a 200 dollar apple gift card to get an iphone as a moving away present (i just moved from Texas to California). I just called the apple store down the street and found out you must be the primary account holder to purchase a 3g iphone, and you can't just be an authorized user. They said i could probably get one at at&t, because they use a different system, but then i would be wasting my 200 dollar gift card!

Does anyone have any idea of what i should do? My dad is the primary account holder and he is 1,300 miles away in Texas!!
Click to expand...

not true, my dad made me an authorized user on our account, and i bought my iphone from apple withot any problems and used my $150 giftcard too. you need to know the accounts social security no.

word to the wise; don't even mention you're not the account holder when you go to apple. just go in, say i'd like to buy an iphone, and give them all the details they need, ie: address, phone number, social security, if they do happen to ask about who the account holder is, just say it's my dad but i am an authorised user AND HAVE YOUR DAD SET UP A PASSWORD ON YOUR ATT ACCOUNT so incase they question you about this, you're prepared. this is what i did. in fact when i was queuing up at the apple store, i asked all of these questions to one of the apple guys who was answering questions to those in line and he said himself "just don't mention you're not the account holder" and the rest is history.
 
appleguy5211 said:
Wont work in an apple store. must be the primary account holder. Will work in an ATT store.
Click to expand...

I can say without reservation, that it's worked twice for me since July 11th, '08. My son's 3G iPhone, and my wife's 3G iPhone. I'm the primary account holder, and I've specifically requested that they be able to purchase their 3G iPhones at the Apple Stores in Seattle, WA & Emeryville, CA; both were able to do so without complications. "I will not be questioned like a little schoolboy!" LOL :p:D You can take it or leave it; maybe I should put you on my account then you could go down and purchase one without further issue. I now have (4) 3G iPhones on my account, so I can take one more. LOL :D
 
SFStateStudent said:
I can say without reservation, that it's worked twice for me since July 11th, '08. My son's 3G iPhone, and my wife's 3G iPhone. I'm the primary account holder, and I've specifically requested that they be able to purchase their 3G iPhones at the Apple Stores in Seattle, WA & Emeryville, CA; both were able to do so without complications. "I will not be questioned like a little schoolboy!" LOL :p:D You can take it or leave it; maybe I should put you on my account then you could go down and purchase one without further issue. :D
Click to expand...

thanks for the reassurance, i will give it my best go when the gift card makes it to me in the mail at the end of the week! Thanks!
 
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