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Well, my carrier doesn’t offer payment plans or participate in IUP so there’s that.

Even if they did, I still prefer buying outright. It seems like I’m always seeing posts about timing the final payment so preorders go smoothly, how/when to trade in the phone, will extra payments have to be made if the phone is delayed, etc. I just buy the sim free model from Apple and I’m done.

Not to mention carriers/Apple wouldn’t offer payment plans if it didn’t make them money and sell more phones. People find it easier to justify a monthly payment plan than a lump sum. People who otherwise might not upgrade justify it because “it’s only a couple more dollars a month” even though it adds another year+ of payments. I’m sure the amount of people who could afford the lump sum but choose monthly payments are in the minority.
 
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