You may not be far off on that... All I know is that if SoftBank/Sprint gobbles up T-Mobile, we consumers will be screwed as far as any hope of rates coming down anytime soon....
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
T-Mobile 'Jump' Plan to Require Customers to Pay 50% of Device Cost Before Upgrading
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
You may not be far off on that... All I know is that if SoftBank/Sprint gobbles up T-Mobile, we consumers will be screwed as far as any hope of rates coming down anytime soon....
Except they take the phone back, you may have missed that point. So, they are making you pay a certain amount for a phone you don't have, which they can then refurb and re-use in various ways, like giving them out as replacements for broken phones through their insurance program. Then, you start paying for a new phone, which you also won't get to keep.
Just buy your expensive phone outright on a no-interest payment plan and skip all these gimmicky deals that don't really save you any money. You can get such a credit line for free for most online purchases these days through Paypal/Billmelater, or directly from retailers like Apple.
----------
You aren't missing anything.
The point isn't whether you get to keep it, you don't. So, the question is how much do you have to pay to give it back to them? And this is too much. VZW and ATT's plans are absolute rape, and Tmob has now joined them. There is now zero benefit to the consumer with any of these plans.
They gave up before that marketing term even existed. T-Mobile is a corporation just like any other, and their goal is to maximize profits. That can sometimes be achieved by convincing people that they're "on your side" and offering temporary cheap prices to grab customers.
It does come with insurance that covers lost or stolen phones. Or "lost" phones... the guy that signed me up at T-Mobile said that it's easier to say the phone is lost than stolen because saying it's stolen requires a police report.
I plan on keeping my wife's phone on Jump until the iPhone 6 comes out. If she manages to not lose or break the thing by then, we'll upgrade to the 6 and get rid of jump, and consider it a loss at roughly $250 to not go through the hassle of selling on eBay.
But yeah, if you're savvy enough to get top dollar for a iPhone less than a year old, Jump is kind of a rip off.
Edit: The benefit of T-Mobile separating the price of the phone from the plan really benefits those that DON'T want to upgrade their phone. When I was crunching the numbers on T-Mobile vs. Verizon w/ my phone situation, I remember it being roughly the same amount for each service after 2 years when you consider Verizon's higher prices vs. paying for the phone on T-Mobile. Only after that I would start seeing the savings with T-Mobile on my monthly bill being $50 less per month.
Last edited:
The way I calculate things, you are going to pay the same amount as you did originally with the first JUMP program.
Re-arranging the equation doesn't change the answer, just how you look at it, and that is exactly what T-Mobile is doing by allowing "Unlimited upgrades"
You either pay 50% normally over 8 months minimum [for a 16GB iPhone 5S] as that is the amount of time it would take to pay off 50%, or you pay some for a few months and then lump sum to make up for the remaining that you owe.
T-Mobile is basically giving customers options, at customers own expense....[Hope you didn't think a carrier was going to allow customers to enjoy latest and greatest new phones by taking a loss....]
Probably their actuaries figured people generally don't upgrade more than once per year anyway but now the accountants don't like the additional liability the 6 month deal puts on the balance sheet.
If I got the latest iPhone/Nexus/Galaxy, or whatever last fall, statistically, there'd be nothing to upgrade to for at least 12 months. Hence you look like the good cop for offering a generous deal but in reality you only offer it not expecting anybody to take you up on it.
Unless........
........ could it be Apple tipped their hat to T-Mobile about an early iPhone 6 to be released in a couple of months?
I can only wish.
If I got the latest iPhone/Nexus/Galaxy, or whatever last fall, statistically, there'd be nothing to upgrade to for at least 12 months. Hence you look like the good cop for offering a generous deal but in reality you only offer it not expecting anybody to take you up on it.
Unless........
........ could it be Apple tipped their hat to T-Mobile about an early iPhone 6 to be released in a couple of months?
I can only wish.
Sorry if I'm wrong, but it seems that you could upgrade anytime you want as long as T-mobile is getting the full payment of your phone whereas with Jump you need to pay only half the cost and still get to upgrade.
Confusing
Why are american services always a confusing mess of decision tree conditions, tiers, and limitations. All I want is a network connection not a loan program and life insurance with a side bet on a horse. Feels more like a puzzle then a service. Should just be a simple fixed rate per month for a connection with a data rate limited only by the technology.
Why are american services always a confusing mess of decision tree conditions, tiers, and limitations. All I want is a network connection not a loan program and life insurance with a side bet on a horse. Feels more like a puzzle then a service. Should just be a simple fixed rate per month for a connection with a data rate limited only by the technology.
They are all trying to make money and give the appearance of being better than the other cell providers.
Every day it seems I see some new "plan" supposedly to offer customers a better service or save money. But WTF. I mean, wouldn't simply charging a fair rate be enough? The reason there are so many plans because these carriers love to count the ways they can screw us over.
And don't get me started on them still using "minutes" to calculate our plans. Gosh... It's all a scam, and if I could get an iPod Touch with no phone function but just internet connectivity I would.
And don't get me started on them still using "minutes" to calculate our plans. Gosh... It's all a scam, and if I could get an iPod Touch with no phone function but just internet connectivity I would.
The phone is worth much, much more than that. I sold my Launch day iPhone 5 16GB the week before the 5S was announced on amazon for just under 500 bucks. That was the ASP of the phone at that point. That's way, way, way way more than the 50% they're offering 6 months in. It was a good deal before, the money you paid for the phone more than accounted for the depreciation, and was a fair deal on both ends, but now you're just better off buying the phone and selling it.
----------
1/4 of a device is very sustainable, considering that flagship phones depreciate about 10% over that time. So...
I was looking to see if someone pointed this out. JUMP actually only costs $2 extra over the normal $8 per month for insurance (as it includes the insurance plan). So yeah you're paying 50% + $12 now to upgrade (now I don't know how many people are truly upgrading every 6 months anyway, it's probably closer to yearly which is going to push most people over the 50% point anyway).
I hope you're right, I'm afraid that once I use the Jump that it will only grandfather for that upgrade and then force me on the new plan.
Not understanding the digs
The full retail price of an iPhone 5S is between $650 and $850. The carriers used to sell you a phone on a two year contract which required you to put money down then pay a fee for the phone forever. With both Edge and Next, you put nothing down, and pay x dollars per month in 12 or 18 month (ATT) interest free financing and you can pay it off at any time. You can upgrade early but you do have to turn your phone in and yes they are going to make money on it. The alternative is to pay it off, then sell on eBay or wherever so not sure where the "rip off" is.
The full retail price of an iPhone 5S is between $650 and $850. The carriers used to sell you a phone on a two year contract which required you to put money down then pay a fee for the phone forever. With both Edge and Next, you put nothing down, and pay x dollars per month in 12 or 18 month (ATT) interest free financing and you can pay it off at any time. You can upgrade early but you do have to turn your phone in and yes they are going to make money on it. The alternative is to pay it off, then sell on eBay or wherever so not sure where the "rip off" is.
I suspect the rumor got the details wrong. I bet it is actually 50% of the UNPAID cost of the phone. So if you paid $27 a month for the $648 phone, after 6 months, you would have $486 unpaid balance, of which you would pay 50% ($243). Their current policy is that you owe the remaining balance on termination, so this would be a consistent methodology.
Which is still cheaper than the ETF charged by Verizon ($350) or ATT ($325) for breaking contract.
EDIT: ok, not as good a deal. I see with ATT (my $#%^&* carrier), that if I "upgrade" after 12 months, they give me a $200 credit (vs the new user $450 credit) on buying a 5s. So effectively charging me a $250 fee for switching devices. Which is a crummy deal, since the ETF is $325 - $10/month, meaning that it would cost me $205 to break contract, and than I could sign up for a new line and get the $450 discount. I guess ATT thinks we are all stupid consumers. For t-mobile, 50% of the "remaining cost" at 12 months would be $162, so t-mobile would be slightly cheaper.
Last edited:
Clearly, you have no knowledge of at least the AT&T plan. They sound very similar, except with AT&T you get a world class global network.
HA! Yes.....
Here's my current "upgrade" plan....
AT&T Family Plan - pay $70/month for unlimited talk, text and 5GB of data + hotspot (my portion of our family plan). Upgrade whenever I damn well please by selling my current device to pay for the new one.
For example - the iPhone 6 will be released. I won't be eligible for a full subsidy but I will get the early iPhone upgrade.
Cost of 32GB iPhone 6 = $550 (estimated)
Price I can sell my 5S for = 32GB are going for roughly $600.
Only caveats are I need to keep my phone is good condition and sell myself. But I can upgrade every year and actually MAKE money in some cases.
People make things too hard on themselves. If you care to upgrade, its best to do it yourself. If you don't care, these plans won't help you.
----------
It's pretty widely known, AT&T does have the best network. Speed, reliability etc....
I wouldn't move at this point. Been with AT&T for years.
Remember, Americans are accustomed to signing a contract, but in doing so, getting a $600-$700 phone for little to nothing. As we transition to this model, the end result is what we feel we should have (ownership of the phone), but getting there causes larger upfront costs.
The carriers are trying to ease us into this by providing this "rental" period, but if we get anxious about upgrading (and many of us do), then the carriers have the potential to make big bucks on us. Basically, it's a carrier's market here in the U.S.
Yes, I'm on the AT&T 'NEXT' program which essentially means I'm leasing the iPhone5s. Still, it allows me to upgrade each year but I do pay a premium for the privilege. Since I traveled to Europe now and then I need to stay on their network.
