I just checked the small print. Tax is additional. But I question your comment about "lease to own". You start out turning over your existing phone to them. If you trade in during the 18 months on a new phone you get a new lease. At the end of the lease you either turn the phone back in or "pay it off" so it's like any other lease. But the strong temptation at that point would be to turn it in on a new phone. If paying it off is the difference between msrp and the lease payments (the website doesn't say!) then that would be another $164 or 6 months of payments on a new lease. It's easy to guess what most people will do -- renew the phones on lease forever. Most people will never own the phone.
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T-Mobile's New 'Jump On Demand' Lease Program Allows Up to 3 Smartphone Upgrades Per Year
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I just checked the small print. Tax is additional. But I question your comment about "lease to own". You start out turning over your existing phone to them. If you trade in during the 18 months on a new phone you get a new lease. At the end of the lease you either turn the phone back in or "pay it off" so it's like any other lease. But the strong temptation at that point would be to turn it in on a new phone. If paying it off is the difference between msrp and the lease payments (the website doesn't say!) then that would be another $164 or 6 months of payments on a new lease. It's easy to guess what most people will do -- renew the phones on lease forever. Most people will never own the phone.
I think most people will just turn it in and renew. The smart folks that are locked into the $15 or $19 rate will pay it off and sell it though, even if they are starting a new 18 month JOD round.
I believe you need to turn in your existing phone to start a new phone lease. So the pay off and sell won't work.
You wouldn't be able to turn in any old smartphone like the first time around? That was my assumption anyways. I guess we'll all find out in 16 months or so.
You don't start off by turning your phone in to them, or at least you don't have to. The turn in is to get a reduced monthly rate (which is calculated as a device credit devided over 18 months, so you are actually getting the iPhone 6 for less than msrp out of pocket. You would pay $270 over the 18 month period. That leaves a $163 lump sum due at the end of your commitment. You just paid $433 TOTAL for a $16gb 6+ out of pocket, and they'll let you do this buy out at any time, by the way.), that's it. You can start at any point. This program is really not different than anything else out there in terms of how device payments and values are calculated with the exception that you can get new phones more often. If you need to call it that, it's an interest free lease that you can turn in (for another device) or buy out at any time. You're always paying towards the principle of the phone without any interest (like all other plans). I don't consider this a lease, but if you do that's perfectly fine.
You can check your payoff at any time. We just started this plan. I can confirm that the payoff is the difference between the payments you've already made and the total msrp at time of purchase. (This is part of the reason I asked about taxes. I bought in tax free weekend in MA, so taxes didn't apply but I was wondering if the monthly rate changed at all for anyone and to doesn't seem to, which is why the bit about taxes in the fine print has me scratching my head some) Same as every other program I've his story ever seen.
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You have tot turn in the device you had beforehand. Either that or you need to pay that phone off in full before being able to get another on this program. If you buy the phone out you aren't "locked in" at that reduced price. There may, however, be another promotion running at whichever time you decide to either buy the phone out or turn it back in for something new.
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Sounds better than I thought. T-Mobile does call it a lease, so it's not just me! Good to hear that the residual value is considered to be the MSRP less payments to date since there is nothing in the fine print that says so. However I'd guess that you only get counted as payments to date the last phone you have on the plan, so If you get a new phone every year for three years only the last year of payments would count. Also looks like it doesn't require a trade-in at the start although I could swear I once read it was required.
Here's the fine print, BTW:
this is correct. But again, ATT, Verizon, etc are doing the same thing. If you trade a phone in they are "buying it back" for the total of the remaining payments left before payoff. This new jump plan doesn't differ from the old jump plan or the plans of their competitors in any way other than the fact that they are allowing more frequent "trades". The consumer doesn't need to full fill any sort of minimum payment towards a device before trading it in for a new one, though there is a maximum of three total devices per line per twelve month period.
Thanks.
I think I'm gonna make the switch to JUMP instead.
Just over AT&T and their service. The one thing holding me back is the unlimited data in which I was grandfathered in but with today's data plans, I don't think I'd be missing much.
Thanks.
Still deciding but it's not easy making this choice. Again, unlimited data (AT&T) is hard to give up.
I was on Verizon and left for T-Mobile, so doesn't quite answer your question. I will say the service isn't quite as good but the trade offs (cost, music streaming not counting towards data, rollover data, easier upgrades, etc) make it worthwhile for me. That said, the T-Mobile service is not bad by any means, but it is spotty inside some buildings and places where I know it wasn't with Verizon.
Thanks David.
I just asked a coworker who has TMO and he's actually looking to switch because of the coverage.
Too bad cause you can't go wrong with Jump on demand.
Yeah, it really depends on the area you're in. I did some research before switching and knew I got solid LTE coverage around home and where I work. I haven't been disappointed there, but it can be spotty in some places I didn't check prior.
I did the test drive. Which was pretty painless btw, but all around my area should be LTE but I got nothing but edge coverage making it a no go. With my company discount and since AT&T gave me 10GB for the price of 6GB through retentions the price is pretty comparable.