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To those of you who upgrade every year to the new iphone

jinyoungkim7

jinyoungkim7

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 14, 2010
119
8
Maryland, USA
Hey guys,

I was just wondering, since AT&T does not offer 1 year plans for the iPhone, how do you guys upgrade every year like iphone 3g to iphone 3gs to iphone 4? Do you guys pay the exorbitant $600 price for the phone or am I missing something?
 
There are two phones on my account, so I use my own upgrade every other year, and the year I don't get an upgrade I do an upgrade swap with the other line. The other person on my account doesn't care either way, so she gets a one year old phone and I get a new phone every year.

This year I used her upgrade and I am eligible for an upgrade in May...Just in time for the new one!
 
It seems there is a threshold of service (read that to mean $$$) that AT&T uses to determine when you are eligible for a full upgrade (about $100/month I've read). The more you spend on your plan each month, the sooner you get to upgrade. It's about that simple.
 
I have a family plan with 3 lines and we pay ~$160. If you pay more than I believe $99 a month you are eligible for an upgrade every 12 months instead of 18.
 
I always use my own upgrade. I don't know why I am always eligible, maybe because I am the primary line. But every year I am eligible for the new iPhone. I don't have to use any other lines in my account. Mine is just always available to upgrade every year.
 
3g i got a full subsidy = 299
3gs was half subsidy = 499
4 was full price @ 699

5 will be back to full subsidy
 
Hi I upgrade every year with 'partial upgrade' which isn't full subsidized pricing. For instance the iPhone 4 partial upgrade for me was $399 with a 2 year contract extension. I've been a long time and very happy Att customer so a 2 year extension doesn't matter to me.

In closing I sell my iPhones at the cost it costs a partial upgrade. I sold my 3GS couple months and it covered cost for a partial iPhone 4 upgrade.

iPhones are a great investment.

Marc
 
jinyoungkim7 said:
Hey guys,

I was just wondering, since AT&T does not offer 1 year plans for the iPhone, how do you guys upgrade every year like iphone 3g to iphone 3gs to iphone 4? Do you guys pay the exorbitant $600 price for the phone or am I missing something?
Click to expand...

I only paid an exorbitant price the first year, thereafter every year was 199$ till this year when I got the 32gig. I plan do get one each year as long as I can.
 
I have always been able to upgrade with full subsidized price cut. The only phone I didn't buy on launch day was the first one. I have 2 iPhones on my account, but until this phone, I was only upgrading 1 of them each year. This year I went for 2 iPhone 4's with full subsidy. My monthly bill is around $200, so I guess I meet the criteria. It seems like $99 is the number, that's what I've seen posted here various places, so I guess you either give them the money up front for the phone, or pay it monthly on a big plan. They get paid either way.
 
I usually sell my previous model and buy the new one with the profits from that. I got $676 for my 3GS in mid-May and had no problem paying $399 for the 4 out of that.
 
The ATT general rule is:

$99 (voice and data) per month on the primary line (before taxes). ATT EXCLUDES Texting in that $99 calculation and EXCLUDES taxes

That line gets the 12 month upgrade cycle.

The other family lines get to upgrade every 18-21 month.

Now I said "general upgrade policy" Before ATT/Apple pulled a good thing with the iphone 4 launch by making everyone who was eligible for an upgrade through Dec 31st, 2010 automatically eligible to upgrade on the June 24th date. So they moved up the upgrade by as much as 6 months for a lot of people.

There's a known legal "trick"...hint hint, takes a 5 minute customer service call to accomplish this: But if you are on a family plan (assuming your voice and data is $99 or more), you can use this trick to move your line 2-5 upgrade from 18-21 months to about 15 months.

Another simple way to upgrade to a new iphone every year is just to sell your old iphone to "subsidize" your new iphone. iPhones retain a lot of value. Generally try to sell your iphone before the new iphones come out. You will get anywhere between $250-$450 for your iphone depending on the condition of that old iphone and how quickly you want to unload it. So sell your old iphone for say $300, and just purchase a new iPhone 4 for the unsubsidized price of $599. So you are really only paying $299 for it. It's much better to do it this way than to try to do the "partial" upgrade price of $399 cause if you use your partial upgrade, you will once again reset your upgrade cycle.
 
I have two lines on my account, and my wife doesn't care about having the latest and greatest iPhone... so I get the new one each time and she gets the previous generation.

AT&T takes care of swapping the phone numbers, and it's always subsidized since one line qualifies one year, and the other line qualifies the next year.
 
I started with the 3G and traded a 3Gs with a friend who didn't have an AT&T account and just wanted an iPod Touch basically. So I was eligible for the upgrade when the 4 came out. I'm on my own plan and only spend $85/month so I couldn't have qualified for that yearly upgrade that people are talking about. But when I was on my parents family plan we would always use each others upgrades when a phone broke or something.
 
vastoholic said:
I started with the 3G and traded a 3Gs with a friend who didn't have an AT&T account and just wanted an iPod Touch basically. So I was eligible for the upgrade when the 4 came out. I'm on my own plan and only spend $85/month so I couldn't have qualified for that yearly upgrade that people are talking about. But when I was on my parents family plan we would always use each others upgrades when a phone broke or something.
Click to expand...

You qualified because (read my post above)

Normally your upgrade on a $85 bill would be 18 months. But AT&T and apple made a deal to let those eligible for upgrades throughout Dec 31st 2010 automatically eligible for upgrades when iPhone 4 came out in June 2010.

Now being very skeptical why they did this. It's becoming very obvious. AT&T is likely going to lose this iPhone exclusively come Jan 2011 so that's why they were "generous" to move your upgrade date up when iPhone 4 launch ....cough cough so you would be locked into contract because another carrier would probably get the iPhone 4 come Jan 2011.
 
I have purchased 2 of every new iPhone at launch. I keep my phones in pristine conditions and always carry them in a case. I jailbreak and unlock them before the new phone comes out and then I sell them on Ebay after I get my new phone. My "upgrade" fee is usually $400 and I easily make that much on the sale of the old phone. I still see people walking around with original iPhones and for the life of me cant understand why. It basically costs nothing to upgrade every year.
 
Hmm I have 2 lines on my account and spend 99.99 each month, so I guess I would not qualify. Since, the over 99 a month must be on the primary line only....darn
 
Have 3 lines on my account and every year at least one is ellegable for an upgrade so I just use one of there's. And sell the other one to pay for the new one
 
I just sell my iPhone and buy the new one and pop the SIM in the new phone. Pretty simple.

However, I'm now on a 30-day rolling contract (available on all the carriers in the UK) which means buying a new iPhone whenever it comes out is easy.
 
I pay the early upgrade price. However i usually sell my old phone and make enough on the sale that the net cost I wind up paying is pretty nominal.

The cost of being an early adopter!
 
jinyoungkim7 said:
Hey guys,

I was just wondering, since AT&T does not offer 1 year plans for the iPhone, how do you guys upgrade every year like iphone 3g to iphone 3gs to iphone 4? Do you guys pay the exorbitant $600 price for the phone or am I missing something?
Click to expand...

Uhh... AT&T offers early upgrade pricing on every devices they sell. Iphone wil be 399 dollars for entrance model and 499 dollars for higher end model.
You are missing the fact that people don't need two iPhones. Once people buy the new one, then they sell the old ones. You can easily get 200-300 dollars for your iPhone. Even if it is a year old, you can still sell it for a good price. With early upgrading pricing and money you get from your old iPhone, yea.. you won't have that much money to pay.
I thought this was something obvious.
 
aneftp said:
You qualified because (read my post above)

Normally your upgrade on a $85 bill would be 18 months. But AT&T and apple made a deal to let those eligible for upgrades throughout Dec 31st 2010 automatically eligible for upgrades when iPhone 4 came out in June 2010.

Now being very skeptical why they did this. It's becoming very obvious. AT&T is likely going to lose this iPhone exclusively come Jan 2011 so that's why they were "generous" to move your upgrade date up when iPhone 4 launch ....cough cough so you would be locked into contract because another carrier would probably get the iPhone 4 come Jan 2011.
Click to expand...

YES PLEASE LET VERIZON get Iphone, so all of you people can get off AT&T network. You guys think Verizon will handle much better than AT&T with data and voice with iPhones? There isn't a carrier that can handle iPhone's traffic without a problem. Please switch to Verizon and get off AT&T networks. I get awesome discounts and reception with AT&T and I have no plans to switch. I would like you guys to go to verizon, so the network can take off some pressures. Please get off AT&T.
 
chare375 said:
Hmm I have 2 lines on my account and spend 99.99 each month, so I guess I would not qualify. Since, the over 99 a month must be on the primary line only....darn
Click to expand...

By my math all you need to do is make sure the iPhone (if you only have 1) is the primary line and remove / replace whatever individual txt plans you have with the the family text messaging unlimited for 30 a month to be good to go on the yearly upgrade.
 
jinyoungkim7 said:
Hey guys,

I was just wondering, since AT&T does not offer 1 year plans for the iPhone, how do you guys upgrade every year like iphone 3g to iphone 3gs to iphone 4? Do you guys pay the exorbitant $600 price for the phone or am I missing something?
Click to expand...
I've been a long time multi-line customer of AT&T. I have a few activated lines and smartphones.

So when I want what's new in their lineup, they waive the upgrade requirement and sell me the phone of my choice at the upgrade price.

For my part I extend my contract for another 2 year period as I've had nothing but excellent service from AT&T.
 
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