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Want to buy full price or subsidized iPhone via Verizon then cancel plan / account..

I

idyll

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 5, 2007
502
19
A family member is a T-Mobile customer and travels overseas often, so they need an unlocked phone to take with them.

T-Mobile iPhones are fairly tough to come across, so he was wondering if he could open an account on our Verizon family plan and buy an iPhone 6 from Apple or another retailer that way. I'm thinking they would not sell one at full-price (maybe?), so he might have to purchase it at the subsidized price then cancel his line.

What fees would he encounter on top of the subsidized $200 + taxes fee for the iPhone 6?

Is this a good way to go?
 
If he cancels before the return period, he'll be billed the difference between the subsidy cost and full retail. Plus taxes and possibly fees and a prorated amount of the month's service.

After the return period, he'll be billed ETF plus taxes and at least a half month's service.

Either way it's typically cheaper to just buy full retail. I believe Apple will sell it that way, but other retailers won't at this point.

Why not just buy a full retail TMO phone?
 
deeddawg said:
If he cancels before the return period, he'll be billed the difference between the subsidy cost and full retail. Plus taxes and possibly fees and a prorated amount of the month's service.

After the return period, he'll be billed ETF plus taxes and at least a half month's service.

Either way it's typically cheaper to just buy full retail. I believe Apple will sell it that way, but other retailers won't at this point.

Why not just buy a full retail TMO phone?
Click to expand...


Thanks! Makes sense.

We'll try our best to buy the T-Mobile version at full price, but haven't had any luck yet, while they seem to have plenty of Verizon iPhone 6s.
 
How soon do they need it?

The unlocked/tmobile SG 64 iphone 6 that I ordered late tuesday afternoon 10/21 from Apple.com shipped and is due to be delivered on Monday 10/27.

I believe they could potentially order an AT&T or Verizon version for in-store pickup on contract and then when they get there tell the Apple store employee they want to buy it full retail / off contract without establishing service. There are some threads/posts discussing that process here. Might end up buying/returning/rebuying. Only downside is with new service they'll likely have a hard-pull on their credit, which should be a big deal unless they're about to finance something soon.
 
Go into an Apple Store. Ask for a Verizon phone. When they ask what plan you want, say you want to buy it full price, no plan.

Take out the Verizon SIM from the phone.

Put in a T-Mobile SIM.

Done.
 
The only time this makes sense is when the carriers have special discounts on the phone, and that won't be a while.
 
deeddawg said:
If he cancels before the return period, he'll be billed the difference between the subsidy cost and full retail. Plus taxes and possibly fees and a prorated amount of the month's service.
Click to expand...


No where in the terms its mentioned that they can charge the difference between subsidy and retail. I only see a $350 ETF for advanced devices. I'm in the process of doing this now, my iPhone 6 is supposed to come tomorrow. My service was activated Nov 1. I will cancel tomorrow within 3 days to get the activation fee refunded by porting the number out to avoid dealing with the reps. And at most I should pay for 3 days of service and ETF. Verizon reps can say whatever they want, but I'm not going to be paying anything more than that.

My calculated costs:
iPhone 6: $191.16 (inlcuding tax)
Service (3 days): around $7
ETF (incl tax): around $378

Total: $576.16
Save: $125.84

I'm hoping that Verizon somehow forgets the charge the ETF. But regardless I save compared to buying a full priced iPhone.
 
How are you getting a discount off the regular $199 price? Why didn't you include the activation fee? If you're within 14 days they can require you to return the equipment I believe
 
Supermallet said:
Go into an Apple Store. Ask for a Verizon phone. When they ask what plan you want, say you want to buy it full price, no plan.

Take out the Verizon SIM from the phone.

Put in a T-Mobile SIM.

Done.
Click to expand...

THIS. No need to screw around with contracts, ETFs etc.
An ATT phone at full price will work too from the Apple store.
 
Supermallet said:
Go into an Apple Store. Ask for a Verizon phone. When they ask what plan you want, say you want to buy it full price, no plan.

Take out the Verizon SIM from the phone.

Put in a T-Mobile SIM.

Done.
Click to expand...

This.

You can do the same thing at Best Buy, too.

----------
Chatter said:
THIS. No need to screw around with contracts, ETFs etc.
An ATT phone at full price will work too from the Apple store.
Click to expand...

Yep. AT&T will also work.
 
NewVZcustomer said:
How are you getting a discount off the regular $199 price? Why didn't you include the activation fee? If you're within 14 days they can require you to return the equipment I believe
Click to expand...


Activation fee refunded if you cancel within 3 days. They cannot force me to return the equipment because their contract does not specify additional penalties for not doing so. The best they can do is charge me the ETF
 
nyknicks8 said:
Activation fee refunded if you cancel within 3 days. They cannot force me to return the equipment because their contract does not specify additional penalties for not doing so. The best they can do is charge me the ETF
Click to expand...

they may charge you 1 full month's service fee, Att won't prorate the bill even you only use 3 days, no idea what would version do.
 
nyknicks8 said:
No where in the terms its mentioned that they can charge the difference between subsidy and retail. I only see a $350 ETF for advanced devices. I'm in the process of doing this now, my iPhone 6 is supposed to come tomorrow. My service was activated Nov 1. I will cancel tomorrow within 3 days to get the activation fee refunded by porting the number out to avoid dealing with the reps. And at most I should pay for 3 days of service and ETF. Verizon reps can say whatever they want, but I'm not going to be paying anything more than that.

My calculated costs:
iPhone 6: $191.16 (inlcuding tax)
Service (3 days): around $7
ETF (incl tax): around $378

Total: $576.16
Save: $125.84

I'm hoping that Verizon somehow forgets the charge the ETF. But regardless I save compared to buying a full priced iPhone.
Click to expand...

And you took a HP to save $100..Doesn't seem wise to me...
 
bwsteg said:
And you took a HP to save $100..Doesn't seem wise to me...
Click to expand...

I'm not worried about a HP. I already have plenty of HPs on my account from the numerous credit cards I apply for each year. My score is high enough and has not dropped in the last 10 years despite having on average 5-8 HPs per year.

I'm hoping that they dont charge the ETF, some people said they did this many times and Verizon forgets to charge the ETF about 25% of the time. Not many people do this so we'll see what happens.
 
idyll said:
A family member is a T-Mobile customer and travels overseas often, so they need an unlocked phone to take with them.

T-Mobile iPhones are fairly tough to come across, so he was wondering if he could open an account on our Verizon family plan and buy an iPhone 6 from Apple or another retailer that way. I'm thinking they would not sell one at full-price (maybe?), so he might have to purchase it at the subsidized price then cancel his line.

What fees would he encounter on top of the subsidized $200 + taxes fee for the iPhone 6?

Is this a good way to go?
Click to expand...

If you are in contract you can buy phone at full price from apple.com. If you go to apple.com and upgrade it will let you buy one at full price. Other options are to buy a phone by adding a line and wait 15 days than port line to tmobile trade old verizon phone buy new cheap tmobile phone and have tmobile payoff etf
 
bunnicula said:
This.

You can do the same thing at Best Buy, too.

----------



Yep. AT&T will also work.
Click to expand...

I asked about this at Best Buy and they said their full-price Verizon 128GB iPhone 6 was $899, while the T-Mobile version direct from Apple is $849. Typical Best Buy ineptitude, or legitimate difference? I do see $899 on Best Buy's website as well, so I guess that's where it came from.
 
Gizmotoy said:
Typical Best Buy ineptitude, or legitimate difference? I do see $899 on Best Buy's website as well, so I guess that's where it came from.
Click to expand...

I saw the same thing at the Target in-store kiosk.

These places make money from the contracts/renewals so when stock is limited why sell a full price at MSRP and make less profit? Instead jack it up to $50 over MSRP and make their money if the buyer really wants it badly enough to overpay.
 
idyll said:
Thanks! Makes sense.

We'll try our best to buy the T-Mobile version at full price, but haven't had any luck yet, while they seem to have plenty of Verizon iPhone 6s.
Click to expand...

You can go into an Apple Store and ask to purchase a Verizon iPhone 6 "device only." For that matter, you can do that with an AT&T model, so if your store has them in stock, that's the easiest way.
 
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