Upgrading cell phones thru At&T

[BigBake]

Need some advice from my fellow fanatics on upgrading and what is the best option.

Currently I see two different ways I can upgrade:

1. Go to BestBuy/Apple and buy the new iPhone 6 for full retail and activate. This does not change my monthly bill. I retain my status as "off contract" and the lower monthly plan.

2. Upgrade using the At&T next plan and essentially pay them in installments for the phone. This would increase my monthly bill by the installment amount. I have two phones to upgrade so it'd be $28.34 x 2 = 56.68 for 24 mos.

Questions i have that maybe others have already figured out.

- Can you pay off the phone early?
- $28.34 x24 = $680.16 If I own the phone after last payment is made does that mean my total price for phone was $680.16? I swear I'm missing something here because that's considerably less than the full retail amount for a iPhone 6+ with 64gbs.
- Do I truly own the phone after last installment is made? I can sell it on CL or ebay if I choose to?

 

[RubyClone]

Are you talking about the Next Plan? Don't you get a monthly discount per phone for that?

As for you're last question - my understanding is that after you make the last payment - you own the phone outright. If you haven't paid off the phone when your plan is up - you can either buy off the balance, or trade it in and upgrade.

It was last fall when I was looking at this. IIRC - either way ends up being a wash if you go to term. Thing that I found confusing (and didn't really work out the math on) is that your "commitment" term and the payoff terms were very different. I'm thinking the Next 12 plan was payoff of like 20 months? So if you want to move to the iphone 7 after 12 month - you simply turn in the current one and whatever "equity" you have in it and continue on a new Next plan, or pay off the balance and do whatever you will.

 

[BigBake]

That's what I was missing.

You don't own the phone at end of 12, 18 or 24 mos. You have 6 more payments on top of each of those terms to own it free and clear. The only thing the 12, 18 and 24 give you is an option to trade in for a new model. Regardless of which you choose you still have 6 more payments on top.

 

[RubyClone]

That's what I was missing.

You don't own the phone at end of 12, 18 or 24 mos. You have 6 more payments on top of each of those terms to own it free and clear. The only thing the 12, 18 and 24 give you is an option to trade in for a new model. Regardless of which you choose you still have 6 more payments on top.

That's what I understood. Really just a gimmick to get you into a new contract.

The math I did more or less spelled out the Next program discount amounted to the previous subsidized cost. Just need to decide how fast you want to upgrade. FWIW - I don't really see the use of the 18 mos program, unless perhaps right now where you're starting well into a new model cycle. Apple has been pretty consistent with releasing at yearly intervals around Sept/Oct. So 18 mon would work pretty well to get you to fall 2016.

Then when the time comes to upgrade - just need to price the market and find out if you can get more selling to Gazelle or somewhere than the payoff costs.

 

[3TrueFans]

Are you eligible for an upgrade? Can't you just buy a phone from AT&T at a discounted rate by agreeing to a 2 year contract? Or does AT&T not do that anymore?

I just upgraded the wife's phone with Sprint and it seems like the new hotness is this leasing crap which seems like just a terrible deal. Pay as much or more for the phone but you don't get anything at the end of it. On top of which if you ever wanted to switch carriers almost all will pay off your ETF but they won't pay off your phone lease.

 

[TakeCover]

Need some advice from my fellow fanatics on upgrading and what is the best option.

Currently I see two different ways I can upgrade:

1. Go to BestBuy/Apple and buy the new iPhone 6 for full retail and activate. This does not change my monthly bill. I retain my status as "off contract" and the lower monthly plan.

2. Upgrade using the At&T next plan and essentially pay them in installments for the phone. This would increase my monthly bill by the installment amount. I have two phones to upgrade so it'd be $28.34 x 2 = 56.68 for 24 mos.

Questions i have that maybe others have already figured out.

- Can you pay off the phone early?
- $28.34 x24 = $680.16 If I own the phone after last payment is made does that mean my total price for phone was $680.16? I swear I'm missing something here because that's considerably less than the full retail amount for a iPhone 6+ with 64gbs.
- Do I truly own the phone after last installment is made? I can sell it on CL or ebay if I choose to?

I looked into this sometime last year, as well, so here's what I can tell you. The "24" you're seeing for the Next option is actually the amount of payments you have to have made in order to trade-in your phone and upgrade again via Next, whereas the monthly installment of $28.34 actually lasts for 30 months (28.34 x 30 = $850.20, retail price is $849.99) before you own the phone outright. Essentially, the 24-month wait on being able to upgrade again AND trade in the phone is a huge ripoff, as you would end up paying 5/6 of today's retail cost for the phone while not being able to keep it, so we did not consider that option whatsoever. I was told that you can pay off the phone at anytime, however, so there's that...

In the end, we bought the newest Iphone (5s) at the time from a seller on Craigslist for like $400, took it into AT&T and had them activate it on our line with no issues and at no cost to us, thus retaining our "off contract" status and the same monthly plan we'd been on. I was and am still very happy having gone that route, as the whole Next idea doesn't make much sense once you realize it's simply the retail cost of the phone spread out over 30 payments, while also having to pay sales tax (another $50) on that full retail price upon activation.

I would also like to note that the phone we bought through a 3rd party was initially a Verizon phone, and I did that intentionally because new Verizon smartphones are sold unlocked out of the box with zero hoops to jump through. I'm not positive why that is, but as I understand it, all available bands are usable on the phone, so our situation is a bit more flexible if we ever decide we need to switch carriers, as the Iphone 5s can simply come over with us. Obviously, an AT&T Iphone won't have any problems, either, but will be locked only to that carrier when you get it.

TL;DR -- Don't go the Next route, as it's not a good deal. Either pony up for the retail cost or buy one via a 3rd party and have it activated. Hope this helps!

 

[3TrueFans]

Does AT&T make you to change your plan if you buy a new phone or something?

 

[RubyClone]

Are you eligible for an upgrade? Can't you just buy a phone from AT&T at a discounted rate by agreeing to a 2 year contract? Or does AT&T not do that anymore?

I just upgraded the wife's phone with Sprint and it seems like the new hotness is this leasing crap which seems like just a terrible deal. Pay as much or more for the phone but you don't get anything at the end of it. On top of which if you ever wanted to switch carriers almost all will pay off your ETF but they won't pay off your phone lease.

They still do contracts. But as I said - the plan discounts you get for the lease (I want to say 25/mo?) - by the time you're done paying off the phone, it's the same net as getting the subsided phone - if you look at the overall cost of the contract and phone together.

You're point on the EFT is completely true, however.

The guy who was explaining this to me agreed that neither way is really a financial benefit - it just gets you into a new phone more often if that's what you like. But he did say that his understanding was that more carriers will go to this and eventually eliminate the subsidized contracts. Probably to get more away from the switching you mention.

 

[3TrueFans]

I don't know if they do AT&T, but I buy all my phones from Sam's Club. I know they do Sprint, Verizon and US Cellular for sure. My wife's iPhone 6 was only $127, the 6 Plus was $227.

 

[BigBake]

I ended up just buying two new iPhone 6s from best buy and using the no payments no interest thing. I'll just pay em off in short order and own them. Keeps me not under contract.