“Planning to trade up to the iPhone 6 or 6 Plus?” Kelli B. Grant reports for CNBC. “Buying it outright may not be the best deal”
“Carriers’ handset financing plans with early upgrade capability — including Verizon Edge and AT&T Next — are increasingly worth a look for Apple fans aiming to trade up on an annual basis,” Grant reports. “‘By and large, the majority of customers will benefit from using those plans,’ said Todd Day, an industry analyst for Frost & Sullivan.”
“Over a two-year contract, for example, a regular AT&T customer and iPhone devotee might pay $2,810. That’s $200 for the first, subsidized 16 GB iPhone, $650 for a mid-contract upgrade to Apple’s latest, a $40 upgrade fee and $1,920 (before tax) over the 24-month period for a single line with unlimited talk and text and 2GB of data,” Grant reports. “An AT&T Next 12 customer, meanwhile, might pay $2,340—$390 in installments for the first phone, and then $390 for the upgraded one, plus $1,560 in service charges. Estimated savings: $470.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Apple CEO Tim Cook: iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will trigger ‘mother of all upgrades’ – September 9, 2014
Verizon offers free iPhone 6 in return for 2-year contract, used iPhone 4, 4s, 5, 5c or 5s in working condition – September 9, 2014
Apple unveils 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus – September 9, 2014
When you take into account the resale value of the phone you own, instead of the phone you rent it’s not as big of a deal, if at all, as one would think.
Clearly these people have no idea what they are talking about. “Paying double to give your phone back is better than paying half price and reselling your phone”. What the hell? I upgrade every year for free, by selling my old phone for well more than paid for it and it more than makes up for the new phone plus the $120 I use to keep a second line on my account for the year so I can get two upgrades every two years.
People on contract plans should remember that their plans cost more because they have a subsidized phone. Thats a cost to consider.
@Lenard And people doing total cost of ownership analysis should include the resale value (not trade-in value) of their phones.
I was under the impression with AT&T’s next program, your not renting it…you are just paying over 24 months for the phone you get to keep. please tell me if i am wrong on this.
With 3 people in my family the AT&T Next program saves $2500 over three years. We typically upgrade on a 3 year cycle and under the previous plan we paid over $7500. While the initial monthly costs for Next is higher, there is less to pay upfront (only taxes and fees) and the price goes down after 2 years.
Essentially it is an interest free loan to buy the phone over 2 years. If you want to upgrade earlier no problem but the overall cost will increase.
AT&T also rolled in 10GB shared data and free tethering. Combined the deal was significantly better than before.
All these numbers sound quite high compared to the T-Mobile.
For 3 people on iPhones, the total cost over two years is $3,720. Over 3 years, it would be $4,800. This gives you unlimited everything, with 1GB per line of 4G speed, and throttling to EDGE if you go over (until end of month). The math is as follows:
Monthly plan: $90 (for 3 lines)
Monthly installments for the iPhone: $60 (over two years)
Downpayment for iPhones: $600
When you pay off the phones, monthly installments part of your bill disappears.
In addition to the unlimited everything, T-Mobile gives free tethering. As for data, music streaming from services such as Pandora, Spotify, iTunes Radio, I heart Radio and few others doesn’t count against your 4G high speed monthly limit. With this unlimited music streaming feature, I have never went over my 1GB high speed data allocation. Before it, I did, and the EDGE speed was still sufficient for most uses (such as maps, e-mail, web, social media, newspapers and books, etc). The only things that don’t work well on EDGE are YouTube, Skype, Facetime and similar streaming video services.
Let us not forget, T-Mobile iPhones can be unlocked at any time. After being a T-Mobile customer for just over a year, I called them to request unlocking and they sent me instructions how to do this. My iPhone was unlocked later in the day, and I could use a foreign SIM card overseas. I ended up selling my old 5 last month for $500 (and getting the 5s for the same money back in the US). I’m still paying off the original loan on the original 5, except that I now have 5s. If I wanted to upgrade to iPhone 6 next week, I could easily sell my 5s, pay off the remaining balance on the loan (some $160) and put up a new downpayment ($200) for the iPhone 6, all with the proceeds of sale of my current 5s.
In other words, T-Mobile’s iPhones can be unlocked, and the remaining balance on the loan paid, at any time, which gives us much more flexibility in upgrading.
I was able to sell my 5 to get the 5s and pay the same as I would for a normal upgrade, so it’s a wash to me.
Someone’s been taking the word of phone sales people instead of doing real research.