Getting contract-free iPhone for a decent price from AT&T

[mossme89]

I'm getting ready to get rid of my 2g iPhone and move to a newer model iPhone. I really don't want to deal with AT&T's shenanigans, so I looked on eBay, but $450 for a 3G or $600 for a 3GS is WAY too high IMO.

So I was thinking, what if I get a 3GS iPhone from AT&T ($199), get the cheapest plan, wait out the 30 days, then cancel on day 31? I'd have to pay the $175 termenation fee, but $375 is a much better price for a new iPhone than $600. Would this work so then I'm free to go to tmobile? What is the cheapest service plan? So what are we looking at for the grand total including the first 2 months of service?

 

[RetiredInFl]

I'm getting ready to get rid of my 2g iPhone and move to a newer model iPhone. I really don't want to deal with AT&T's shenanigans, so I looked on eBay, but $450 for a 3G or $600 for a 3GS is WAY too high IMO.

So I was thinking, what if I get a 3GS iPhone from AT&T ($199), get the cheapest plan, wait out the 30 days, then cancel on day 31? I'd have to pay the $175 termenation fee, but $375 is a much better price for a new iPhone than $600. Would this work so then I'm free to go to tmobile? What is the cheapest service plan? So what are we looking at for the grand total including the first 2 months of service?

It's more then $375. You have to pay for the first months service and data plus the activation fee + taxes. So yes you can do that but it will cost you more then the $200 + $175.

 

[thelatinist]

I'm sure you are the first one ever to think of this fraud.

 

[STEVESKI07]

Search on here, there are plenty of threads with the breakdown of how much it would cost exactly. MisterEdF is correct though. It will end up costing you more then you'd think. At the minimum it would be something like this:

$200 for phone
$30 activation
$175 ETF
$80 1st month
$80 2nd month(they don't prorate the month that you cancel, so you'd have to pay the whole month)

That's $565 right there and that doesn't include all that taxes and fees associated with this.

 

[goosnarrggh]

I'm sure you are the first one ever to think of this fraud.

I'm not willing to go so far as to call it "fraud".

"Fraud" implies that you're breaking the rules. By paying for the service for the time you spend on contract before you cancel, paying the ETF, and paying the applicable taxes, you're obeying all the contractual obligations that were laid out for you when you purchased the iPhone.

The iPhone ends up your property, and you end up not under obligation to AT&T, all without doing anything illegal or disobeying any of the rules laid out in your contract. Hence no fraud.

However, you're really not very much better off than you would have been if you'd just paid the no-obligation prices (such as you see on eBay) up front, and you've unnecessarily invested more time and effort.