I was going through the iPhone Upgrade Program pre-approval process in the Apple Store app, and tapped on my carrier (T-Mobile) to bring up the carrier selection screen so that I could (attempt to) select a Sim-Free iPhone Xs.
I got the following pop-up message:
I didn't know this was a thing. I get that they don't let you change carriers willy-nilly on iUP, but this makes it sounds like you can turn in your phone from your existing loan and have it settle (pay off) your loan. Anyone know anything about this? I didn't see anything like this on the iPhone Upgrade Program terms and conditions page or elsewhere.
I don't know yet if changing to Sim-Free would yield me any real advantage; In principle I just prefer the idea of a carrier-unlocked phone if the carrier isn't financing it.
I jumped through a bunch of hoops and paid (wasted) money to get a Verizon phone when the iPhone 7 came out (involved activating it on Verizon and then later cancelling Verizon service-- even then I was only able to pull it off because Apple was bending over backwards and manually taking reservations for upgrades because they hadn't really thought through the upgrade process which initially left people who were part of iUP unable to preorder the 7). Last year I just sucked it up and upgraded to another T-Mobile handset and it's been fine.
But I'm still curious about this business of closing an iUP loan without upgrading or paying off the remaining balance but instead simply turning in the phone.
I got the following pop-up message:
I didn't know this was a thing. I get that they don't let you change carriers willy-nilly on iUP, but this makes it sounds like you can turn in your phone from your existing loan and have it settle (pay off) your loan. Anyone know anything about this? I didn't see anything like this on the iPhone Upgrade Program terms and conditions page or elsewhere.
I don't know yet if changing to Sim-Free would yield me any real advantage; In principle I just prefer the idea of a carrier-unlocked phone if the carrier isn't financing it.
I jumped through a bunch of hoops and paid (wasted) money to get a Verizon phone when the iPhone 7 came out (involved activating it on Verizon and then later cancelling Verizon service-- even then I was only able to pull it off because Apple was bending over backwards and manually taking reservations for upgrades because they hadn't really thought through the upgrade process which initially left people who were part of iUP unable to preorder the 7). Last year I just sucked it up and upgraded to another T-Mobile handset and it's been fine.
But I'm still curious about this business of closing an iUP loan without upgrading or paying off the remaining balance but instead simply turning in the phone.