You are being ignorant to the facts. Redpocket and Visible are giving rebates and perks right now alongside a low prepaid plan which prove your statements are incorrect in real time. There are deals to be had. They just aren’t with the normal cast of characters that use the money they scam consumers out of to place million dollar TV ads. AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile aren’t where the deals reside.
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iPhone 14 Pro Max New to iPhone - cheapest way to get into an unlocked 14 Pro Max?
- Thread starter lowimpact
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You are being ignorant to the facts. Redpocket and Visible are giving rebates and perks right now alongside a low prepaid plan which prove your statements are incorrect in real time. There are deals to be had. They just aren’t with the normal cast of characters that use the money they scam consumers out of to place million dollar TV ads. AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile aren’t where the deals reside.
New iPhones or any Apple product will never really be on sale and have high resale value. Some retailers like Amazon or Best Buy may offer $50 off or something closer to the holidays but that's about as good as it gets. Otherwise it's carrier trade in. If you are ok with the previous year phones, there's always the refurb section of Apple's website or used sites like Swappa.
The first one's gonna suck, and there's no real way around that.
Going forward, unless you're holding onto the phone for 4-5 years (which is doable, you'll likely just need a replacement battery in year 3) the resale value on your 'old' phone will be high enough to defray a lot of the upgrade cost for the new one.
Going forward, unless you're holding onto the phone for 4-5 years (which is doable, you'll likely just need a replacement battery in year 3) the resale value on your 'old' phone will be high enough to defray a lot of the upgrade cost for the new one.
Great. You're a perfect candidate for the iPhone Upgrade Program especially since you're looking to lower your initial outlay of cash. Not sure what that laughing face is for but many people hang on to their phones for longer and there's nothing wrong with that because they still work just fine.
Nothing wrong at all with holding onto a phone for longer.
Just looking for best deal - not lowest upfront cost. The iPhone upgrade program is essentially just a retail loan that involves a hard inquiry and makes you look like a riskier creditor. Wouldn't go near it.
Ok - so all iPhone "discounts" appear to be a trap roping you into overpriced 24-36 month contracts, dealing with semi-shady MVNOs who may not reliably unlock your phone after the offer period is up or goofy personal loan schemes that will impact your credit. These companies must be making a killing off these "deals". Absolute yikes.
I will buy unlocked from Costco or pay full price direct from Apple 👍
I will buy unlocked from Costco or pay full price direct from Apple 👍
Sure it is. But it doesn't make one a "riskier creditor." It doesn't even show up on your credit report as a loan or even revolving credit card type. I've been on it since the 2nd year and the hard credit pulls were the initial sign up and just last year. My credit is still in the excellent range. It just makes upgrading every year so much easier than having to find a buyer for the old phone. But hope you find that iPhone deal you're looking so hard for!
PS - a Hard credit pull may affect your credit by 10 pts-ish for a month or two but bounces back so if this is detrimental to your situation, then you definitely should not do this.
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You are being foolish and making unwarranted assumptions. Are you this paranoid with everything in life? What makes you think an MVNO won’t unlock a phone that you are paying for up front? That would be illegal. Read the terms, take a screen shot, and follow procedure. It’s as simple as that. Your paranoia is going to cost you $300 more today than it needs to.
I don't hate MNVO deals, but you need to know what you're getting into and in this case I feel like you're misrepresenting the MVNO deals that are currently available for iPhones - the Visible / Red Pocket deals involve a 12 month lock-in to an MVNO for a small $200 incentive (not $300). The $200 incentives are issued as bill credits / gift cards where their issuance is predicated on breakage - the MVNO denying a certain percentage of these rebates for whatever reason - and you actually have to pay for / live with the MVNO's plan for a full 12 months.
I can't see this small discount being worth anyone's time unless you had limited carrier options where you live - say you need Verizon coverage in your area and an MVNO that uses Verizon towers is already the best deal for you and they also offer an iPhone incentive.
As I stated, your paranoia and assuming the worst case scenario is making your life hard. Do you understand business? An MVNO will never grow if they don’t live up to expectations. You can leave them at any time. How was I misrepresenting their deals? I told you up front that they unlock the phone after a year. Why would you need to leave sooner? They issue the $200 rebate via a Visa gift card. It’s as good as cash and can be used anywhere and for anything. Somehow, that’s not good enough for you either.
You were the one that felt the need to create a thread to complain about the nonexistent discounts on iPhones that you feel should exist. I provided you with an easy way to save $2-300 and not raise your monthly bill. That clearly wasn’t good enough. Go back to Android with your paranoia. Their phones are immediately discounted for a reason. You suffer depreciation immediately on them.
What would you benefit? You’d still have to pay off the full price of the phone to leave. No discount.
dude...
What is thier to tinker with with samsung? OneUI works fine stock, doesn't need anything, galaxy buds sync automatically and watch sync automatically, i don't get tinker mentality this isn't 2011 where people are using roms and all that lol ,those days are long gone.
I'd give you the Macbook as that the central piece to Apple, IMO that's the key to switching to iphone but for people that doesn't have a mac and use windows I can make a strong argument that's it better and probably cheaper to use Samsung since it syncs with Windows a little easier.
Cost alone is pretty big if we're being honest the S8 tab is pretty good and cheap than the Pro Ipads, the regular Ipad's are trash and you have to be honest it's a big speed difference between the pro and regular also half the ram.
The S8 comes with 8 gigs and runs alot quicker than the base Ipad, alot cheaper too and especially with trade in's much cheaper, also you can easily find a android S8 on offer up for 300 bucks since everyone loves Apple android depreciates fast.
Then the phones are cheaper, I have a S21 FE with 120mhz, 8 gigs ram, 256 storage for 400 NIB off Offerup, granted it's nowhere near as nice as Iphone but much cheaper.
Then i have the watch 4 classic which was 150 new with EDU discount and specials from samsung, much cheaper than the AW that rarely goes up 375 for the 45nm model.
The the buds which were 69 refurbished from BB, works great but will admit not as good NC as the Airpod pros, which rarely go for less than 170 most of the time almost 200.
I will say that samsung and microsoft programs to get Text messages on PC called Link to Windows is OKAY, nothing special but very limited but does the basics well, of course Imessage blows it out the water but it's okay.
All in all it depends on the user, I'm older so honestly I look at the basics, I'm a old man so the pretty girls aren't IG'ing me or sending me imessages so the basics is fine.
But of course Apple does it better when they do it but it's usually at a premium compared to other companies.
When I sell android stuff it's usually to older guys just needing a phone to keep in touch with the wife and family, when i sell Iphones it's the younger guy in the hot Corvette looking like a younger version of Joe Rogan with tats with the hot girlfriend, usually it's a different demographic. I do wonder how long Android will be around in America since we have a strong infatuation with Apple products but I think alot of us don't need iphone especially if we don't need all the features, we can def save a few bucks with android but people are sheep who follow other sheep.
It’s not about following other sheep. I’d rather trust my data with Apple than Alphabet/Google.
ADDED: Relooked at thread title, so disregard following. Couldn't delete.
Maybe you already addressed this, but you can buy pre-owned, unlocked iPhones from Best Buy website. They have some really old ones around $200, but I saw an iPhone 11 Pro for around $500 and an iPhone 12 Pro for around $600-$650. There are lots of people very happy with iPhone 11s and 12s. Going that route you wouldn't have to feel you paid too much for something that would quickly depreciate.
Maybe you already addressed this, but you can buy pre-owned, unlocked iPhones from Best Buy website. They have some really old ones around $200, but I saw an iPhone 11 Pro for around $500 and an iPhone 12 Pro for around $600-$650. There are lots of people very happy with iPhone 11s and 12s. Going that route you wouldn't have to feel you paid too much for something that would quickly depreciate.
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The only thing I don't like about this, is they should have to report payments if they did a hard pull. You should get credit for making payments
If you want one now, with it just being introduced, your military discount is probably the best. Beware of someone offering it at a big discount.