Should I buy the phone outright?

[IphoneSE4Me]

Hello and thank you for taking a look at my thread. I am trying to figure out the best option for me.

Details:
carrier: AT&T
phone:SE 32GB


Historically I use the phone till the hardware dies which means roughly 2 years and a couple months. Does this mean it makes the most financial sense to purchase the phone for $350 upfront? I find adding a phone 'rental' fee confusing on my phone bill and figured buying outright would simply this as well because I would just pay for the service. Thanks!

 

[44267547]

Hello and thank you for taking a look at my thread. I am trying to figure out the best option for me.

Details:
carrier: AT&T
phone:SE 32GB


Historically I use the phone till the hardware dies which means roughly 2 years and a couple months. Does this mean it makes the most financial sense to purchase the phone for $350 upfront? I find adding a phone 'rental' fee confusing on my phone bill and figured buying outright would simply this as well because I would just pay for the service. Thanks!

Aside from purchasing your iPhone out right, you have the freedom of doing what you want with it when you're ready to upgrade again. In the sense of when you make payments on an iPhone, you don't essentially own it and you are restricted with what you can do with it. It's always better to purchase something out right if you can could afford it versus making payments. And With the iPhone SE, you would at least see two more years of iOS support.

 

[C DM]

Aside from purchasing your iPhone out right, you have the freedom of doing what you want with it when you're ready to upgrade again. In the sense of when you make payments on an iPhone, you don't essentially own it and you are restricted with what you can do with it. It's always better to purchase something out right if you can could afford it versus making payments. And With the iPhone SE, you would at least see two more years of iOS support.

Technically you own the phone, you just have a loan that you are paying off. You can still do what you want with it when you are ready to upgrade.

 

[44267547]

Technically you own the phone, you just have a loan that you are paying off. You can still do what you want with it when you are ready to upgrade.

I have had this discussion with you before in the past. Just for reference, my carrier States that you are prohibited from taking any action with the phone for any resale purposes during the time that you are making payments on the device until the phone has fully been completed for funds owed. Once the device has met the contractual obligations of not being tethered to Financial responsibilities, then you can choose to do what you want with the device. Hence why I mentioned that sometimes owning out right is better than making payments depending on one's desired plan.

 

[C DM]

I have had this discussion with you before in the past. Just for reference, my carrier States that you are prohibited from taking any action with the phone for any resale purposes during the time that you are making payments on the device until the phone has fully been completed for funds owed. Once the device has met the contractual obligations of not being tethered to Financial responsibilities, then you can choose to do what you want with the device. Hence why I mentioned that sometimes owning out right is better than making payments depending on one's desired plan.

Perhaps there are some plans with certain additional/different terms to them. I know that in my case that isn't the case. It seems like that also goes for various others based on other threads about this kind of thing, although there are potentially some that might be on plans that have some additional/different terms similar to the ones you mention.

 

[DevinNj]

Hello and thank you for taking a look at my thread. I am trying to figure out the best option for me.

Details:
carrier: AT&T
phone:SE 32GB


Historically I use the phone till the hardware dies which means roughly 2 years and a couple months. Does this mean it makes the most financial sense to purchase the phone for $350 upfront? I find adding a phone 'rental' fee confusing on my phone bill and figured buying outright would simply this as well because I would just pay for the service. Thanks!

I like the payment plans myself, with phones costing upwards of $1000 these days. The way I see it, if I'm paying for a phone (and you're paying one way or another) I may as well go with the least out of pocket as necessary. Plus I can upgrade when the new one comes out if I wanted. If I'm paying monthly, it may as well be for the newest model.