Do you have an example? I’ve never seen a 24 month contract cheaper than buying the phone outright / upgrade plan from Apple direct coupled with a SIM only deal before.
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Other Why do people buy iPhones from AT&T, Verizon, Best Buy and not Apple directly?
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Do you have an example? I’ve never seen a 24 month contract cheaper than buying the phone outright / upgrade plan from Apple direct coupled with a SIM only deal before.
Condemnation, based solely on personal opinion and beliefs but without evidence is not righteous.
You qualify your statement by saying 'usually the ones'. But you can't be certain because the facts don't always line up in the way we want them to.
For the record however, I agree with your very first statement. Spending money you don't have isn't very sensible. That's one reason my own mother found herself living with her aunt and uncle back in the 1950s during her high school years. My unsensible grandfather went out and spent his paycheck on beer and cigarettes instead of paying the rent.
Hardly luxury items though.
Not sure about UK, but in US some carriers like Verizon have had deals where they would let you get the phone for something like $10/month over a period of 24 months through financing, but the way it's done is that they still charge the full monthly payment each month, like $35, and provide a credit for the discount they offered, like in the form of $25 off a month, so that it all comes out at $10 month. But you basically only get the full discount by sticking around for the full 24 months.
I traded in my 7 Plus 128Gb in to Sprint that was worth about $450-$500, at best, to get the free iPhone Xs 64Gb. I opted to get the Max so I'm paying $4 a month. Apple doesn't offer these kinds of deals.
Yes, they are. I'm not condemning anyone. I don't care what people choose to spend their money on because it doesn't affect me. But overall if you don't have 5000 in your bank account, you shouldn't be buying a 1000 dollar phone. You don't have the means to support yourself should something come up, an accident, job loss, health problems, car breaks down, etc. A 1000 dollar phone is a luxury, not a necessity. There are plenty of more affordable options for someone who has that kind of money. Too many people live outside their means, struggling to make ends meet, living paycheck to paycheck all so they can have the latest piece of tech, handbag, shoes, whatever their vice may be. One unexpected problem and they're bankrupt or in a spiral of debt.
I’m guessing they will probably do something similar when the Xr comes out, but that’s just my guess. Unfortunately the buy one Xs get a second iPhone $700 off only ran until the end of September.
I got $300 Sams club gift card promo November 10 2017 for iPhone 8 Plus with att next.
Mspr $799-$300 gift card (gift card is basically cash to me at Sams club since I can use it at Walmart also and buy grocery etc)
So iPhone 8 Plus essentially cost me $800-300 ($500). I paid off att next almost immediately and am eligible for another promo anytime. Plus I got “upgrade fee” waived from Sams club promo
That’s why I don’t buy from Apple store.
Now if no real carrier promo. Like iPhone XS max. If no sales. Than I buy directly from Apple store. Which I did pay full price pre order.
Sales=buy from carriers/3rd party retailers like Best Buy/target/Costco etc.
Full price=buy directly from Apple store.
What I will never do is buy a phone with “monthly credits” applied over 24-30 months. Say they spread the $700 over 30 months with bogo. For me. It’s stupid. Cause they ALWAYS have $250-300 gift card promos running especially during holiday season. And I always pay off att next anytime I want and eligible for promos immediately after pay off
So over a 30 month (monthly credits). I can likely take advantage of 2-3 ($250-300 gift card promos) on new phones rather than be suckered into one phone with 30 monthly credits.
Mspr $799-$300 gift card (gift card is basically cash to me at Sams club since I can use it at Walmart also and buy grocery etc)
So iPhone 8 Plus essentially cost me $800-300 ($500). I paid off att next almost immediately and am eligible for another promo anytime. Plus I got “upgrade fee” waived from Sams club promo
That’s why I don’t buy from Apple store.
Now if no real carrier promo. Like iPhone XS max. If no sales. Than I buy directly from Apple store. Which I did pay full price pre order.
Sales=buy from carriers/3rd party retailers like Best Buy/target/Costco etc.
Full price=buy directly from Apple store.
What I will never do is buy a phone with “monthly credits” applied over 24-30 months. Say they spread the $700 over 30 months with bogo. For me. It’s stupid. Cause they ALWAYS have $250-300 gift card promos running especially during holiday season. And I always pay off att next anytime I want and eligible for promos immediately after pay off
So over a 30 month (monthly credits). I can likely take advantage of 2-3 ($250-300 gift card promos) on new phones rather than be suckered into one phone with 30 monthly credits.
Well...
There’s only like 500 Apple stores in the whole world, but twice that many other retail locations to purchase iPhones in every metropolitan area in America.
1. Sprint desperate. It’s essentially a 18 month lease but you MUST pay off the less after 18 months (25% of remaining value). Or else you must continue to pay the full $41 a month lease fee FOREVER. basically it’s $4 x 18 months plus $250 pay off. Plus non sense stuff like $30 activation fee.
2. The resell value for 128gb iPhone 7 Plus is not $450-500. It’s closer to $350 these day ($350-400 eBay selling price plus minus expenses which amount to net of around $325-350. Just look at sold prices on eBay )
Overall it’s like getting $350 off for iPhone xs from sprint.
Not a bad deal. But similar to bogo lines for adding a new. $700 in monthly credits for new line or new customers adding new lines.
$700 credit for 2 lines is similar to $350 off per line
All these tricks carriers play these days with phone deals!
What gets me is that even if you do the Apple Upgrade Program, they still show $30 for AT&T which they will bill you for an activation fee, which isn't even needed if you already have an iPhone as you can just move your sim. It's such a freaking rip off! When my son did this recently we outsmarted them though. The store was super busy, so we just took the phone and stuck his old sim in and told they guy that had went to the back that we activated it. He just got his new bill today and there was no $30 activation fee for AT&T because there was no new sim activated.
That's why I bought the Xs Max and AW4 at the Verizon store 5 minutes away. They had stock of what I wanted the day they launched, they opened at 8AM that day and I was in and out in about 20 minutes with both. And unlike Verizon's online, the trade-ins were applied as a single credit to the purchase price and not spread out over 24 months.
If I wanted to buy directly from Apple I would either have to buy online or drive about 100 miles to the nearest Apple Store. Since I don't stay up until the wee hours anymore, by the time I looked at the Apple Store online the shipping dates were slipping.
Very, very few people buy the phone outright in reality
Most people just get it through 3/O2/EE/Vodafone and pay monthly
This. I get the impression some people think it makes you “better” if you say you bought the phone outright though
I think that’s weird personally. Most of the people here claiming that everyone buys it outright are probably about 15 years old and their Mum and Dad bought them the phone anyway lol
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Agreed...the only people I know who pay outright are on a carrier that doesn’t offer payment plans (like me).
As personal preference I would still buy outright even if I had the option to pay monthly, but that doesn’t make me “better”.
On at least 1 of my phone purchases, the phone was available for preorder in the color/size I wanted on the ATT website, but already sold out at apple.com.
I bought my first iPhone after walking into an Apple store and doing the "upgrade" there.
The last 3 phones I bought (2 SE's for relatives) were bought at Best Buy and the ATT store, and my X for myself was ordered through a Best Buy mobile store since there was no local Best Buy or Apple store. And I wanted the Qualcomm version which the ATT store would not have provided.
I bought from Best Buy when I first switched from T-Mobile to Verizon. They had the elusive 6+ in stock when no one else had it. Because I was changing carriers, I couldn’t go to Apple at that time.
I take advantage of the 0% device payment option with Verizon. Either I will pay off early or upgrade after a year (as was the case with this recent upgrade).
Actually, I could have bought from Apple with this last upgrade, but honestly didn’t think about it until after it was all done. My iPhone order went smoothly, so I didn’t miss anything by not buying through Apple.
I take advantage of the 0% device payment option with Verizon. Either I will pay off early or upgrade after a year (as was the case with this recent upgrade).
Actually, I could have bought from Apple with this last upgrade, but honestly didn’t think about it until after it was all done. My iPhone order went smoothly, so I didn’t miss anything by not buying through Apple.
I did that exact same deal today. I'm going to pay $4.17 per month after the credit for 18 months on the lease program. And if Apple doesn't come up with a phone that "I" believe is better than the Max, I'll simply buy it for a little more than $200 and hang on to it for a while.
I actually did my deal through Best Buy though.
It was upgrade. No new line required
That’s what I’m saying. Wait for the retailers to have these promo. U don’t need to add a new line. The bogo “new line requirement” are really only for those switching carriers. But in reality they aren’t that great UNLESS you can time it and get the $300 gift card PER LINE PLUS THE BOGO if u are planning to switch.
That’s why I recommend those on the fence about switching to wait 2-4 weeks. So they can get $300 gift cards plus bogo for switching
For those upgrading. Just wait also. This is the deal I got in November 2017. They ran the same deal again in April 2018. So it’s not a one time promo. Target Best Buy have similar deals from time to time even for upgrades.
https://slickdeals.net/f/10763259-1...300-gift-card-with-the-purchase-of-any-iphone
You can pay off the remaining 6 months in 6 equal payments but I'm sure the default is the lease which has no end date. However, if they continue to offer the free phone deals each year, you can trade it in after 12 months and get the latest phone under the iPhone Forever plan.
The main reason I chose to switch to Sprint was that my sister-in-law works for Sprint and we get a much better discount through her friends and family plan than I get with my employer's AT&T discount. Through AT&T, it's $45 for the base talk plan (after 25% discount), $40 per line for unlimited data, and then the monthly phone payment. Through Sprint, its $30 per month for unlimited talk and text, then the monthly phone payment. We were paying about $133 per month, excluding fees, on AT&T. Now we're paying $68, excluding fees, on Sprint. Also, no activation fees on the friends and family plan.
Some might, but you could also argue, that the more prudent move is to invest that 1500 and take the the interest free loan.
Let's be real here, people with that amount of money in the bank aren't investing in anything, interest free loan or not.
I bought from the Apple Store for my ipx. It was during the waiting period for them and it came mid November last year. I signed up for applecare and iup but do not plan on using the iup after all.