AT&T upgrade - Need help understanding

[warrington]

I am available for a full upgrade on my IPhone 5. If I get the IPhone 7s, what does it mean to get an upgrade? Do I save any money? It use to mean that you saved $300-400. Can I trade in my phone and get credit for my 5.

Can someone explain this in normal terms

[Bisch]

If you get on the AT&T Next plan, you will pay a monthly charge -forever- which is basically like paying for new phones in advance. Then you can get new phones more often without it seeming like it costs you that much. It is a money making scheme for them! I won't ever get on that plan, but that is just me. A phone is not that important of a thing to me.

Bisch

[Mtltx]

I just bought a new 6s. They didn't give me anything for my phone. They put you on a payment plan. Mine is $53/month until it's paid off. The phones nowadays are about $800!!! Which is crazy but, they know people will buy them. There are no more trades and no more " free" upgrades.

[dphillips62]

Following
I am wanting to do the same thing.
from what I have heard you only get the old deals from best buy. AT&T wants you to pay the phone out monthly.

[Nova]

I am not sure if anyone has "the old deals" now where you pay a couple hundred bucks for a phone and sign a two year contract. The ATT guy told me those days were over due to a lawsuit with another company that ended it for everybody. Now you must either pay for your phone up front or pay the entire cost out over a specified time. It usually cost 25-50 bucks extra on your bill per month.

What I did to mitigate this was to go on ebay and buy a like new phone one model back for around 250 cash and get them to activate it. It was much newer than my old phone with more features and gadgets. I couldn't tell it from a new one. I wound up with a Samsung S6 active.

[fullsizeaggie]

There is no upgrade anymore. You just get the option of how you want to pay for your phone. Get a little break on your bill because of that though.

[Axe Man]

I think it is all a wash. You used to pay some up front then your bill was higher for the 2 year contract. Now you just pay out the phone in payments. They have always been getting their money. In fact, many of the old 2 year contracts cost you more in the end than the phone price.

[AgHntr10]

You just need to understand that you are getting bent over no matter what you choose to do.

[Roy]

I'm in the same boat as you. I'm ready to upgrade my iPhone 5 and I asked them what happened to the $300/2yr plan upgrade and was told it is no longer available. I said BS, Verizon offers it, so maybe I should switch. I was told the Next plan was better and I said if you can prove to me how $300 vs. $700 for iPhone 6S Plus ($23.34/mo for 30 months) is 'better' for someone like me who doesn't upgrade every freaking year, I'll sign up! No surprise- he couldn't, nor could his 'sales manager'.

Looks like I'll be switching to Verizon...

I think it is all a wash. You used to pay some up front then your bill was higher for the 2 year contract. Now you just pay out the phone in payments. They have always been getting their money. In fact, many of the old 2 year contracts cost you more in the end than the phone price.

My monthly bill was not going to go down at all. The only difference is the 'monthly phone charge' was going to be added to it. If they would have lowered my bill by $30, then I would have definitely 'bought' a new phone on the Next plan.

[txfireguy2003]

I think it is all a wash. You used to pay some up front then your bill was higher for the 2 year contract. Now you just pay out the phone in payments. They have always been getting their money. In fact, many of the old 2 year contracts cost you more in the end than the phone price.

Yep, especially if you're like me and never upgraded phones. You paid the higher monthly service price forever, when your phone was "paid off" in the first year of the contract. Under the next plan, once the phone is paid off, your bill is supposed to go down.

The problem I'm seeing right now is, technology is moving forward so fast, and there is a software update every week, that the older phones are sticking to perform with the heavy software burden. A phone that blew you away with its speed and features when new, is now sluggish and glitchy because it was never designed to operate with the newest software, plus, if you use the phone as a camera our store any other data on it, you quickly get to where there isn't enough memory available to download the new software. That's fine, I'll just harass you every day until it finally shuts you down, forcing you to delete stuff and find space.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

[Traildust]

You just need to understand that you are getting bent over no matter what you choose to do.

Yep.....you just get to choose...dry or lubed!

[35remington]

I think it is all a wash. You used to pay some up front then your bill was higher for the 2 year contract. Now you just pay out the phone in payments. They have always been getting their money. In fact, many of the old 2 year contracts cost you more in the end than the phone price.

This is the correct answer.

Warrington, you never "saved $300-400" with an upgrade. You just paid an extra $20 or so per month for 24 months, and then kept paying without know it. They did it to everyone.

You asked :can I trade in my phone and get credit for my old one". Yes, both the Apple store and the AT&T store will do this.

[txlawdog]

Yep and I'm stuck with AT&T, only service that works at the ranch. Never know when I might need it for emergencies. We have let ourselves get where we don't think we can do without it. In a few years everyone is going to have the forward neck lean as a normal posture. Youngsters are oblivious to what is going on around them, other than the 3x5 screen in front of them.
Think I'll invest in a neck massage place.............

[scott1022]

I paid in full for my phone and then switched to the next plan. The plan was cheaper and they give $15/phone discount if you are not financing a phone through them. For example, if I was paying $45/month for service. I then get a $15 discount, so its now $30/month.

If you finance the phone through them, you lose that $15 discount AND you pay a premium for that phone that you are financing. So its like you are wasting $180 a year by financing the phone through them.

Thats how I'm currently set up, not sure if they still offer this same "plan".

[gingib]

I think it is all a wash. You used to pay some up front then your bill was higher for the 2 year contract. Now you just pay out the phone in payments. They have always been getting their money. In fact, many of the old 2 year contracts cost you more in the end than the phone price.

Not too sure about this. My plan costs the same

You just need to understand that you are getting bent over no matter what you choose to do.

Yep exactly!