AT&T upgrade - Need help understanding

[Jaybo31]

Best Buy only does the Next plan now. You are getting hosed either way now. You are either going to pay full price for the phone or if you do the $200 or whatever out right upgrade your bill goes up. Used to not be that way until the Next plan came along.

[jrfan]

I just traded my iPhone 6 for 6s plus at best buy last week and it ended up costing me 9.00 for the new phone. They gave me 190.00 for my iPhone 6 and the 6s pluses was 199.00 if I renewed my 2 year contract. I own the phone and do not have monthly payments on it. I have sprint though not ATT.

[MQ32Shooter]

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

I'm with you Bisch. I still have a 4S and don't know that I'll ever understand "renting" a dang phone for the rest of my life. I don't lease houses, cars, trucks, etc. I want to own something if I'm gonna be paying for it every dang month.

[35remington]

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.

Bisch

This is wrong. You pay exactly the number of installments that equal the cost of the phone. Here is a screenshot of my AT&T billing history. I bought the 128GB iPhone 6 in 2014 for $849. They charged me $42.45 per month for 20 months. My 20th month was May 2016.

[agtex42]

I usually just wait to upgrade until they've released at least one if not two new models. Doing this usually means you get a good enough technology jump without spending the $650 plus for a phone. I recently upgraded from a 4s to the 5SE and it was only $350 for the phone, still a lot more than I wanted to pay but not nearly as painful as the top of the line stuff. I agree with the posts above in that it's all a huge scam, I'm just thankful that it's just me and the wife on a shared plan for now; not looking forward to the days of "why can't I have a cell phone, all my friends do?"!!

[Mike D]

I haven't heard of the no contract being forced on you. I got my 6S+ and paid $299 for it last year. They always try to get us to switch to the next plan but we always stay with the unlimited plan that we are grandfathered into.


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[Chad C]

They don't do the discounted upgrade/trade anymore. You pay a monthly fee for 24 months to purchase your phone.

[Jtrage]

They don't do the discounted upgrade/trade anymore. You pay a monthly fee for 24 months to purchase your phone.

This is the new trade program through ATT: http://about.att.com/newsroom/iphone_7_pricing.html

[WItoTX]

I used to pay ~$90 /month for my plan prior to Next. This was only for the plan, no phone. Now, I pay $65/mo plus something like $20 for my phone each month, which I just got a Galaxy S6.

So my thought is, I was previously paying for my old phone each month, though it appeared I was getting an awesome discount on it when I first bought it. Now, they admit you have to pay for the phone, but just split it out. In other words, they just get you one way or another.

[Bisch]

This is wrong. You pay exactly the number of installments that equal the cost of the phone. Here is a screenshot of my AT&T billing history. I bought the 128GB iPhone 6 in 2014 for $849. They charged me $42.45 per month for 20 months. My 20th month was May 2016.

While you are correct, their scheme is to get people to get new phones more often, and if you do that, you are always making payments on a phone.

Bisch

[txfireguy2003]

I used to pay ~$90 /month for my plan prior to Next. This was only for the plan, no phone. Now, I pay $65/mo plus something like $20 for my phone each month, which I just got a Galaxy S6.

So my thought is, I was previously paying for my old phone each month, though it appeared I was getting an awesome discount on it when I first bought it. Now, they admit you have to pay for the phone, but just split it out. In other words, they just get you one way or another.

Right, but the difference is, once the phone is paid off, you stop paying for it and your bill goes down to $65, whereas before, unless you upgraded all the time, you were paying an extra 20-25 bucks for something you already paid for.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

[thegrouse]

I bought an ATT 5S 32gb phone used for 200$. I activated it on Cricket for 45$ a month and it works off of ATT towers. Same service a lot cheaper and I own the phone. You can do the same with an iPhone 6 or newer also. Pay for the phone and use Cricket for the cheap service on the ATT network.

[WItoTX]

Right, but the difference is, once the phone is paid off, you stop paying for it and your bill goes down to $65, whereas before, unless you upgraded all the time, you were paying an extra 20-25 bucks for something you already paid for.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

Yeah, I know what you mean. Problem is usually my phone doesn't make it two years. Usually, after about 1.5 years the phone is very slow, right before it dies. Then I use that as my argument when I call to get a new phone to get better prices.

With this new system, if my phone dies in less than two years, they now get to say I didn't have my old phone paid off, and I now have to pay it off prior to getting a new one.

[WItoTX]

I bought an ATT 5S 32gb phone used for 200$. I activated it on Cricket for 45$ a month and it works off of ATT towers. Same service a lot cheaper and I own the phone. You can do the same with an iPhone 6 or newer also. Pay for the phone and use Cricket for the cheap service on the ATT network.

Had I known about this, I may have done it. Same speeds, data limits, and towers. Price is ~%15 less a month than ATT.

[35remington]

While you are correct, their scheme is to get people to get new phones more often, and if you do that, you are always making payments on a phone.

Bisch

You're welcome to that opinion (and I agree with this particular opinion). It doesn't make your earlier statement any less wrong. Misinformation is misinformation.