We have always purchased our phones at a deep discount when upgrading through our cell phone plan. Do any companies offer the deep $200/phone discount for signing a 2 year contract anymore? Or is the only option to rent your phone for what ends up being $600+/2 years? (other than buying on ebay, obviously)
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I believe you can get basic iphone models on some carriers. But they won't offer much storage, which sucks if you take a lot of pictures. You might have better luck if you want an Android, since there's more variety and you can buy additional storage.
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I'm not sure who you are with but we have Verizon and yes I do pay like $26 a month for my phone BUT they take $25 off the plan so instead of paying $45 a month for data/calls/text I pay $20
So in the end its more like I am paying about $1 a month for my phone
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I don't think ATT does anymore. But the decrease in the cost of the plan covers the monthly phone rent-to-own charge. I think it actually works out better because after you pay the $600 for the phone the monthly charge drops off decreasing your overall bill. Before you continued to pay the higher rate even if you were using an old phone that was already essentially "paid off."
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@Mamaof2: Yes this is how I understand it. Instead of paying a higher plan that has the cost of the subsidized phone built in, we pay a lower rate plan and pay for the phone (unsubsidized) separately.
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@BadgerMom: Yes this exactly.
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@mediagirl: Also, that $600 phone you own at the end of the 2 years of payments. So you could continue to use that phone for another year or two or you can sell it/trade it in and recoup some costs.
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Interesting. So, I currently "own" two phones, have two plans (husband and me) and pay $100/mo. What I'm hearing is that cost of the plan should go down if we start renting our phones?
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We weren't fans of the 'rent' your phone plans and couldn't get AT&T to give us any sort of discount with a contract, so we started buying unlocked (and then switched to Ting since we were off contract). You can find great prices on unlocked phones on amazon. My husband and I just got two Moto G4s for less than $200 each.
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@mediagirl: Yes. You would be giving up your subsidized upgrade options but yes!
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@codeitall: So then do you just stick your AT&T sim card into the unlocked phone so that you can use it with your phone number and data plan and stuff?
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Yes, but you get what you pay for. For a smartphone, my $200 model is pretty awful. I could have gotten a decent model for way less than $600 though - there were several good Samsung options in the $350 range.
I'd never have gone for the cheapest option if I knew how bad it was just by looking at the specs... for example the camera resolution looked fine on paper, how was I to know that since it can't zoom, it's worse than a point-and-shoot?
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My husband just did the trade in your phone and buy a new one at a discount thing at the Apple store a few weeks ago. He doesn't like the whole "rent" your phone thing so he was adamant he just buy it at a discount through a contract. We have Verizon.
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Just to chime in, my DH needed a new phone today due to his crapping out, and by him now "renting a phone" our bill went down $10 + we got 2 more GB of data by him getting a new phone (The new Google Pixel phone.) Previously he had a "paid off" iPhone which we can now sell if we wanted too.
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If you have T Mobile or AT&T you can buy one of their phones for their prepaid plans and just swap in your SIM card. I don't know about iPhones because DH is staunchly against them but we've gotten several types. They have different levels starting at super cheap and basic. You can look online at like Best Buy or Walmart.
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@codeitall: We have ting too! We love it! Yes, we have to buy our own phones, but it is easy to find an older model on ebay or craigslist if you feel you need a change. We usually pay about $85 a month for me, DH, MIL, FIL, my mom.
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