I like the idea, but the price seemed geared toward someone who can't come up with the $200, and needs an overpriced monthly payment plan.
On T-Mobile, the plan is not so bad because 1) you have no contract, and 2) the service plan is cheaper. You pay no money down for the phone, $10 a month extra on your bill, this includes insurance, and you can upgrade twice a year. You have to give the phone up when yu upgrade, but if you upgrade only twice a year, you only paid $180 for the phone after 6 months (including the $20 a month phone fee and $10 a month service fee). On AT&T this plan likely makes little sense because the fee for service seems to not drop.
Are they going to lower service costs then? Because otherwise this is double dipping.
This.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TBell
On T-Mobile, the plan is not so bad because 1) you have no contract, and 2) the service plan is cheaper. You pay no money down for the phone, $10 a month extra on your bill, this includes insurance, and you can upgrade twice a year. You have to give the phone up when yu upgrade, but if you upgrade only twice a year, you only paid $180 for the phone after 6 months (including the $20 a month phone fee and $10 a month service fee). On AT&T this plan likely makes little sense because the fee for service seems to not drop.
Buy a new smartphone on a Simple Choice Plan using our Equipment Installment Program.
Enroll in JUMP! for $10 a month when you add Services to your order.
Upgrade as soon as six months after enrollment.
Trade in your phone each time you upgrade so you can get the same great price as new customers for new phones.
And with JUMP!, you can upgrade two times every 12 months after your first upgrade. So you can upgrade when you want, not when you’re told.
T-Mobile's plan while good, DOES REQUIRE an upfront cost of either the ENTIRE cost of the phone or $99 upfront with the remainder of the full retail cost spread over 24 months. This new JUMP plan just allows you to trade in TWICE a year at no additional cost beyond the initial plan or at least that is how is SEEMS to read.
Looking at the ATT NEXT plan it seems that the "carrot" they are dangling is the elimination of the $199/$299/$399 upfront upgrade cost, PLUS the activation fee (you typically can get them to waive those anyway), the upgrade fee (whatever the hell that was for) and the ability to upgrade at 12 months.
Is this a GOOD deal or NOT? Since they state that there is NO penalty for early payoff, at the time you wished to upgrade, you could either hand them your phone, and get a new one, OR pay off the phone, sell it on the open market and walk into ATT and get a new phone at NO cost on the NEXT plan. It would all come down to convenience and the fair market value of the phone.
I don't look for them to lower their base rate plan cost. It does NOT appear that Verizon is planning on doing it either. Yes, T-Mobile did lower their base rate plan when they rolled out their UNCARRIER plans, but that does NOT mean that ATT or Verizon is going to follow suit.
If ATT is really wanting to attract MORE customers in a BIG way, they SHOULD lower their base rate plan sufficiently to look attractive as part of the NEXT plan, but again, I don't see that anywhere in what they have announced NOR do I expect it will be part of the plan.
Exactly! Except ATT is hiding the finance "costs" inside the old base rate subsidy so as to allow them to state that there is NO finance charge.
Verizon is charging you $120 (ie $10 a month for 12 months before upgrade eligible), T-Mobile is charging you $60 ($10 a month for 6 months before upgrade eligible) and ATT is charging NO additional fees. Verizon and T-Mobile BOTH require you to purchase your equipment, either upfront or in the form of subsidized financing (ie Verizon), upfront or Equipment Installment Plan on T-Mobile, in addition to the cost of the "early upgrade" plan. ATT is throwing IN the equipment at NO additional cost as part of the early upgrade plan.
Verizon has not yet stated if they are going to eliminate associated upgrade fees like ATT has done.
Verizon and ATT reset your 2 year base contract when using the upgrade, T-Mobile does not change any base rate plan contract (ie NO contract requirement), but you can't leave them unless you pay off your phone up front or at time you terminate, which assuming that you used their equipment installment plan has you locked into 2 years unless you do the payoff.
It is NOT clear if T-Mobile resets the two year equipment installment plan when you upgrade, but Verizon and ATT both indicate that any remaining payments on equipment being traded in as part of the 12 month upgrade option are forgiven and a new two year payment plan based on the full retail price of the new phone takes effect.
ATT, while guilty of some double dipping in the new NEXT plan, it is NOT as bad as it might seem on the surface. First off they have eliminated ALL upgrade costs, which have previously been $199/$299/$399 + activation +upgrade fee. They are NOT charging any additional month fee for the plan other than the retail cost of the phone spread over 20 months. They are allowing upgrade at NO cost at 12 months. You can payoff the phone and sell it with no penalty if that is a better deal (ie pocket the difference between the payoff and the sale of the equipment) and STILL walk out with a new iPhone every 12 months with NO out of pocket costs. YES, it does appear that they are still charging for subsidy in the base rate, but there is a cost associated for them run the program and finance the cost of the phones. Is ATT coming out ahead on this, OF COURSE they ARE, but again, it is not as bad as some are making it out to be.
I'm guessing this won't be a favorable option when compared to simply utilizing subsidies every two years, and upgrading at full price in years when you don't qualify. iPhones have tremendous resale value so you can typically recoup a large portion of the upgrade cost, even without the subsidy. (on subsidy years, you typically come out ahead after selling your 1-year old phone)
Family plan "trickle down" is a much better deal. I, who pays the monthly plan, gets the new phone each year. Mine goes to the next person in line, their's goes down to the next, and the person at the bottom (4 on the plan) get the next-to-oldest phone. The phone rotating out the bottom (a 3GS this year) winds up becoming an iPod or (as will be the case this year) unlocked and used for international travel.
It would still be nice to have the TMobile plan were you get lower-cost plans and buy the phones outright; but I like AT&T so the trickle down plan works best for us.
Family plan "trickle down" is a much better deal.
I, who pays the monthly plan, gets the new phone each year. Mine goes to the next person in line, their's goes down to the next, and the person at the bottom (4 on the plan) get the next-to-oldest phone. The phone rotating out the bottom (a 3GS this year) winds up becoming an iPod or (as will be the case this year) unlocked and used for international travel.
It would still be nice to have the TMobile plan were you get lower-cost plans and buy the phones outright; but I like AT&T so the trickle down plan works best for us.
The top two should get new phones every year and "trickle down" those annually. You should have 2 5s and 2 4S. By not taking advantage of the subsidy every opportunity you get to upgrade, you're just paying ATT a subsidized price.
When the 5S- or whatever- comes out this year, top two get those, bottom two get 5s, and the 4Ss get sold on Craigslist for essentially what you paid for the 5Ss (~$200 apiece). You'll never pay an upgrade fee again. If everyone has iPhones, why do they want to use an old iPhone as an iPod? Sell the 4S and buy a 16gb new iPod for the same cost if you really need an iPod- it's better anyway.
Or spend the same money for inferior equipment- it's your dollar.
There's really no reason to do this unless someone is incredibly impatient and not that good with money. $32.50 a month, but you don't actually own the phone...that's what it sounds like to me. I'll take the old way. I'll buy the phone with a two year commitment for $200. In two years, I'll get a new one...getting around $150 or more for my old phone via private sale. After the first phone, it's really only $50 to get a new phone, plus their stupid upgrade fee.
What really gets me here is the use of the term "downpayment." Jesus..its a phone, not a car.
Comments
On T-Mobile, the plan is not so bad because 1) you have no contract, and 2) the service plan is cheaper. You pay no money down for the phone, $10 a month extra on your bill, this includes insurance, and you can upgrade twice a year. You have to give the phone up when yu upgrade, but if you upgrade only twice a year, you only paid $180 for the phone after 6 months (including the $20 a month phone fee and $10 a month service fee). On AT&T this plan likely makes little sense because the fee for service seems to not drop.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pendergast
Are they going to lower service costs then? Because otherwise this is double dipping.
This.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TBell
On T-Mobile, the plan is not so bad because 1) you have no contract, and 2) the service plan is cheaper. You pay no money down for the phone, $10 a month extra on your bill, this includes insurance, and you can upgrade twice a year. You have to give the phone up when yu upgrade, but if you upgrade only twice a year, you only paid $180 for the phone after 6 months (including the $20 a month phone fee and $10 a month service fee). On AT&T this plan likely makes little sense because the fee for service seems to not drop.
Too bad T-Mobile LTE service is so spotty.
Buy a new smartphone on a Simple Choice Plan using our Equipment Installment Program.
Enroll in JUMP! for $10 a month when you add Services to your order.
Upgrade as soon as six months after enrollment.
Trade in your phone each time you upgrade so you can get the same great price as new customers for new phones.
And with JUMP!, you can upgrade two times every 12 months after your first upgrade. So you can upgrade when you want, not when you’re told.
T-Mobile's plan while good, DOES REQUIRE an upfront cost of either the ENTIRE cost of the phone or $99 upfront with the remainder of the full retail cost spread over 24 months. This new JUMP plan just allows you to trade in TWICE a year at no additional cost beyond the initial plan or at least that is how is SEEMS to read.
I guess T-Mobile had more of an impact than first realized, just not in regards to pricing.
Looking at the ATT NEXT plan it seems that the "carrot" they are dangling is the elimination of the $199/$299/$399 upfront upgrade cost, PLUS the activation fee (you typically can get them to waive those anyway), the upgrade fee (whatever the hell that was for) and the ability to upgrade at 12 months.
Is this a GOOD deal or NOT? Since they state that there is NO penalty for early payoff, at the time you wished to upgrade, you could either hand them your phone, and get a new one, OR pay off the phone, sell it on the open market and walk into ATT and get a new phone at NO cost on the NEXT plan. It would all come down to convenience and the fair market value of the phone.
I don't look for them to lower their base rate plan cost. It does NOT appear that Verizon is planning on doing it either. Yes, T-Mobile did lower their base rate plan when they rolled out their UNCARRIER plans, but that does NOT mean that ATT or Verizon is going to follow suit.
If ATT is really wanting to attract MORE customers in a BIG way, they SHOULD lower their base rate plan sufficiently to look attractive as part of the NEXT plan, but again, I don't see that anywhere in what they have announced NOR do I expect it will be part of the plan.
Exactly! Except ATT is hiding the finance "costs" inside the old base rate subsidy so as to allow them to state that there is NO finance charge.
Verizon is charging you $120 (ie $10 a month for 12 months before upgrade eligible), T-Mobile is charging you $60 ($10 a month for 6 months before upgrade eligible) and ATT is charging NO additional fees. Verizon and T-Mobile BOTH require you to purchase your equipment, either upfront or in the form of subsidized financing (ie Verizon), upfront or Equipment Installment Plan on T-Mobile, in addition to the cost of the "early upgrade" plan. ATT is throwing IN the equipment at NO additional cost as part of the early upgrade plan.
Verizon has not yet stated if they are going to eliminate associated upgrade fees like ATT has done.
Verizon and ATT reset your 2 year base contract when using the upgrade, T-Mobile does not change any base rate plan contract (ie NO contract requirement), but you can't leave them unless you pay off your phone up front or at time you terminate, which assuming that you used their equipment installment plan has you locked into 2 years unless you do the payoff.
It is NOT clear if T-Mobile resets the two year equipment installment plan when you upgrade, but Verizon and ATT both indicate that any remaining payments on equipment being traded in as part of the 12 month upgrade option are forgiven and a new two year payment plan based on the full retail price of the new phone takes effect.
ATT, while guilty of some double dipping in the new NEXT plan, it is NOT as bad as it might seem on the surface. First off they have eliminated ALL upgrade costs, which have previously been $199/$299/$399 + activation +upgrade fee. They are NOT charging any additional month fee for the plan other than the retail cost of the phone spread over 20 months. They are allowing upgrade at NO cost at 12 months. You can payoff the phone and sell it with no penalty if that is a better deal (ie pocket the difference between the payoff and the sale of the equipment) and STILL walk out with a new iPhone every 12 months with NO out of pocket costs. YES, it does appear that they are still charging for subsidy in the base rate, but there is a cost associated for them run the program and finance the cost of the phones. Is ATT coming out ahead on this, OF COURSE they ARE, but again, it is not as bad as some are making it out to be.
A mixed bag to say the least!
I, who pays the monthly plan, gets the new phone each year. Mine goes to the next person in line, their's goes down to the next, and the person at the bottom (4 on the plan) get the next-to-oldest phone. The phone rotating out the bottom (a 3GS this year) winds up becoming an iPod or (as will be the case this year) unlocked and used for international travel.
It would still be nice to have the TMobile plan were you get lower-cost plans and buy the phones outright; but I like AT&T so the trickle down plan works best for us.
I will give you a hint and three guesses but you will only need one guess. The hint is in the title of the article, "AT&T."
When the 5S- or whatever- comes out this year, top two get those, bottom two get 5s, and the 4Ss get sold on Craigslist for essentially what you paid for the 5Ss (~$200 apiece). You'll never pay an upgrade fee again. If everyone has iPhones, why do they want to use an old iPhone as an iPod? Sell the 4S and buy a 16gb new iPod for the same cost if you really need an iPod- it's better anyway.
Or spend the same money for inferior equipment- it's your dollar.
~Cliff
(**Treo 650 -- 8 years**)
What really gets me here is the use of the term "downpayment." Jesus..its a phone, not a car.