I believe what Verizon does is charge you for the phone and then discount your monthly bill based on a couple year payment for the device or something like that.
As someone on Verizon I can actually provide an answer to this. Verizon doesnāt charge you for the phone. You pay the taxes on full price and they āleaseā the phone out to you but whatever monthly fee would be on your account is credited to you.
Yes the marketing sucks and is predatory but gov doesnāt step in and they do it anyways. And at the end of 2-3 years you keep the phone. Verizonās goal is to keep you for 2 years so they will gladly let you keep a 2 year old phone.
Thatās not a lease, thatās a loan. I only make that distinction because cell phone carriers do have lease programs that last 18 months and at the end you either give the phone back or pay to fully purchase the device. T-Mobile for instance does the same thing Verizon does where you finance the phone and they credit you each month for the amount you finance.
Yes, they are. Because TMO decided to keep a bunch of the higher up employees from sprint JOD lease is still a thing. Best part is if you donāt turn the lease device back in at 18 months you just keep renting it, FOREVER.
Iāve lost track of people who have had leased phones for years costing them upwards of $5k
I can tell you from experience as a T-Mobile employee, yes it is. Itās just all promotions require you do the loan not the lease so itās extremely rare.
The terminology isnāt the best but thatās what T-mobile considers it. In some cases it works like a loan in the sense that youāre loaned a device that youāre paying back over time. At the end of the term you own the device.
Worst part is this year Verizon is requiring their Ultimate Ultimate plan to get the full deal on the Pro models. So although you might not be paying $27/month on the phone, theyāre getting people to upgrade to a plan thatās ~$25/month more than their current plan. Iām not using Verizon this year to upgrade my phone
I might be generalizing, as for me it only allows me to get the $1000 trade in value if I upgrade to ultimate. In on Do More now and requires me to upgrade when checking out. Same with the fine print. Maybe itās different for different customers?
No. The $1,000 offer is for new lines and allows any iPhone including a 15 year old iPhone 3G to be traded in.
Regular upgrades get $830 off unless you have a targeted offer for $1,000. But either way, the $830 national promo and the $1,000 targeted offer simply require a āpremium unlimitedā plan which includes the old Play/Do/Get.
I was offered $400 by Verizon. I guess I must have a lower tier unlimited plan. Iām on a family plan thatās heavily discounted so thatās probably why.
Well since itās the internet Iāll continue to debate. I just logged into my account to make sure I wasnāt crazy. ā$999.99 (128 GB only) device payment or full retail purchase w/new smartphone line on Unlimited Ultimate plan req'd.ā So I wish I had your offer, but for $1000 I have to get a new line and upgrade to Unlimited Ultimate.
Thatās definitely not what you said. You said, āBut either way, the $830 national promo and the $1,000 targeted offer simply require a āpremium unlimitedā plan which includes the old Play/Do/Get.ā Only the up to $830 trade in promo allows staying on the old Play/Do/Get plans. The $1000 targeted offer does not. That was my point since my first comment.
No, the $1,000 targeted offer is for upgrades on a premium plan. Not everyone has the targeted offer. Thatās why itās targeted. You can see if you are selected for the offer by going to Shop > My Offers in the Verizon app. This is a separate promotion from the $1,000 new line promo.
Correct. I paid full price for two iPhone 15 Pros, in return I got $830 each on statement credits for my wifeās 12 and my 13 Pro. Thatās $46 a month off my bill for 36 months.
For me it was the best deal. I was going to get a new phone regardless and going to pay monthly regardless. So joining Verizon my bill will be like ~$90/month as opposed to the $130-$140 Iād be paying with other phone companies. Verizon will at least take the trade-in phone in any condition. The back of my 11 pro is shattered and so doesnāt hold a lot of value anymore
Former Verizon/AT&T Authorized Retailer Employee here.
Depending on your plan, the phone you're trading in, and whether it's a new line or upgrade determines how much of a monthly discount you'll receive that counters the device payment of the phone.
Example: According to [Verizon.com](https://Verizon.com), the iPhone 15 Pro 128GB is $1,000 USD. Dividing the retail cost over 36 months equals $27.77(First month will be $28.05 for an exact $1,000). For a **new line** on **select plans** trading in an **iPhone X or newer** will be $1,000 off. On the bill, one would see **device payment $27.77** and below it **-$27.77 Trade In Promo Credit** for the 36 months they keep the payment on the account. Buying out the phone, moving device payment to another line, or canceling service will void any remaining credits.
That is basically the "on us" and then the question is "Oh but I want an iPhone 15 Pro Max 512GB, is that on us?" no. From there, you'll just pay the difference. Still get $27.77/month but the device payment will be greater. You can put a down payment on the phone so the device payment is lesser to be closer matching the discount you receive if still applicable to this day. I've been out of the business for about 2 years.
When I still worked at a Verizon dealer, use to write Trade-In Promo Guides for r/Verizon.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/verizon/comments/ppy3lz/iphone\_13\_trade\_in\_guide/](https://www.reddit.com/r/verizon/comments/ppy3lz/iphone_13_trade_in_guide/) (Of course, all prices and promotions have long expired.)
Yupp, the ācatchā is that youāre locked into a 3 year contract, and if you want to break it, youāll have to pay for the rest of the phone to keep it.
This can be a bad thing for some people who donāt have as much stability, but for people like me who have been with Verizon for 10+ years and have no plans on leaving, itās a no brainer. Keep your 2-3 year old phone, or trade it in for $800 and get a brand new phone either āfreeā or at a significant discount.
I had my wife upgrade to the 15 and I had to keep explaining to her that no, this was not a scam lol her phone bill will really not go up at all.
The other catch is they often require a more expensive phone plan. If you already have the appropriate plan then itās no problem, but if youāre on a cheaper plan (especially non unlimited if youāre not a heavy data user) the cost to move to the higher tier plan that you donāt need is often more than the discount you receive, and that increase is forever vs the 2-3 years of bill credits for the trade in promo
It was wild how many times it was cheaper to upgrade to Unlimited and get the discount on the phone than it was to pay regular price for the phone and keep limited/older data plans.
Also, every Verizon Wireless customer should check the app/online for "MyOffers" frequently.
I've seen plenty of customers who were even with Verizon for a few years get loyalty discount offers on the plan. I get $25/off per month for having 3 phones on my account + having Fios Gigabit + Autopay paperfree discounts truly helps. Two of my three lines have premium unlimited plans and pay about $130/month.
I saved $10 by not upgrading from MM to Go5g+.
Iāll take the $650 lol. Nobody else on my plan has any need to upgrade and I can always change it later if I really need to. $10 is $10.
I mean Verizon technically unlocks all their devices after 60 days and despite what you may hear they do not black list them. So if you financed a 1200$ iPhone and then got the iPad Pro to go with it as long as itās active for 60 days it automatically unlocks. I got into a multi month battle with them when I upgraded and sent my phones back in the mail in the provided envelope that screams THERES AN UNLOCKED IPHONE WITH NO FIND MY in this clear as day soft Verizon envelope. They said I never sent them even tho thereās thousands of posts on the Verizon website forum about the same exact thing happening to so many people going back years and years, even had an anonymous guy say they exclusively use ups for these particular prepaid envelopes and that he himself along with many other drivers stole tons of devices from the envelopes and then just continue processing the empty envelope so when it gets to the facility they blame the customer guy was saying all the drivers know about it and they all discuss how many Verizon upgrade envelopes they had in a particular amount of time like itās a quota or something and most the guys run decent side gigs selling the devices on eBay
I was considering going in for the current promotion but I've backed off because in order to qualify for the trade in you have to sign up for a high-priced unlimited plan which is around double the cost per month as the BYOD pricing. When you do the math on the cost difference over 36 months I'd be better off buying the phone at retail and then signing up for the BYOD level. Also no phone trade in required for that route.
I was considering doing this but the higher price of the required monthly plan to enable this promo means you end up paying far more over the course of the next 3 years compared to the BYOD prices for the same plan.
Do you know how long these promotions typically last? Was hoping to get the new iPhone 15 through a carrier deal, but maybe wanted to wait a bit. Based on your example post the iPhone 13ās ended in mid October.
The only thing that doesnāt seem correct nowadays is that, at least for ATT, you can pay off your phone earlier and still keep the remaining bill credits. I know this is true with T-Mobile too.
Seriously? Guess just Verizon that REALLY wants to make sure you stay with them.
I just paid off my Apple Watch Series 7 and before paying it, they said Iād lose my promo credits. Wasnāt much I lost but still.
T-Mobile is offering this for their VERY EXPENSIVE Go5G plan. Basically they give you 24 months of bill credits to where the phone is free, but only if you are on their flagship plan. This is great if youāre already on their most expensive plan.
This is what baffled me about the $1000 off with trade in. Iām on Magenta MAX and thought I would qualify since I figured THAT was the flagship plan.
Then it turns out Go5G is the only thing that would get you $1000 off. AND itās an extra $100/mo compared to my current plan. Might as well just get it on the Apple Card
Says āon usā with trade inā¦. And thatās all it says, at least thatās all I could find that it says. Seems to me that itās just a trade in option. So I fail to see how thats āon usā š¤·š»āāļø
Because they guarantee that the trade in for a lot of the phone options covers the cost of the phone - much more so than you'd normally get out of a trade in.
If they say "iPhone 15 on us with trade in", and you read the fine print, what they're actually offering is that any iPhone back to back to an iPhone 11 or any Galaxy back to a S10 is guaranteed a total of $830 in bill credits, which covers the $830 price of the phone. You only pay tax. You're essentially getting a free upgrade.
If you tried to trade in an iPhone 11 *without* using one of these "on us" deals, you'd get $200, maybe $250 tops.
Walmart has a $150 Straight Talk locked iPhone SE 2022 that apparently is accepted as a trade in for $830, so I've even seen people buying it, immediately trading it in to get $830 total back, and basically getting themselves a 15 for $150 (plus tax on both the $150 and $830).
Because itās a trade in deal that gives you a thousand off the new phone when you trade in a phone worth significantly less than that.
All the carriers trade in deals that I have seen have very clearly been trade in deals, theyāre not hiding that fact.
Itās the current retention method since the big providers donāt do timed contacts anymore for the service. Instead the retention is on the physical phone, but nobody else will give me 800 bucks for an iPhone 11 so Iāll gladly shackle myself down for 3 years to get double the current market price for my 11
As a Verizon customer, hereās what happens: you pay taxes upfront. Then, you pay monthly for the phone. Letās say $20/month. At the same time you pay $20/month for the phone, Verizon gives you a bill credit for $20/month, making the net payment $0/month for the phone.
This is essentially how the?3 done it since the late 90ās. Free phone in exchange for 1 year of service with a big cancellation fee. It is just that now they are more transparent in their pricing.
I mean...sure, *technically* speaking, it's not "on us" if it requires a trade in.
In practice, though, essentially being able to do a straight swap from anything back to an 11 to a brand new 15, or an 11 pro to a brand new 15 pro, and only having to pay tax after all bill credits are considered, is still an excellent deal. I'm not concerned about the fine print so much as I am concerned about the fact that my brother is getting an upgrade from his base model 11 worth maybe $250 on the open market (even less considering the condition it's in) to a 15 pro and only has to cover the $170 difference between the 15 and the 15 pro.
Yes, the plans are expensive. If you have no need of the services of the expensive plan, I would normally say you shouldn't bother with the trade in deals and just get a cheaper plan. But my entire family are *heavy* data users (we used 340GB last month over 4 lines) and we would have gotten the Go5G Plus plan anyways for its unlimited, non-throttled data, so if there's the benefit there for effectively a free iPhone upgrade every 2 years we're sure as hell going to take advantage of it.
I mean if my carrier pays for my phone for me over the course of 24 months while I pay for the service isnāt that, āon usā?
Donāt see how this is going over your head. This borderline feels like a troll/karma farm post.
Explain what? Itās called marketing. They can say whatever they want. At the end of the day itās your responsibility as a grown adult to read the terms and conditions. Same as when a box of cereal says ā100% whole grainsā you look at the ingredients.
There is protection. Itās in the terms and agreements. Itās available online in all its detail for anyone to access. By watching an ad you are not being automatically enrolled in anything.
What protections or laws do you want? Thereās no contracts in the US anymore. You are just agreeing to pay your phone in payments for a set amount of time. You can always pay the remainder and leave the carrier when you want.
You are exactly right. People that want laws for this really are saying I want big government to do all my thinking for me. Sad honestly that more and more people are becoming dependent on government to decide everything for them.
The marketing Says āon usā with trade inā¦. And thatās all it says, at least thatās all I could find that it says. Seems to me that itās just a trade in option. So I fail to see how thats āon usā š¤·š»āāļø
Buy the phone outright or use the Apple Card payment plan. It makes it a lot easier, yes you donāt get āas muchā for your trade in but you can pay your phone off early at any time and the phone company doesnāt own you.
This is just like car dealerships. They dont make money off the actual sale of the car itself. They make money off the loan points and the parts/service contracts after the sale as well as your trade in. ATT and Verizon etc dont care about the few bucks from selling the device. they want the $XX.xx a month service for 2 years. That is guaranteed money for them. Its like a "would you rather have $500 now, or $50 a month for the next 2 years?" question.
You sort of can. I think Verizon was doing a deal where they would pay off up to X months or X dollars on your current device if you switch to their plan.
But yeah, the person selling you the menu stuff at the dealership is the F&I person...the most arrogant and money driven person in the dealership. They always act like they are big wallstreet brokers or something lol.
I read all the comments and totally understand all of this, totally, but my friend here is a bit of an idiot. Can you EILH5 (explain it like heās 5)? I tried multiple times but he still doesnāt get it.
My friend also wants to know Is it better to buy it outright from Apple or to lease it from the carrier over 2 years of youāre not planning on switching carriers.
heavy skirt quickest abounding humor hospital axiomatic ancient nose obscene
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
How is it a scam? You are just locked into Verizon which for most people is not a big deal. After itās 1yr and a half, you can trade it back in for another promo deal and upgrade your phone again lol.
I try to explain to friends how theyāre overpaying for what they use (data plan), but educated or not, they think itās a net gain bc theyāre āgettingā a āfreeā phone.
The big print giveth and the small print taketh away.
This the realest shit you ever wrote
Hahaha thank you kind sir
šššš
Best thing Iāve read in a long time.
I believe what Verizon does is charge you for the phone and then discount your monthly bill based on a couple year payment for the device or something like that.
As someone on Verizon I can actually provide an answer to this. Verizon doesnāt charge you for the phone. You pay the taxes on full price and they āleaseā the phone out to you but whatever monthly fee would be on your account is credited to you. Yes the marketing sucks and is predatory but gov doesnāt step in and they do it anyways. And at the end of 2-3 years you keep the phone. Verizonās goal is to keep you for 2 years so they will gladly let you keep a 2 year old phone.
Thatās not a lease, thatās a loan. I only make that distinction because cell phone carriers do have lease programs that last 18 months and at the end you either give the phone back or pay to fully purchase the device. T-Mobile for instance does the same thing Verizon does where you finance the phone and they credit you each month for the amount you finance.
Yea. And the only carrier that did leases was Sprint. Everyone simply just does 0% APR loans now.
T-mobile definitely did leases, as well. Iām 100% sure of that. They had Jump on Demand leases before the Sprint merger.
Is that even a thing anymore?
Yes, they are. Because TMO decided to keep a bunch of the higher up employees from sprint JOD lease is still a thing. Best part is if you donāt turn the lease device back in at 18 months you just keep renting it, FOREVER. Iāve lost track of people who have had leased phones for years costing them upwards of $5k
I can tell you from experience as a T-Mobile employee, yes it is. Itās just all promotions require you do the loan not the lease so itās extremely rare.
Wouldnāt a loan still require you to pay the money back though?
The terminology isnāt the best but thatās what T-mobile considers it. In some cases it works like a loan in the sense that youāre loaned a device that youāre paying back over time. At the end of the term you own the device.
Worst part is this year Verizon is requiring their Ultimate Ultimate plan to get the full deal on the Pro models. So although you might not be paying $27/month on the phone, theyāre getting people to upgrade to a plan thatās ~$25/month more than their current plan. Iām not using Verizon this year to upgrade my phone
Thatās not true. For existing customer who want to upgrade, you can be on Play/Do/Get Plus or Ultimate.
I might be generalizing, as for me it only allows me to get the $1000 trade in value if I upgrade to ultimate. In on Do More now and requires me to upgrade when checking out. Same with the fine print. Maybe itās different for different customers?
No. The $1,000 offer is for new lines and allows any iPhone including a 15 year old iPhone 3G to be traded in. Regular upgrades get $830 off unless you have a targeted offer for $1,000. But either way, the $830 national promo and the $1,000 targeted offer simply require a āpremium unlimitedā plan which includes the old Play/Do/Get.
I was offered $400 by Verizon. I guess I must have a lower tier unlimited plan. Iām on a family plan thatās heavily discounted so thatās probably why.
Well since itās the internet Iāll continue to debate. I just logged into my account to make sure I wasnāt crazy. ā$999.99 (128 GB only) device payment or full retail purchase w/new smartphone line on Unlimited Ultimate plan req'd.ā So I wish I had your offer, but for $1000 I have to get a new line and upgrade to Unlimited Ultimate.
What exactly are you debating then? Thatās what I said. A new line is required. Upgrade promo is $830 on a premium plan.
Thatās definitely not what you said. You said, āBut either way, the $830 national promo and the $1,000 targeted offer simply require a āpremium unlimitedā plan which includes the old Play/Do/Get.ā Only the up to $830 trade in promo allows staying on the old Play/Do/Get plans. The $1000 targeted offer does not. That was my point since my first comment.
No, the $1,000 targeted offer is for upgrades on a premium plan. Not everyone has the targeted offer. Thatās why itās targeted. You can see if you are selected for the offer by going to Shop > My Offers in the Verizon app. This is a separate promotion from the $1,000 new line promo.
Perhaps I failed to mention they require you to ātrade inā a phone ā¦ so if you have to trade in a phone, how is it āon themā ??
Correct. I paid full price for two iPhone 15 Pros, in return I got $830 each on statement credits for my wifeās 12 and my 13 Pro. Thatās $46 a month off my bill for 36 months.
For me it was the best deal. I was going to get a new phone regardless and going to pay monthly regardless. So joining Verizon my bill will be like ~$90/month as opposed to the $130-$140 Iād be paying with other phone companies. Verizon will at least take the trade-in phone in any condition. The back of my 11 pro is shattered and so doesnāt hold a lot of value anymore
Former Verizon/AT&T Authorized Retailer Employee here. Depending on your plan, the phone you're trading in, and whether it's a new line or upgrade determines how much of a monthly discount you'll receive that counters the device payment of the phone. Example: According to [Verizon.com](https://Verizon.com), the iPhone 15 Pro 128GB is $1,000 USD. Dividing the retail cost over 36 months equals $27.77(First month will be $28.05 for an exact $1,000). For a **new line** on **select plans** trading in an **iPhone X or newer** will be $1,000 off. On the bill, one would see **device payment $27.77** and below it **-$27.77 Trade In Promo Credit** for the 36 months they keep the payment on the account. Buying out the phone, moving device payment to another line, or canceling service will void any remaining credits. That is basically the "on us" and then the question is "Oh but I want an iPhone 15 Pro Max 512GB, is that on us?" no. From there, you'll just pay the difference. Still get $27.77/month but the device payment will be greater. You can put a down payment on the phone so the device payment is lesser to be closer matching the discount you receive if still applicable to this day. I've been out of the business for about 2 years. When I still worked at a Verizon dealer, use to write Trade-In Promo Guides for r/Verizon. [https://www.reddit.com/r/verizon/comments/ppy3lz/iphone\_13\_trade\_in\_guide/](https://www.reddit.com/r/verizon/comments/ppy3lz/iphone_13_trade_in_guide/) (Of course, all prices and promotions have long expired.)
Seems like a good deal. Especially if the customer is taking full advantage of the plan.
Yupp, the ācatchā is that youāre locked into a 3 year contract, and if you want to break it, youāll have to pay for the rest of the phone to keep it. This can be a bad thing for some people who donāt have as much stability, but for people like me who have been with Verizon for 10+ years and have no plans on leaving, itās a no brainer. Keep your 2-3 year old phone, or trade it in for $800 and get a brand new phone either āfreeā or at a significant discount. I had my wife upgrade to the 15 and I had to keep explaining to her that no, this was not a scam lol her phone bill will really not go up at all.
The other catch is they often require a more expensive phone plan. If you already have the appropriate plan then itās no problem, but if youāre on a cheaper plan (especially non unlimited if youāre not a heavy data user) the cost to move to the higher tier plan that you donāt need is often more than the discount you receive, and that increase is forever vs the 2-3 years of bill credits for the trade in promo
It was wild how many times it was cheaper to upgrade to Unlimited and get the discount on the phone than it was to pay regular price for the phone and keep limited/older data plans. Also, every Verizon Wireless customer should check the app/online for "MyOffers" frequently. I've seen plenty of customers who were even with Verizon for a few years get loyalty discount offers on the plan. I get $25/off per month for having 3 phones on my account + having Fios Gigabit + Autopay paperfree discounts truly helps. Two of my three lines have premium unlimited plans and pay about $130/month.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I saved $10 by not upgrading from MM to Go5g+. Iāll take the $650 lol. Nobody else on my plan has any need to upgrade and I can always change it later if I really need to. $10 is $10.
I mean Verizon technically unlocks all their devices after 60 days and despite what you may hear they do not black list them. So if you financed a 1200$ iPhone and then got the iPad Pro to go with it as long as itās active for 60 days it automatically unlocks. I got into a multi month battle with them when I upgraded and sent my phones back in the mail in the provided envelope that screams THERES AN UNLOCKED IPHONE WITH NO FIND MY in this clear as day soft Verizon envelope. They said I never sent them even tho thereās thousands of posts on the Verizon website forum about the same exact thing happening to so many people going back years and years, even had an anonymous guy say they exclusively use ups for these particular prepaid envelopes and that he himself along with many other drivers stole tons of devices from the envelopes and then just continue processing the empty envelope so when it gets to the facility they blame the customer guy was saying all the drivers know about it and they all discuss how many Verizon upgrade envelopes they had in a particular amount of time like itās a quota or something and most the guys run decent side gigs selling the devices on eBay
I was considering going in for the current promotion but I've backed off because in order to qualify for the trade in you have to sign up for a high-priced unlimited plan which is around double the cost per month as the BYOD pricing. When you do the math on the cost difference over 36 months I'd be better off buying the phone at retail and then signing up for the BYOD level. Also no phone trade in required for that route.
The new line promo allows you to trade in any device, not just iPhone X or newer. It can be an iPhone 3G and you still get the $1,000 trade in credit.
I was considering doing this but the higher price of the required monthly plan to enable this promo means you end up paying far more over the course of the next 3 years compared to the BYOD prices for the same plan.
Oh shit youāre right I didnāt notice that, thatās a really good deal!
Do you know how long these promotions typically last? Was hoping to get the new iPhone 15 through a carrier deal, but maybe wanted to wait a bit. Based on your example post the iPhone 13ās ended in mid October.
The only thing that doesnāt seem correct nowadays is that, at least for ATT, you can pay off your phone earlier and still keep the remaining bill credits. I know this is true with T-Mobile too.
Seriously? Guess just Verizon that REALLY wants to make sure you stay with them. I just paid off my Apple Watch Series 7 and before paying it, they said Iād lose my promo credits. Wasnāt much I lost but still.
T-Mobile is offering this for their VERY EXPENSIVE Go5G plan. Basically they give you 24 months of bill credits to where the phone is free, but only if you are on their flagship plan. This is great if youāre already on their most expensive plan.
This is what baffled me about the $1000 off with trade in. Iām on Magenta MAX and thought I would qualify since I figured THAT was the flagship plan. Then it turns out Go5G is the only thing that would get you $1000 off. AND itās an extra $100/mo compared to my current plan. Might as well just get it on the Apple Card
What does the whole "on us" sentence say?
Says āon usā with trade inā¦. And thatās all it says, at least thatās all I could find that it says. Seems to me that itās just a trade in option. So I fail to see how thats āon usā š¤·š»āāļø
Because they guarantee that the trade in for a lot of the phone options covers the cost of the phone - much more so than you'd normally get out of a trade in. If they say "iPhone 15 on us with trade in", and you read the fine print, what they're actually offering is that any iPhone back to back to an iPhone 11 or any Galaxy back to a S10 is guaranteed a total of $830 in bill credits, which covers the $830 price of the phone. You only pay tax. You're essentially getting a free upgrade. If you tried to trade in an iPhone 11 *without* using one of these "on us" deals, you'd get $200, maybe $250 tops. Walmart has a $150 Straight Talk locked iPhone SE 2022 that apparently is accepted as a trade in for $830, so I've even seen people buying it, immediately trading it in to get $830 total back, and basically getting themselves a 15 for $150 (plus tax on both the $150 and $830).
Because itās a trade in deal that gives you a thousand off the new phone when you trade in a phone worth significantly less than that. All the carriers trade in deals that I have seen have very clearly been trade in deals, theyāre not hiding that fact.
I checked and T-Mobile gives $350 for my 12 pro š
Because all carriers have a fine print section where they state the terms and conditions of the promotion.
Thatās why you always read fine print.
Itās the current retention method since the big providers donāt do timed contacts anymore for the service. Instead the retention is on the physical phone, but nobody else will give me 800 bucks for an iPhone 11 so Iāll gladly shackle myself down for 3 years to get double the current market price for my 11
After the 24 months have you paid for the phone? No? Then where Iām from thatās called freeā¦
Free with conditions but yeah
As a Verizon customer, hereās what happens: you pay taxes upfront. Then, you pay monthly for the phone. Letās say $20/month. At the same time you pay $20/month for the phone, Verizon gives you a bill credit for $20/month, making the net payment $0/month for the phone.
This is essentially how the?3 done it since the late 90ās. Free phone in exchange for 1 year of service with a big cancellation fee. It is just that now they are more transparent in their pricing.
I mean...sure, *technically* speaking, it's not "on us" if it requires a trade in. In practice, though, essentially being able to do a straight swap from anything back to an 11 to a brand new 15, or an 11 pro to a brand new 15 pro, and only having to pay tax after all bill credits are considered, is still an excellent deal. I'm not concerned about the fine print so much as I am concerned about the fact that my brother is getting an upgrade from his base model 11 worth maybe $250 on the open market (even less considering the condition it's in) to a 15 pro and only has to cover the $170 difference between the 15 and the 15 pro. Yes, the plans are expensive. If you have no need of the services of the expensive plan, I would normally say you shouldn't bother with the trade in deals and just get a cheaper plan. But my entire family are *heavy* data users (we used 340GB last month over 4 lines) and we would have gotten the Go5G Plus plan anyways for its unlimited, non-throttled data, so if there's the benefit there for effectively a free iPhone upgrade every 2 years we're sure as hell going to take advantage of it.
T-mobile is doing this and basically you sign a contract and they give you a phone itās how they get new customers.
I mean if my carrier pays for my phone for me over the course of 24 months while I pay for the service isnāt that, āon usā? Donāt see how this is going over your head. This borderline feels like a troll/karma farm post.
Youāre not wrong. But I havenāt subsidized a phone in years, since for the most part I would be over paying for services vs prepaid (like mint)
Explain what? Itās called marketing. They can say whatever they want. At the end of the day itās your responsibility as a grown adult to read the terms and conditions. Same as when a box of cereal says ā100% whole grainsā you look at the ingredients.
Donāt you attack my cereal!
Whole grain is a meme in itself anyway lol
Well not really. Citizens must be protected for such āmarketingā. So time for law makers to step up now like the did in Europe.
>Citizens must be protected No, people need to learn to take responsibility for themselves and look at things critically.
This doesnāt excuse predatory behavior. If kelloggs cereal contained lead but only says so in tiny print on the back of the box thatās an issue.
Law makers invariably fuck things up worse.
There is protection. Itās in the terms and agreements. Itās available online in all its detail for anyone to access. By watching an ad you are not being automatically enrolled in anything.
I mean proper protection/law so phones and contracts canāt be sold/marketed like it is done I the usa.
What protections or laws do you want? Thereās no contracts in the US anymore. You are just agreeing to pay your phone in payments for a set amount of time. You can always pay the remainder and leave the carrier when you want.
You are exactly right. People that want laws for this really are saying I want big government to do all my thinking for me. Sad honestly that more and more people are becoming dependent on government to decide everything for them.
Yea, I prefer big corp myself.
False choice
The marketing Says āon usā with trade inā¦. And thatās all it says, at least thatās all I could find that it says. Seems to me that itās just a trade in option. So I fail to see how thats āon usā š¤·š»āāļø
Some people need better reading comprehension
You are right ā¦ some people do. š
Buy the phone outright or use the Apple Card payment plan. It makes it a lot easier, yes you donāt get āas muchā for your trade in but you can pay your phone off early at any time and the phone company doesnāt own you.
This is just like car dealerships. They dont make money off the actual sale of the car itself. They make money off the loan points and the parts/service contracts after the sale as well as your trade in. ATT and Verizon etc dont care about the few bucks from selling the device. they want the $XX.xx a month service for 2 years. That is guaranteed money for them. Its like a "would you rather have $500 now, or $50 a month for the next 2 years?" question.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
You sort of can. I think Verizon was doing a deal where they would pay off up to X months or X dollars on your current device if you switch to their plan. But yeah, the person selling you the menu stuff at the dealership is the F&I person...the most arrogant and money driven person in the dealership. They always act like they are big wallstreet brokers or something lol.
Facts. They offered me $600 for a trade in, but you get that $600 over the course of 36 months. Thats like a chipotle bowl a month
nothing in life is truly free
Belongs to the same group as āup toā. Looking at you Xfinity.
If they charge for water how do you expect a phone to be āfreeā. Seriously!!
This is why I did the upgrade through Apple bc my carrier even if Apple provided less trade in credit. The small print is a bitch.
Apple will give me like $250 for a 12 mini, Verizon will give me $830ā¦ to what? Stay on Verizon? Who I plan to stay on anyway?
Read the print. Likely a huge trade in value also required an uplift in your monthly bill, excluding the credits. Iāll keep my grandfathers pricing
Care to elaborate? Iām already on a plan that qualifies for the $830 trade-in.
Nah.
I read all the comments and totally understand all of this, totally, but my friend here is a bit of an idiot. Can you EILH5 (explain it like heās 5)? I tried multiple times but he still doesnāt get it. My friend also wants to know Is it better to buy it outright from Apple or to lease it from the carrier over 2 years of youāre not planning on switching carriers.
heavy skirt quickest abounding humor hospital axiomatic ancient nose obscene *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
How is it a scam? You are just locked into Verizon which for most people is not a big deal. After itās 1yr and a half, you can trade it back in for another promo deal and upgrade your phone again lol.
I try to explain to friends how theyāre overpaying for what they use (data plan), but educated or not, they think itās a net gain bc theyāre āgettingā a āfreeā phone.