The official tablet (and other useless electronics) thread!

[Apoc]

So what happens when you are eligible for an upgrade but haven't "financed" a phone before? Do they just give you a credit towards or a discount off of the new phone?

no quotes needed. its pretty easy to understand.
your service cost go down. You can keep the same phone and pay less total, or you can get a new phone and pay about the same, depending on device.

the service and the phone are separate. its a lot more simple, and how it should be.


these plans are really going to drive mid range phones. you can now get a very capable smartphone equivalent to a flagship of a year or 2 ago for $200-$300. Pay that up front (what you were paying for a subsidized phone before) and then your total out of pocket costs go down by $20 or so a month. win win.

Unless you're on an AT&T shared data plan. There is a $25/line (?) discount that you must move to a financed phone to keep (if you want to upgrade your device). If you don't, you get the subsidized phone but your monthly service bill goes up. If you do switch, your bill goes up for the financing portion of the device. Either way your bill goes up somewhat similar amounts. I did the math and found it was cheaper to go the finance device, no service change route vs. subsidized device and lose the service discount.

If you don't want to upgrade your device there is no billing change.