Buy an iPhone will be more like leasing a car now?
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I bought all of our iPhones (mine, my husband’s and my mother’s) at the same time, and they are now over 5 years old, and my and my husband’s iPads are of similar age. It feels like our iPads could last another several years, excluding diminished battery life, but we use the iPads at home (and I pretty much exclusively use mine for light browsing and piano sheet music). But the phones are all starting to really feel like they need to be replaced. Esp. since all three of these iPhones now have serious battery limitations.
So I already had on my radar to watch for a new iPhone this fall and then see if we could get the old model. And today I spotted this article.
Heretofore, if you bought an iPhone on an installment folded into your phone bill, at the end of the 24 months, it was fully paid off and you owned it outright. (That’s what we did and of course these phones have been paid off for 3 years now.) Apparently, they will now push a payment plan that’s more like a car lease, so lower monthly payments but at the end of the term, you either have a chunk to pay off, or you get a new phone and start all over.
I don’t like either of those options. Presumably you can still buy the phone outright, so maybe that’s what we’ll do (although this time I think I’ll stagger the purchases so we don’t all get a new phone at the same time!)
I really hate how expensive phones are. But I also don’t want a crappy phone or one with a smaller screen…
Anyway, here’s the article
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/business/article316611374.html -
One potential issue with “folding your phone into your phone bill” is that the phone company may then put a “SIM lock” on your phone until it is paid off. A SIM lock would prevent you from using your phone with another phone company’s SIM (be it physical or virtual). Not a big deal if you don’t travel internationally, but may be inconvenient/costly if you travel internationally often because then you’ll have to decide whether to pay the phone off early to remove the SIM lock (so you can use cheaper SIMs local to where you travel) or to pay extra to your phone company for international roaming services.
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Have you looked in to having the batteries in your current phones replaced?
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Apple deals, no thanks.
If you're happy to keep and look after your mobile why buy into an expensive rolling contract just for a new phone every year?Here's my UK solution.
Last month I had to buy a replacement mobile after 6 years or more, due to battery expansion; bought a refurbished Samsung S24 online (there's a 25 and 26 etc already on sale, but little difference) costing £480, minus 80 for my old Samsung 10note+ which I sent by post (that 400 quid is about half the price of a new S24 and a third of their S26).
And I still consider £400 an outrageous cost, despite using it as phone, laptop, camera, calculator, bank, and its pen writing note function almost daily.
My monthly sim cost is £6.72.
I had to buy a new leather phone wallet, £31, which holds my cards. -
One potential issue with “folding your phone into your phone bill” is that the phone company may then put a “SIM lock” on your phone until it is paid off. A SIM lock would prevent you from using your phone with another phone company’s SIM (be it physical or virtual). Not a big deal if you don’t travel internationally, but may be inconvenient/costly if you travel internationally often because then you’ll have to decide whether to pay the phone off early to remove the SIM lock (so you can use cheaper SIMs local to where you travel) or to pay extra to your phone company for international roaming services.
@Axtremus re the sim lock... the last time we were in Japan when the phones were still locked, we got a local rental phone, which was inexpensive and worked fine. I imagine those options are different now though.
Have you looked in to having the batteries in your current phones replaced?
I don't know a lot about the options, but I think it's do-able and isn't super expensive. I'm not sure I would do that though, for a 6 year old phone. Eventually (probably soon??) the phone will be out of date enough that other problems will arise.
If you're happy to keep and look after your mobile why buy into an expensive rolling contract just for a new phone every year?
I absolutely won't buy a new phone under the leasing system (as I understand it). I would either (grit my teeth and) pay for the phone outright, or maybe, depending on the options, do the lease but with the understanding that I'd pay that lump sum at the end of the lease term and then own the phone outright.
With the old installment plan, there was no interest. You paid the same total amount whether you bought it through installment or paid upfront.
As I understand it, the difference now is that the total price will be higher, and the lease idea is that you have those lower monthly payments, and at the end of the term, you get a new phone and have the same or similar monthly payments or you have some left over balance to pay off.If the price was the same whether you paid up front, or lease+ final payment, then I might consider that. But if lease+final payment ended up being more than the total price of paying up front, then I definitely wouldn't do the lease.
Actually, I might not do the lease anyway, partly for what @axtremus said (to avoid sim lock) and also because that article says the lease may impact your credit score, and I would prefer to avoid that.
Anyway, the whole thing is a racket!
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I've had good luck buying refurbished - always staying a couple of years behind.
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For a while I was able to get them at local GameStop stores - but more recently used back market - I usually look for reviews like this:
https://www.igeeksblog.com/best-places-to-buy-refurbished-used-iphones/
Since MrsTuner bought her last phone new from the Apple Store, my latest one was a hand-me-down from her instead of getting the trade-in from Apple. We traded in my old 8 and now use her 13.
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For a while I was able to get them at local GameStop stores - but more recently used back market - I usually look for reviews like this:
https://www.igeeksblog.com/best-places-to-buy-refurbished-used-iphones/
Since MrsTuner bought her last phone new from the Apple Store, my latest one was a hand-me-down from her instead of getting the trade-in from Apple. We traded in my old 8 and now use her 13.
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My old 6 plus is still in action as a dedicated "tuning phone" for my piano tuning app (don't recall where I got that one) - I did purchase a battery case which gives me plenty of juice. Since it lives in my tuning case, I don't have to fit it in a pocket.
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