WTF-Beta

One of my concerns with our current phones, and with replacing the batteries (which, granted, we can carry battery packs) is that we (me and MR SK) both travel, and he will be in Japan in the fall for awhile (and presumably, I'll be there for a big chunk next summer). Being overseas and having a major problem with the phone would be a huge hassle.

So I tend to think I'd prefer to get a new phone (or at least a refurbished one) rather than pay for a new battery for these phones...

I dunno, I need to think about it more,but I think I want to decide what to do, and then do it, before the fall semester starts and I get busy again....

@rontuner oops, I missed your second post.

Also,

@Rontuner said:

more recently used back market

I read that as black market and was a little bit "clutching my pearls" shocked!

@Rontuner said:

I've had good luck buying refurbished - always staying a couple of years behind.

I'm not opposed to this idea, although I would worry about the battery life. Where do you buy refurbished phones from? (I wonder if we have less options locally...)

I can't figure out how we got from Unagi to Lumbago, but it's cracking me up!

@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.

@steve-miller

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 the phone will be out of date enough that other problems will arise.

@AndyD said:

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!

Fish

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

Water

Schtick

Dog

@jon-nyc i had no idea!

I wanted to post “sneaker” after fuego but I suspected no one would get the reference.

smoke

@jon-nyc happy anniversary Jon!!

Doors

Bottoms

I lived in Japan from 1996 until 2008. Since then, I’ve gone back regally, sometimes for extended stays. Recently, I’ve started to really notice the population change. Not when I’m in a Tokyo (although I believe its impacts are there as well). But in Mr SK’s hometown (current population ~62,000), you can feel it, and see the impacts of the aging population …. It’s a bit depressing….

Bus

@AndyD said:

And is this the place to ask what the association is is even Google can't help?

Yes!!

@wtg you started the thread so I feel like your word goes!

Spot