Considering the new plans AT&T and Verizon - will you consider buying a non branded phone?

Dashrender

Are you considering this for personal use, or corporate use?

For me, as the OP, Personal use.

Dashrender

@RAM. said:

@ITcrackerjack Yeah I was trying to upgrade to a GS5, and was arguing with them because I wanted to upgrade early. They kept saying "you can do NEXT, its the best option". I wasn't convinced seeing as one bill was like $110/month and the bill with the NEXT plan was $120/month, difference was I"d pay $200 for the phone that day, opposed to my lease policy for X months. Ok so if I went with the NEXT plan for 18 months, I'd spend $180 towards my phone, opposed to $200 up front. Sounds fine, yes save a little money... but I don't get to keep it. For me to keep it I have to pay $10 more per month over 6 months, resulting in me spending $40 more than not using next. $40 doesn't sound like much, if I sell it on Ebay for $150, it takes a decent chunk out of my profit margin, but not absurd. But lets all be honest here, all the poor schmucks that fell for this without having all the information.... they're either turning their phone in at 18 months and losing money... or they're getting pissed and jumping ship.

You may get a new phone in 18 months, but AT&T gets a refurbished phone they can turn around and sell for $400+ so they can turn an extra profit at the expense of people who don't read between the lines... and their salesmen have been trained to tell you how it saves you money... and that's the worst part in my opinion.

Well I decided to call and see what I could find out.. and what you're describing is nothing like what I was told a week or so ago, or right now, I just got off the phone.

First things first - Here's my options for purchasing a Galaxy S5 on NEXT

As you can see, you can sign up for the:
12 month version which gets you into a 20 month contract for $32.50/month = $650 Or
18 month version which gets you into a 26 month contract for $25.00/month = $650

The advantage you get in either case is you can walk away from your contract at either 12 or 18 months with the penalty being you returning the phone in decent (ie - screen not cracked) working condition. You can only do this if you get into another NEXT plan/phone setup.
If you do, you spend the following:
12 month = $390
18 month = $450
This is leasing the phone unless you run the whole contract out, after which you own the phone and can sell it. You could also buy out the remaining months on contract, then own and sell the phone.

The second option is you can pay $200 for the phone, and get on a standard 2 year contract. One thing to keep in mind, the plan price while on contract goes up $25/month, so -
24 months * $25 = $600 + $200 originally paid = $800 paid for the phone and you own it at the end of your two year contract.

The final option is you purchase the phone outright from either AT&T or Amazon, etc, and your phone bill does not change at all.

Considering these three options, the AT&T NEXT plan is actually the best plan you can get as you get free financing for the life of the term (20 or 26 months). The second best option is to buy the phone outright from your favorite vendor.

Dashrender

@RAM. said:

@ITcrackerjack Yeah I was trying to upgrade to a GS5, and was arguing with them because I wanted to upgrade early. They kept saying "you can do NEXT, its the best option". I wasn't convinced seeing as one bill was like $110/month and the bill with the NEXT plan was $120/month, difference was I"d pay $200 for the phone that day, opposed to my lease policy for X months. Ok so if I went with the NEXT plan for 18 months, I'd spend $180 towards my phone, opposed to $200 up front. Sounds fine, yes save a little money... but I don't get to keep it. For me to keep it I have to pay $10 more per month over 6 months, resulting in me spending $40 more than not using next. $40 doesn't sound like much, if I sell it on Ebay for $150, it takes a decent chunk out of my profit margin, but not absurd. But lets all be honest here, all the poor schmucks that fell for this without having all the information.... they're either turning their phone in at 18 months and losing money... or they're getting pissed and jumping ship.

Wow.. where are you getting the $110 - $120 prices? single phone on the plan? I can't seem to find that option.

But let's assume you're getting 2 lines on a 10 GB plan.
Base price = $100
Non contract $15/month per phone, two phones = $30 a month
total $130/month

If you're under contract, you're paying $40 per phone/month = $80 a month
note: you're paying the $25/month to help pay for the phone
Total under contract = $180/month (FYI, once your contract expires, the rate drops back to $130/month assuming you don't get new phones).

With AT&T NEXT assuming 2 new Galaxy S5 phones
Base Price = $100
Non contract $15/phone/month = $30/month
20 month contract (can upgrade at 12 months) = $32.50/phone/month = $65/month
26 month contract (can upgrade at 18 months) = $25/phone/monht = $50/month

So your NEXT bills will look like
20 month contract = $195/month or
26 month contract = $180/month

I actually had to call in twice, the first person I spoke to forgot to mention that if I did the $200 up front plan... that my month per phone charge would change from $15 to $40 per phone.. and while verifying that, she hung up on me... so I had to call back.. and the second person informed me about the change from $15 to $40...
So my guess is the person you spoke to also forgot to mention this particular change, which is why the NEXT looked like a rip off to you, but when in fact the NEXT is actually a substantially better choice.

Dashrender

Now.. all of this said... On this and more expensive phones... the old plans might have been better dollar-wise.

on my old plan
700 mins talk time + rollover mins 6 gig total data = $160/month with a 2 year contract with $200 per phone at purchase time

Over the 2 year life of the contract I would pay $160/month * 24 + $400 = $4240 plus taxes

On a NEXT plan
20 month plan = $195/month * 20 = $3900
To push this out to 24 months we add $130/month *6 = $780
Giving us a grand total of $4680

This means that moving to the new style plan actually cost me $460 over 2 years... for that money I do get unlimited talk mins (I never used my 700) and 4 extra gigs of Data and included tethering. To make the old plan be 10 Gig total and include tethering would have cost $20/month or $480 over two years.

In the end assuming I wanted 10 gigs data and tethering - I end up saving $20 over two years with a NEXT plan.

Dashrender

And now to really blow your mind...

AT&T let me move to the new plan (Base - $100/month) and the non contract $15/month/phone even though I'm still under my original contract. Since I did this in the 11th month of my current 2 year contract (which I'm still somehow under) I'm saying $50/month. Yeah me! With that savings, I could sock it away and pay for one of my next phones outright when my contract expires....

scottalanmiller

Check out TMobile, it's cheap.

Dashrender

I just looked.

Tmobile is $130 a month for two lines (the first having unlimited data, the second having 5 GB)
The cost for the Galaxy S5 is $27.50/month/phone, so $55 for two years

This price is nearly identical to an AT&T NEXT plan (and works exactly the same way).

scottalanmiller

@Dashrender said:

I just looked.

Tmobile is $130 a month for two lines (the first having unlimited data, the second having 5 GB)
The cost for the Galaxy S5 is $27.50/month/phone, so $55 for two years

This price is nearly identical to an AT&T NEXT plan (and works exactly the same way).

But each ADDITIONAL line is almost free. We have it and it is insanely cheap. And low bandwidth devices, like the iPads are FREE. Yes, just free for a reasonable about of transfer a month... more than I use.

Dashrender

@scottalanmiller said:

@Dashrender said:

I just looked.

Tmobile is $130 a month for two lines (the first having unlimited data, the second having 5 GB)
The cost for the Galaxy S5 is $27.50/month/phone, so $55 for two years

This price is nearly identical to an AT&T NEXT plan (and works exactly the same way).

But each ADDITIONAL line is almost free. We have it and it is insanely cheap. And low bandwidth devices, like the iPads are FREE. Yes, just free for a reasonable about of transfer a month... more than I use.

What do you consider almost free? I just looked at 4 lines, first line unlimited = $80, second line 5 gig = $50, third line 5 gig = $30, fourth line 5 gig = $30

OK this is $30 for the third and fourth lines, and granted overall gives you almost double the internet than AT&T, and the price is higher.. if we up the AT&T plan to 20 gigs it works out to close to the same, again.

scottalanmiller

@Dashrender We get phones with minimal data for $10/mo. iPads with minimal data are free month to month.

Dashrender

@scottalanmiller said:

@Dashrender We get phones with minimal data for $10/mo. iPads with minimal data are free month to month.

In that case, assuming the phones are already paid for, T-mobile is $10, and AT&T is $15.. OK That's a 50% savings.. that's pretty noticeable. I don't have a clue about iPad access on AT&T.
What is minimum access on the iPad? 1 GB? I take it you don't really do much on the cellular network?

scottalanmiller

@Dashrender said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@Dashrender We get phones with minimal data for $10/mo. iPads with minimal data are free month to month.

In that case, assuming the phones are already paid for, T-mobile is $10, and AT&T is $15.. OK That's a 50% savings.. that's pretty noticeable. I don't have a clue about iPad access on AT&T.
What is minimum access on the iPad? 1 GB? I take it you don't really do much on the cellular network?

AT&T has no free iPad option. TMobile is 400MB/mo but we have users (me included) who go nowhere near that limit so it is truly free. I think AT&T is $35/mo on the iPad starting.

IRJ

@Dashrender said:

Now.. all of this said... On this and more expensive phones... the old plans might have been better dollar-wise.

on my old plan
700 mins talk time + rollover mins 6 gig total data = $160/month with a 2 year contract with $200 per phone at purchase time

Over the 2 year life of the contract I would pay $160/month * 24 + $400 = $4240 plus taxes

On a NEXT plan
20 month plan = $195/month * 20 = $3900
To push this out to 24 months we add $130/month *6 = $780
Giving us a grand total of $4680

This means that moving to the new style plan actually cost me $460 over 2 years... for that money I do get unlimited talk mins (I never used my 700) and 4 extra gigs of Data and included tethering. To make the old plan be 10 Gig total and include tethering would have cost $20/month or $480 over two years.

In the end assuming I wanted 10 gigs data and tethering - I end up saving $20 over two years with a NEXT plan.

The problem is that you have ZERO equity into the device. Which is a huge win for the cell providers. When you got a new phone in the past, you basically got it for free. You pay $199 or whatever you had to up front, and you had the choice of paying the ETF or staying on a two year contract. Either way the consumer, basically got the phone free. IF you sold the phone on day one, you could easily get near $600 for it. Which would pay your $199 plus $350 ETF. If you decided to keep the phone for two years and kept in good shape, you could always resell for $150-250 on eBay.

IRJ

Now you have to pay the full price for the phone for a LOCKED phone and they give you a small break on their services. Since the little guys decided to drop their price recently, the mobile giants had no choice but to lower theirs. It is a very sneaky way that they did it. Since they no longer give you a break on the device, they make more money. Oh and guess what, If you decide to leave, you owe the entire price of the device not a pro-rated ETF. Since the device is depreciating much faster than the $20 monthly payment, you are stuck with the carrier. They tell you no problem, we will get you another device and you start the whole process of being in the hole again.

Dashrender

Believe me, you did not get the phone free.

My old plan, pay $200 And then 175 a month the plan. The new plan is down to $130 a month, then it I'm on NEXT or the standard pay $200 then the monthly goes up between $25 and $35 a month per phone...

Now you can see exactly what you are paying for a phone.. And you can save money by not upgrading.

Dashrender

In examples above show how little change in Price there actually is.

IRJ

@Dashrender said:

In examples above show how little change in Price there actually is.

Dashrender,

I promise I am trying to be helpful. I went through this with my gf and had to show her why it wasnt a good deal.

Its a big price difference for the carrier and for the user. They lower your monthly payment to try to scam their way into looking cheaper. You actually did the math so you know it isnt cheaper. $460 is alot of money to me. Hell, even $60 is alot to me. Sure they give you a little more data, but do you actually need it? You are just using it to justify the price hike, but if you dont use every single kb of extra data you arent getting your money's worth.

Here is why ATT is the winner:

They make more money total ($460 in your case which is HUGE) with less risk. You are likely to continue to use the same amount of data or at least most users at whole will do the same.
They now make money on devices not lose it. Sure they dont pay $700 outright for their phones. They probably get them for around $500 and now they are financing them for $700. As I mentioned before, you actually had some equity in the device and it almost retained its value throughout 2 years.
Users are more likely to stick with the same carrier now. Before, you were looking at switching every 2 years. Now you can upgrade at will as long as you are willing to re-establish debt with the carrier.

david.wiese

all i know is that i stayed with the 2 year contract plan on verizon and here is why.

Cheaper, we each have 2 gigs of data (all that we need) and only pay $60 per month
We both went with a customized Moto X and payed just $0.01 for the phone.

If we went with the Verizon Edge plan, the phones would have cost $16.66 / month x 24 months is $399.84 per phone x $130 per month in voice/data with 4 gigs = $3919.68
If we went with the Verizion More everything plan it costs $.01 per phone upfront x $150 per month in voice/data with 4 gigs = $3600

So not only did i save up front on the cost of the phone i am saving $319.68 over the two years.

You get ripped off when using the next/edge plans and you are still under a contract no matter which way you go unless you purchase the device outright.

edit:
If we went with the Verizon Edge plan, the phones would have cost $16.66 / month x 24 months is $399.84 per phone x $130 per month in voice/data with 10 gigs = $3919.68
If we went with the Verizion More everything plan it costs $.01 per phone upfront x $180 per month in voice/data with 10 gigs = $4320

So in this case with 10 gigs of data it is cheaper to go the Edge route where you will save $400.32 over 24 months. With higher data usage the price goes down for Edge and up for More Everything.

Dashrender

If you don't want the extra Data (I do). When you're right, but you can also not upgrade right at 2 years and you'll quickly get yourself ahead.

scottalanmiller

@david.wiese said:

all i know is that i stayed with the 2 year contract plan on verizon and here is why.

Cheaper, we each have 2 gigs of data (all that we need) and only pay $60 per month

We both went with a customized Moto X and payed just $0.01 for the phone.

If we went with the Verizon Edge plan, the phones would have cost $16.66 / month x 24 months is $399.84 per phone x $130 per month in voice/data with 4 gigs = $3919.68
If we went with the Verizion More everything plan it costs $.01 per phone upfront x $150 per month in voice/data with 4 gigs = $3600

So not only did i save up front on the cost of the phone i am saving $319.68 over the two years.

You get ripped off when using the next/edge plans and you are still under a contract no matter which way you go unless you purchase the device outright.

edit:
If we went with the Verizon Edge plan, the phones would have cost $16.66 / month x 24 months is $399.84 per phone x $130 per month in voice/data with 10 gigs = $3919.68
If we went with the Verizion More everything plan it costs $.01 per phone upfront x $180 per month in voice/data with 10 gigs = $4320

So in this case with 10 gigs of data it is cheaper to go the Edge route where you will save $400.32 over 24 months. With higher data usage the price goes down for Edge and up for More Everything.

I moved off of verizon after keeping the same account for 21 years. Saved a fortune leaving. They really burned me a lot to get me to leave. Very glad that I did.