Should You Ever Buy A New Phone Again?

[thunderbolt_nick]

Wow...in all honesty it looks like it is going to turn into a kind of 'car buying' experience. Let me explain before I get misunderstood cause I know how that sounds.

Like cars, you will have new and used sales. Then, we are seeing something similar to financing. You pay monthly for a phone (aside from the interest costs) except, of course, for the added cost of the plan itself. Of course, how long will it take to add all the extra costs onto that monthly price (accessories, insurance, etc.)? I'm hoping they don't add interest...that would be kind of lame in my opinion. I'm paying monthly for my N6 on ATT which I don't mind doing. I'm not going to do that silly NEXT upgrade and end up overpaying for another phone. I like my N6 and most phones are well worth the suggested retail price.

What I'm curious about is will this change up the policies a bit? Will third-party bloatware and other types of agreements set up by the carriers go away? If so will costs go up and be passed to consumers? This could be a double-edged sword. I'm curious to see how this plays out before I jump anywhere else just yet.

 

[johnomaz]

For about $15 dollars a month added to your bill you can upgrade three times a year on Tmobile.

You never truly own the phone at that point. I think more people will go this route since most people don't sell their old phones when upgrading.

Exactly this. I plan on switching to the Jump On Demand option. I haven't used a phone for a full 2 years since my S3 and it was hard to use it towards the end. Also when I did get a new phone, I had no use for my old one. If you buy a phone and use it for 4-5 years, sure, its better to buy one outright, but considering how much I (and I'm sure others) swap phones, why bother trying to buy it to keep it.

 

[liftedplane]

I agree with @TisMyDroid prices have been artificially inflated by carriers and manufacturers... similar to how sony and samsung got slapped a few years ago for keeping the costs of televisions raised to increase profits. now you can get a 55" sony 4K etc etc etc for $1599

prices on flagships will nosedive... closer to the $300 - $400 mark especially with motorola releasing devices like the pure.... sammy will have no choice but to follow suit.

maybe there will be a place for ultra super powered flagship phones in the 650+ price range... though I doubt it.

 

[Ollie]

Exactly this. I plan on switching to the Jump On Demand option. I haven't used a phone for a full 2 years since my S3 and it was hard to use it towards the end. Also when I did get a new phone, I had no use for my old one. If you buy a phone and use it for 4-5 years, sure, its better to buy one outright, but considering how much I (and I'm sure others) swap phones, why bother trying to buy it to keep it.

When I get back into town I will be signing up as well. This way I can use the Note 5 for six months, switch to the S7 after, then switch back to the Note 6 afterwards when it is released.

The only problem with that program is the limited number of devices that you can actually use it with:

iPhone 6
iPhone 6 Plus
Galaxy S6
Galaxy S6 Edge
Galaxy Note 4
LG G4

 

[johnomaz]

When I get back into town I will be signing up as well. This way I can use the Note 5 for six months, switch to the S7 after, then switch back to the Note 6 afterwards when it is released.

The only problem with that program is the limited number of devices that you can actually use it with:

iPhone 6
iPhone 6 Plus
Galaxy S6
Galaxy S6 Edge
Galaxy Note 4
LG G4

Ya, its limited now to just the big flag ships but I think that list will grow and probably jump off the previous gen phones from the list as the new ones come out (i.e. Note 4).

 

[Dusty]

Did Verizon ever announce when they plan on phasing out CDMA? If that happens wouldn't the GSM type phones be compatible with their network? Maybe I'm not understanding LTE bands if I'm wrong. So, eventually you really won't have to get a special CDMA version phone for Verizon, right?

 

[jackiescivic]

Yes you should still buy a brand new phone. Otherwise I'm out of a job ;-)
I do not believe phone prices are going to nosedive.

Sent from my Verizon G4

 

[hammerhead13]

I'm thinking about jumping of the Big Red Train in March after 12yrs. I have been looking at phones from Blu & Elephones and think that is the way I will go.

 

[kevsgroove]

........... With the Nexus 6 and (now) moto X having all the radios and being able to be purchased through someone else it is matter of time before we see one release (vs carrier specific) of a device and the customer buy the phone through a third party and put a carrier sim card in.

Last 2 phones, Galaxy S4 - bought full price through Verizon, and Nexus 6 - bought directly from Motorola (6 months same as cash), both to maintain unlimitted data. Also paid outright at Verizon for my daughter's iPhone 5S, to keep the plan. With the ease of operation of the Nexus 6, and the ability to change carriers at will, if Verizon causes any issues, I will stick with either the Nexus line or Moto X Pure in the future. No need, in my opinion, to be locked in with one carrier.

Anyway it goes, the future looks bright for consumers.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Does anyone know the fine print of the Edge Up deal? I know it's not as enticing as the T-mo Jump plan, but how exactly does it work?

For example, I'm on the Edge plan for my Note 4. I don't have much further to go to pay it off enough that I'm eligible to Edge up. Do they then write off what I still owed if I were to upgrade, or is that amount just added to the price of the next phone?

This is probably a moot point, since if I do upgrade in that time-frame, I'm probably looking at getting the new Moto X and will have to buy it outright from a third party anyway, but I'm just curious as to how edging up early works. I read the info when I first went on it, but I don't feel like finding it and weeding through the legal mumbo jumbo to figure out the answer.

I still think I'll buy phones outright. I like to keep at least one for a backup and/or sell/give them to family and friends in need. When I upgraded to the Note 4, I gave my wife my s4. Her old s3 is in my drawer for a spare and I unloaded my old Galaxy Nexus on my cousin a few months ago. This may all change now that my spares will be phones the size of the Note. My wife REFUSES to go much bigger than the s4 for her next device and I doubt she'd even like carrying the Note as a "loaner" until she got a new phone.

In any case, I think I personally am better off buying outright and maybe I'll start selling on Swappa or elsewhere. I've made decent returns on phones I sold on ebay in the past. Not the full price I paid by any means, but even if you do a payment plan, at least selling will get you a portion of the price you paid back.

To sum it up, while I feel like I'll continue buying phones outright, I'm not really sure what will happen. My next phone will very likely be purchased outright and not from VZW, but beyond that, it's hard to say at this point.

 

[PereDroid]

So, after all this you can still walk into Verizon, get a new moto x 2014 on a 2 year individual contract for $60 per mo with unlimited t & t and 1gig of data as long as you do it before 8/13/15 ??

Do the math.
$60/mo x 24 = $1,440 +$200 for the phone = $1,640 over 2 years.
-or-
$30 (for 1GB) + $20 access fee = $50 + let's say $20/month for new phone = $1,680
For a savings of less then $1.00 per month.

After 2 years on Plan A your monthly bill will not decrease and will continue to be $60.
After 2 years on Plan B your monthly bill drops top $50.
26 months = break even.
_________________________________

I'd love to know how this will effect business customers. No word on that yet.

If\when there comes a day I don't get a free phone for my job, I am going to bet there will never be a phone I need THAT BADLY that will make me want to pay full price. Sorry, Jackiescivic, it will probably be Swappa for me.

Also agree prices won't drop THAT much initially. A little maybe. I think it will probably work like, for example, video cards do. New model comes out and it's literally $800-$1,000. Guess what? There are people that pay that. And every 3 months, the price drops. and drops. and drops. A year later it's $200. Just as the next one gets announced.

 

[jackiescivic]

Does anyone know the fine print of the Edge Up deal? I know it's not as enticing as the T-mo Jump plan, but how exactly does it work?

For example, I'm on the Edge plan for my Note 4. I don't have much further to go to pay it off enough that I'm eligible to Edge up. Do they then write off what I still owed if I were to upgrade, or is that amount just added to the price of the next phone?

This is probably a moot point, since if I do upgrade in that time-frame, I'm probably looking at getting the new Moto X and will have to buy it outright from a third party anyway, but I'm just curious as to how edging up early works. I read the info when I first went on it, but I don't feel like finding it and weeding through the legal mumbo jumbo to figure out the answer.

When you signed up for Edge (now known as device payment), once you have 75% of the device paid off, you give it back to Verizon and they remove the remaining 25% that you owe on that device. About 2 months ago, they made a change. Now when you do device payment, you must have 100% paid off to go into a new phone. This is both good and bad, as you can imagine. Good because people don't give back their phones, and bad because well, you have to have 100% paid off. Another good for this is that now you can turn around and sell your device and make some money.

Sent from my Verizon G4

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Do the math.
$60/mo x 24 = $1,440 +$200 for the phone = $1,640 over 2 years.
-or-
$30 (for 1GB) + $20 access fee = $50 + let's say $20/month for new phone = $1,680
For a savings of less then $1.00 per month.

After 2 years on Plan A your monthly bill will not decrease and will continue to be $60.
After 2 years on Plan B your monthly bill drops top $50.
26 months = break even.
_________________________________

I'd love to know how this will effect business customers. No word on that yet.

If\when there comes a day I don't get a free phone for my job, I am going to bet there will never be a phone I need THAT BADLY that will make me want to pay full price. Sorry, Jackiescivic, it will probably be Swappa for me.

Also agree prices won't drop THAT much initially. A little maybe. I think it will probably work like, for example, video cards do. New model comes out and it's literally $800-$1,000. Guess what? There are people that pay that. And every 3 months, the price drops. and drops. and drops. A year later it's $200. Just as the next one gets announced.

For my Note 4, I pay like $26 a month on the Edge plan, so your estimate is pretty close, but still a tad off if you're looking for savings. This isn't really a savings thing, unless, like you pointed out, you're willing to keep your phone past 2 years. Been quite a while since I did that and I was paying full price for the last few devices until I realized that I wasn't using enough data to justify holding so tightly to my unlimited plan. However, I'm wondering how my "we'll give you 4GB of data for the price you're paying for 2 now" plan will be affected here. I'm guessing I'll be shelling out more each month when that time comes. If I was tight about it, I could stay in the 3GB plan, but that's still going to bring my bill up...

 

[jackiescivic]

Do the math.
$60/mo x 24 = $1,440 +$200 for the phone = $1,640 over 2 years.
-or-
$30 (for 1GB) + $20 access fee = $50 + let's say $20/month for new phone = $1,680
For a savings of less then $1.00 per month.

After 2 years on Plan A your monthly bill will not decrease and will continue to be $60.
After 2 years on Plan B your monthly bill drops top $50.
26 months = break even.
_________________________________

I'd love to know how this will effect business customers. No word on that yet.

If\when there comes a day I don't get a free phone for my job, I am going to bet there will never be a phone I need THAT BADLY that will make me want to pay full price. Sorry, Jackiescivic, it will probably be Swappa for me.

Also agree prices won't drop THAT much initially. A little maybe. I think it will probably work like, for example, video cards do. New model comes out and it's literally $800-$1,000. Guess what? There are people that pay that. And every 3 months, the price drops. and drops. and drops. A year later it's $200. Just as the next one gets announced.

No need to apologize to me. There are plenty of people who will ;-)
It will be interesting to see with business accounts. As it is now, they are unable to do device payment.

Sent from my Verizon G4

 

[Jonny Kansas]

@jackiescivic, have you heard any word on those of us who received the "double your data" deal? Now that I posted my last post, I think I'm getting more of a raw deal if I have to move to one of these new "plans" than I originally thought.