iPhone 7 Plus: What Did I Just Buy?!!! (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

You know, sometimes I buy things on impulse and then think about it more a little later.

When co-workers saw me diddling with my phone this morning at 3am trying to get into the Apple Store, they asked me how much I paid for my new iPhone 7.

I told them, "You don't want to know."

The iPhone 7 Plus 128GB Jet Black cost me a little over $900.

That's $900 f-ing dollars! I thought phones on contract only cost $300.

Now, granted, I got the Plus and 128GB -- but $900?

Now here is where it gets confusing....

I joined the Apple Upgrade Program. I am paying $40.37 a month for the phone for two years.

So, per year, that's $484.44

But I get an upgrade (iPhone 8) in a year. So I take it part of that $900 is for two phones? I would feel much better if that was the case.

Also..

Anyone know if I can pay it off in full day one? It's essentially a bank taking over the loan. Can I pay this off totally and not worry about monthly payments?

Somebody who has a grip on this thing please reply with a simplistic answer that an idiot like me can understand.

 

[Sam Posten]

Don't forget you are also getting apple care as part of the upgrade program

 

[Sam Posten]

http://appadvice.com/post/a-look-at-apples-iphone-upgrade-program/721105

 

[DaveF]

That's $900 f-ing dollars! I thought phones on contract only cost $300.

That's 2010 thinking. That's when you paid $300 out of pocket and the other $350 of the $650 phone was buried in your monthly phone bill but you still paid full fare...or more.

Now, you just buy the phone outright at retail price. And you own it. You can keep it for one year or forever.

Or you can lease it, pay a monthly charge, have a phone while you pay. It's the same as buying the phone outright, selling it used after a year, and buying a new one. Except it's simpler to lease, your payments are monthly instead of lump sum.

If you normally buy AppleCare then the Apple program is without downside. But if you don't want AppleCare -- I don't buy it -- it's more expensive than buying outright.

 

[DaveF]

From the article:

But if you’re near a local Apple Store, AppleCare+ is basically a must-have for any iOS device these days.

No. The smart money is to never buy an extended warranty (or service plan) ever. They're overpriced insurance plans. On the whole, what you save will pay for rare product failure.

Consider: On three iPads and six iPhones I've saved $1161 not paying for AppleCare. That makes up for any single incident, if I have one. Now multiply that over all the devices I've bought over the past ten years.

(If you've got kids or you're careless with your things, your calculus may change.)

 

[Josh Steinberg]

For me, AppleCare paid off for my first two iPods - both experienced failures after the normal service period but during the AppleCare window. I had to have the optical drive on my MacBook Pro replaced, and that came towards the end of my AppleCare period. (What I never did find out was if the replacement of the optical drive on its own was more or less than what AppleCare costs.) I didn't get AppleCare for my iPhone 5, but it required replacement because of a defective top button, - the button broke while I still had about a month left on the warranty, and as it turns out, it was a known issue that would have triggered a free replacement even if it had been brought in. So I'm on the fence about not recommending AppleCare, mainly because most of my devices have needed some kind of service. I think I probably could have done fine without it. I probably won't get it for my next phone, but I probably will get it for my next laptop.

 

[DaveF]

I think I bought it for my 2007 MBP. I buy warranties when it's a brand new or uncertain product type for me. But as a rule I don't buy them.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Between my wife and myself, we have owned an iPod shuffle, a Nano, a 60GB Classic (during its first run before it was branded "classic"), 2x iPhone 3gs, 2x iPhone 4s, 2x iPhone 5s, 2x iPhone 6s, 2x iPad mini 2, 2x 3rd gen AppleTV, 2x Airport Express, an Airport Extreme Base Station, a late-2011 15" Macbook Pro, a mid-2012 13" Macbook Pro and a mid-2013 13" Macbook Air. And those are just Apple products we have owned or still own. Out of all these, only her 4s (or it might have been her 5s, I don't remember) gave us any trouble and it was two years old when the wifi chip died. We were upgrading phones at that time anyway and Gazelle still paid me $100 for it.

As far back as I can remember, I have never bought or needed an extended warranty on any electronics or major appliance.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Don't forget you are also getting apple care as part of the upgrade program

Not me.

I went for the second option --- which I shouldn't have.

The second option was lower payments with NO Apple Care.

However....

What I didn't know...

That option does not include an upgrade. You pay off the phone you own it. It does not roll into a new phone in 2017.

Not the worst thing in the world. I am going to pay the phone off fully day one. But next year I am going to do the Apple Care plan as it allows you to just roll over the price of the phone across two years as you get a new phone.

So in another words...

First option: Upgrade Program with Apple Care: You have to trade in the phone end of year for new one
Second option: Upgrade Program without Apple Care: You own the phone and cannot trade it in for a new one.

I can't begin to tell you how much back-and-forth I had to do on another site to figure all that out.

 

[Sam Posten]

You are the first person to ever mention that's an option, so I don't think that's right. Can you show us otherwise? Apple's own literature says all Upgrade plans come with Apple Care:
http://www.apple.com/shop/iphone/iphone-upgrade-program

You may have purchased a phone through Apple but it wasn't through Upgrade.

 

[DavidJ]

What I saw last night ordering mine was the more expensive option ($45) had the ability to upgrade after a year and AppleCare+, but the cheaper ($40) option didn't have the ability to upgrade. I don't remember about AppleCare+ for sure, but I believe it had it.

 

[TonyD]

My question is that I hvae the new iphone every 12 months through an at&t store.

Will I need to continue gojng through the store or will I be able to go into Apple store to do the switch?

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I am at work. Trust me. Second option had no Apple Care included. Lower payments and no upgrade.

If you want put a dummy order through on Apple and see for yourself

 

[TonyD]

Pay monthly with no interest
Apple iPhone Upgrade Program$45.75/mo.
for 24 mo.

• Unlocked
• Upgrade to a new iPhone every year
• AppleCare+ included ($129 value)
• Works with your carrier and rate plan

Apple iPhone Installments$40.37/mo.
for 24 mo.

• Unlocked
• No annual upgrade
• AppleCare+ sold separately
• Works with your carrier and rate plan

AT&T NextFrom $40.38/mo.
for 24 mo.

• Upgrade every 12 or 24 months, or sooner with an optional down payment
• AppleCare+ sold separately
• Works with your rate plan

Pay in full
One-time payment$969.00

• Unlocked
• AppleCare+ sold separately
• Works with your carrier and rate plan

 

[TonyD]

I copied amd pasted that. No bolding done by me

 

[DavidJ]

Yep, there it is.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Pay monthly with no interest
Apple iPhone Upgrade Program$45.75/mo.
for 24 mo.

• Unlocked
• Upgrade to a new iPhone every year
• AppleCare+ included ($129 value)
• Works with your carrier and rate plan

Apple iPhone Installments$40.37/mo.
for 24 mo.

• Unlocked
• No annual upgrade
• AppleCare+ sold separately
• Works with your carrier and rate plan

AT&T NextFrom $40.38/mo.
for 24 mo.

• Upgrade every 12 or 24 months, or sooner with an optional down payment
• AppleCare+ sold separately
• Works with your rate plan

Pay in full
One-time payment$969.00

• 
  
  
  • Unlocked
  • AppleCare+ sold separately
  • Works with your carrier and rate plan

There is another option you did not include for $40.xx per month

 

[Thomas Newton]

Now here is where it gets confusing....

I joined the Apple Upgrade Program. I am paying $40.37 a month for the phone for two years.

So, per year, that's $484.44

But I get an upgrade (iPhone 8) in a year. So I take it part of that $900 is for two phones? I would feel much better if that was the case.

The Terms and Conditions ( http://www.apple.com/legal/sales-support/iphoneupgrade_us/ ) indicate that the upgrade is a trade-in deal. When you upgrade, you must return the old iPhone and take out a new 24-month installment agreement on the new one. Once you've paid off the first installment on the new iPhone, Apple will take over the remaining payments on the old one. One way to view this is that they are buying back your old iPhone for the balance on the old installment loan. But they'll only do this if they can "get you into a new car".

Another way to view this is that as long as you choose the upgrade option every 12 months, you are leasing a recent iPhone model for the monthly installment payment. Again, think of how car dealers try to get people to lease one car for a while, then lease another. Once you passed up the upgrade option and paid off all of the 24 installments, then you would own that final phone outright.

 

[Thomas Newton]

I think I may have found the $40.xx option.

I went through pre-order pages for the iPhone 7+ (256 GB, Verizon) and for the Apple iPhone Upgrade program. Eventually I landed on a page titled "How would you like to pay?".

The first box said "Apple iPhone Upgrade Program – $45.75/mo for 24 mo." It listed the features as "Unlocked, Upgrade to a new iPhone every year, AppleCare+ included ($129 value), Works with your carrier and rate plan".

The second box said "Apple iPhone Installments – $40.37/mo for 24 mo." It listed the features as "Unlocked, No annual upgrade, AppleCare+ sold separately, Works with your carrier and rate plan".

The Apple iPhone Upgrade Terms and Conditions say that a phone must be continuously covered by AppleCare+ to be an eligible trade-in. Oddly enough, (($45.75 - $40.37) * 24) = $129.12 – almost exactly the price of AppleCare+. There isn't any extra, non-AppleCare-related difference associated with the "upgrade every year" program. But don't weep for Apple – I suspect the old phone buy-backs and the new phone sales will be plenty profitable enough.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Since a $1000 iPhone costs Apple pennies on the dollar to make, they're making profit regardless of whether or not you buy apple care.