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Pretty much all new plans include a phone lease...typically 10-15 bucks extra on your bill. At the end of a term (1-2 years) you can buy it outright.
Do you plan to just walk into the store and spend 500 on a new phone?
Financing: With this type of plan, you pay off the full retail price of a phone over time. Typically the cost of your phone is divided over 24 months. As long as you still owe money on your phone, you can’t leave your carrier. When you’ve paid the phone off, you own it. Unlike the subsidy model, this usually also means your monthly bill is cheaper once your phone is paid off.
Lease: A relatively new option, cell phone leasing plans add a monthly charge to borrow a phone from your carrier. Some carriers lease plans allow you to upgrade much more often than the usual two years. However, you won’t own any of the phones unless you pay a large fee to buy it out. If it breaks and you don’t have insurance, you’ll also be on the hook for the full price.
weird. apparently some phones are actually leased.
i can understand a 0% finance rate/term for the full price of a phone.
but leasing i cannot.
Every Carrier's Confusing Phone-Buying Plans, Explained
Every Carrier's Confusing Phone-Buying Plans, Explained
looks like vzw, att, t mobile, sprint all finance, but t mobile and sprint you can lease.
So.... T-Mobile leases only (this is why their plans are so cheap). So for example, if you BRING your own phone to them that you already own, or let's say you buy one off of Craigslist or Ebay then you don't have to lease. So the cost with the carrier is plan only.
OR - you do what I'm doing (they had a huge rebate in December on iPhones) and I'm "leasing" an iPhone 6S for $15.00 a month. So I don't own the phone, but I hypothetically would after I certain number of payments. But this is how there aren't contracts with T-mobile and why their plans are so cheap because they don't subsidize their phones up front. I'm payhing $45.00 a month all in on a family plan which is 10 GB of data, and the phone.
I would assume it's similar with ATT or Verizon's "lease" plans.
I can still get a 2yr contract with Subsidized iPhone from VZW....
that's because you're on an "old" plan still right?
no t mobile has all the options as well... you can lease, or finance. it's in the link.
I mean if you look at it their lease/finance is basically the same thing. Either way you haven't paid fully for the phone, you are not under contract. The lease thing is almost like financing with them because at the end you own the phone outright. Unless w/ the finance plan you actually want to go in and just throw down 600 bucks up front, but at that point why wouldn't you just buy something off of craigslist or ebay.
Option #1: Finance Your Phone With Monthly Payments
Much like Verizon, when you want a new phone on T-Mobile, you’ll pay for the full price of the phone divided across 24 months. They refer to this as their Equipment Installment Plan (EIP). You may have to pay a down payment, depending on your credit and the cost of the handset. If you do, the down payment will go towards the full price of the phone, reducing your monthly payments.
Unlike Verizon, however, you can pay extra each month to pay it off sooner, if you so choose. You can also make a larger down payment up front, or you can make optional payments towards your EIP on top of your monthly bill. You can’t just overpay your regular bill, though. You’ll have to log in to your T-Mobile account, navigate to the EIP section and make a separate, specific payment to your device payment plan. This will lower your overall EIP balance and thus reduce your next overall monthly payments to T-Mobile. Once your device is paid off, the EIP charge goes away and you just continue paying for service.
You can also finance multiple devices on the same line of credit. When you’re first approved for an EIP, you’ll get a spending limit. You can add as many devices to this plan as you want, as long as you don’t go over that spending limit. So if you want to finance a phone, a tablet, and a watch all on the same line, or if you want to upgrade to a new phone after a year, you can do so within that limit. T-Mobile won’t make you pay the full price of any previous devices when adding a new one. However, if you want to sell your old devices, you will have to pay that particular device off in full before they can be transferred to another person’s account or a different carrier.
Option #3: Lease Certain Newer Phones With Jump! On Demand
T-Mobile’s newest plan is technically a lease. Under this plan, you can upgrade much more frequently than any other plan from the other carriers: up to three times a year. You make your monthly payments on the phone as normal, but at absolutely any point, you can walk into a T-Mobile store, hand in your old phone and get a new one. Of course, since this is a lease, there are a few caveats.
First, you won’t actually own the device unless you buy it out. After 18 months of the normal payments (the cost of the device, divided by 24 months), you can either return your phone and walk away, or pay the remaining balance (6 months worth) to own it. If you decide to upgrade at any point during this 18 month period, the clock starts over.
Also, this only applies to certain phones. This includes flagships like the latest iPhone, Galaxy S 6 Edge, LG G4, and others. T-Mobile has added new handsets since the program’s inception, but it’s not a wide selection. It’s hard to know which phones will be available when you go to upgrade, and it may be harder still to find three phones per year you would even want to upgrade to. Particularly if you’re an iPhone user, since Apple only comes out with a new line of phones once per year.
The major downside is that you’re basically throwing away money on the phones you trade in. If you want to use a Note 4 for six months, it will cost roughly $30 per month, for a total of $180. When you trade that phone in, that money’s gone. You have nothing to sell and you’ll start your payments on a new phone all over again. If you’d otherwise resell or reuse your old phones, you’ll be wasting money every time you trade it in.
That said, there are still some advantages here. For starters, you can walk away from T-Mobile at absolutely any time. Unlike most carrier’s plans, you’re not required to pay off your phone or fork over a huge fee just to leave. You’ll have to turn in your old phone, but you’re not forced to come up with a huge amount of money on the spot just to switch carriers.
Additionally, some people simply may not want to sell their old phones. While buying outright and reselling your devices is a cost-efficient way to stay up to date, it’s also a huge hassle. Your old phones may not sell for much, you have to deal with online stores or selling to friends, and it’s probably best that you keep all the original packaging. If you know you’re not going to do all of that, then you’re not getting value out of your old phones anyway. This lease program can at least keep you up to date, while putting your old phones to better use.