251–260 of 411 posts
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I checked the price for a used iPhone 15 pro (ie. 2 year old iPhone) on ebay and it's around $400-$500. Therefore the implied depreciation of the lease is pretty fair, unlike the lowball offers you typically get for trading in a phone.
I just bought a 1 year old iPhone 16 on Facebook marketplace for $400. You can find pretty good prices if you don't need the latest device.
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I'm on Verizon postpaid, 4 lines on Unlimited Plus for $31/line. That's hard to beat pre-paid for comparable service. Yes, I have to threaten to leave Verizon once a year to get them to add a bunch of customer loyalty discounts, but that's not less work than switching pre-paid carriers to chase deals. I subscribe to /r/NoContract/ so I have a pretty good idea what's out there. Visible+ is a comparable pre-paid plan,…
> 4 lines on Unlimited Plus for $31/line. Important: Does this include taxes and the many "regulatory offset fees" or whatever they call them? My numbers do include everything. Looks like that plan[1] offers 30GB of mobile hotspot. I get 50GB. The Unlimited Plus throttles video by default to either 480p, unless you're in a UWB (mmWave?) tower you get 720p. You can get "up to 720p" even on "plain" 5G by adjusting a se…
Yes. Breakdown per line:
UNLIMITED PLUS $55
Auto Pay & paper-free discount -$10
LOYAL $20 FOR 12 MO -$20
Surcharges $4.57
Taxes & gov fees $1.48
Total $31.05
Verizon dollars -$0.30
FWIW, for years I was a Verizon employee and had a 50% discount which is why I started post-paid. They also have the best service in my area. I'm no longer an employee so they treat me like any other customer and I'd pay full price but for the loyalty discounts.
But you don't need to be a former employee to get those. You just need to haggle with customer service once a year. Some years all I have to do is unlock the line and ask for the porting code and they immediately text me a discount.
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I don't understand this mindset. I get that people who are going to upgrade to the latest flagship phone every 18-24 months will probably do better with this, but realistically... those people are fucking insanely financially irresponsible (and if you can afford it - no shade, I guess, its your money - lord knows I burn lots of cash on hobby projects of my own, although I tend to buy things that are actually projects…
So how much annually do you spend on your hobbies, anyways, if you're going to declare getting a new phone every two years "fucking insanely financially irresponsible" :p Glass houses and all that, right?
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> A lot of people aren’t going to have that $433 at the end of the lease to purchase the device outright I think you're looking at this too much from the perspective of someone who wants to own the phone, not as someone who wants to consider a lease. Leases are not a new invention. A lot of people, including very financially savvy and well off people, choose to lease rather than buy depending on the circumstances. It…
People are keeping their phones for longer and longer. This makes it as attractive as possible to pay for a new phone at a more frequent rate. The bet here is that Apple would much rather you spend ~$35/month perpetually than $1200 every 4 years. This is a 'good deal' if you're already someone who upgrades their phone frequently, but I would imagine this would end up getting a whole bunch of people to pay more money…
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This is exactly what’s going on here. You literally don’t own the hardware, it’s a lease. That said, you can purchase with financing with an Apple Card, or with numerous other financing options like carrier financing. However, leasing allows the purchase prices of phones to continue climbing while still presenting a palatable monthly payment. I think what’s going to happen with this is a lot of people will be lured i…
>Paying a $400 payment on a 2 year iPhone will look insane as that’s the depreciated value of a 2 year old phone. Check ebay. That's around the price of a pro series iPhone 2 years old.
If you're the person who has leased this phone, you make all your payments and get to the end and your bill to keep the phone forever is going to seem kind of high.
Obviously, that's logical. In your lease, you have only paid the price of depreciation.
Just like with cars leasing is the most expensive way to own them, but I guess there's a certain buyer who doesn't want old stuff.
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This is exactly what’s going on here. You literally don’t own the hardware, it’s a lease. That said, you can purchase with financing with an Apple Card, or with numerous other financing options like carrier financing. However, leasing allows the purchase prices of phones to continue climbing while still presenting a palatable monthly payment. I think what’s going to happen with this is a lot of people will be lured i…
Or, they can still pay the $400 and try to resell it for higher. And then buy a cheaper Android when they finally realise being in debt for making a fashion statement is stupid.
The math for the new program is kinda perplexing, my guess is that they are hoping that most people just will send in the device and upgrade. If I am reading the FAQ here properly: https://www.apple.com/shop/apple-upgrade . > If you decide to buy the device, the purchase option fee is the list price minus any lease payments you’ve made minus any remaining discounts or trade-in credit. (excluding tax and any damage fe…
It’s all about the AppleCare. I’ve used the upgrade program from the beginning. The issue with it from Apple is if I have an iPhone, iPad, MacBook I’m not gonna buy the $20/mo AppleCare. They are also dumping a weird risk premium on the end user. I literally get a new phone every year with the upgrade program, there’s no way I’ll be doing that going forward, at least through the lease. I’ll just buy it with cash and…
The math for the new program is kinda perplexing, my guess is that they are hoping that most people just will send in the device and upgrade. If I am reading the FAQ here properly: https://www.apple.com/shop/apple-upgrade . > If you decide to buy the device, the purchase option fee is the list price minus any lease payments you’ve made minus any remaining discounts or trade-in credit. (excluding tax and any damage fe…
I also wonder whether this leasing thing is also a covert way to get people to be subject to more tracking. If you own a device you have a legal right to do anything to it you want, including jailbreak it or install your own OS that executes things differently. If you lease it you don't necessarily have that right since you are only leasing the rights to use it, not modify it.
Far beyond the actual/original cost of the item which is why it’s not a good deal for an individual.
Once again, taking advantage of short term thinking.
The math for the new program is kinda perplexing, my guess is that they are hoping that most people just will send in the device and upgrade. If I am reading the FAQ here properly: https://www.apple.com/shop/apple-upgrade . > If you decide to buy the device, the purchase option fee is the list price minus any lease payments you’ve made minus any remaining discounts or trade-in credit. (excluding tax and any damage fe…
If I were good at financial math (which I'm not), I would calculate that against a regular loan. E.g., how high would the interest be, if you were to keep the device.