51–60 of 130 posts
Having lived in a lot of countries over the past couple of decades, I can say this is absolutely something Americans do completely wrong. Just buy your phone at full price. The "free" phones cost significantly more than a full price phone.
Can a carrier ever surreptitiously lock an unlocked phone, or is it only on phones financed or purchased through the carrier? For example, if I bought an unlocked phone and attached it to my Verizon plan, could Verizon lock it?
Historically phone locking was done at the modem level via an NCK code - if a phone is supplied by a carrier the modem will come pre-locked and will only be unlocked upon entry of an NCK code which the carrier has the secret key to generate (hash(secret+imei)). With this system if the phone is not locked to begin with I am not aware of any way to toggle this mechanism remotely. With smartphones however, the game has…
If you have root, you can easily unlock the modem and keep it unlocked.
I still remember at the beginning of the mobile era, when there were tons of small "repair shops" that would unlock phones for a small fee. They are likely still around.
Having lived in a lot of countries over the past couple of decades, I can say this is absolutely something Americans do completely wrong. Just buy your phone at full price. The "free" phones cost significantly more than a full price phone.
I suspect that many Americans would struggle to afford to pay for a phone outright. The vast majority live paycheck to paycheck and are already in record amounts of household debt.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/19/bank-of-america-nearly-half-...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
it's a lot easier to pay smaller amounts over time than it is to pay a large lump sum, even if it is technically less after x number of years. Delayed gratification etc, but also sometimes folks need a phone and can't put off the purchase until they save up the upfront price. T
but also sometimes folks need a phone and can't put off the purchase until they save up the upfront price. Whatever happened to planning ahead? No wonder things are the way they are.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My monthly plan payment would not go down if I brought my own phone.
You sure about that? Look up Visible, Mint Mobile, Total Wireless, US Mobile, Tello... Same carrier networks, same quality of service. You can even pay a bit extra for prioritized data and other fancy features. You can get basic unlimited plans for $15-30 and premium plans in the $30-50 range vs $100+ at the big carriers. The only difference is that you aren't paying for your "free" phone.
It is easy to switch between Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile as well. This was helpful for me as all three of the networks normally have one bar or less at my house. T-mobile WiFi calling works more reliably than Verizon.
Having lived in a lot of countries over the past couple of decades, I can say this is absolutely something Americans do completely wrong. Just buy your phone at full price. The "free" phones cost significantly more than a full price phone.
it's a lot easier to pay smaller amounts over time than it is to pay a large lump sum, even if it is technically less after x number of years. Delayed gratification etc, but also sometimes folks need a phone and can't put off the purchase until they save up the upfront price. T
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect that many Americans would struggle to afford to pay for a phone outright. The vast majority live paycheck to paycheck and are already in record amounts of household debt.
This is often repeated but false - it’s not the vast majority, nor even a majority. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/19/bank-of-america-nearly-half-...
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/52-americans-live-paycheck-pa...
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/goldman-sachs-study-fin...
https://econofact.org/factbrief/is-there-a-consensus-that-a-...
No matter if it's "Nearly half" or 60%, things are clearly far from good for most Americans.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Norway several of the mobile phone telecom operators sell phones on down payment plans that cost nothing extra compared to buying it cash up front. It has been like this for several years and it’s great! You can pay a pretty low monthly down payment over a period of 36 month. As far as I’ve been able to tell, I don’t even have to enter into any binding contract for any phone plan to buy the phone this way. And eve…
Yes but you will generally pay more for your monthly plan in those cases vs. buying an unlocked phone at full price and a dirt-cheap SIM like Lebara.