ATT ending two year contracts

[jyl]

ATT will discontinue offering two year contracts with subsidized phones, on Jan 8.

These were clearly the best deal for consumers who wanted a new high end phone every two years. Say an iphone costs $700, amortizing that over two years is about $35/mo. ATT's no contract/no subsidy plans are not $35/mo cheaper than the two year contracts.

Part of me thinks I should get the family new two year contracts and new phones before Jan 8.

Part of me thinks that, in the coming year, the coverage of cheaper carriers like T Mobile will improve and I'll want to be out of contract to leave ATT.

What do you think?

[GH85Carrera]

The new way of selling you the phone at zero interest is really a better deal. My phone bill went DOWN by paying the monthly cost of the phone. I can pay it off anytime and the monthly bill will go WAY down. I don't mind using their money for zero interest.
Talk to an agent at a corporate owned store. You can save money.

[jyl]

Did you find it better to buy the phone from ATT, or from Apple?

[Icemaster]

I'm not buying the 'save money' argument, unless I'm missing something I'm still better off signing a 24 mo contract, paying nothing for the phone, paying slightly more (on a monthly basis) for the data/wireless, than I would be paying for a phone that was less that what I wanted over 30 months. Their numbers weren't adding up... Reminds me of the car sales tactic of increasing the 'affordability' of a new car by stretching the payments out over 72 months instead of 60.

But I'm not surprised that they're doing away with this. I traded up every two years, sold the old phone or passed it to the kids.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by jyl

ATT will discontinue offering two year contracts with subsidized phones, on Jan 8.

These were clearly the best deal for consumers who wanted a new high end phone every two years. Say an iphone costs $700, amortizing that over two years is about $35/mo. ATT's no contract/no subsidy plans are not $35/mo cheaper than the two year contracts.

Part of me thinks I should get the family new two year contracts and new phones before Jan 8.

Part of me thinks that, in the coming year, the coverage of cheaper carriers like T Mobile will improve and I'll want to be out of contract to leave ATT.

What do you think?

I'm afraid it's already too late.

When I went to renew my contract earlier this year it would have cost me $60 more per month for the same exact plan with no new phones. Simply renewing, that's it.

They are going to tell you that the $25 per smart phone line discount that you have been receiving will no longer apply.

You'll ask "what $25 per month discount? I've never heard of it and never seen it listed on a bill"

They'll tell you that just because they never told you you were getting it does not mean they weren't giving it to you.

They want everyone off contracts.

Give them a call, see what they say.

[aigel]

Verizon has gone this way too. Only existing 2 year plan customers can continue 2 year plans. To me the 2 year plans were very expensive as we do not upgrade frequently. I just added a brand new smart phone replacing a flip phone and my bill is $10 less / month, including the payment on the phone. Once the phone is paid off, the bill will drop another $25 or whatever the payment is.

As JYL already analyzed correctly, the upside of 2 year plans is only for frequent upgraders.

G

[jyl]

We've always gotten new phones every two years, staggered, passing down the old phones to the kids. Now the kids are old enough that they don't lose or break phones, and current phones are good enough that I have declining interest in upgrading. So it might be time to buy some current phones (iPhone 6 or 7, let's say) and figure on keeping them for a few years. Up to now, it has felt like a two year old phone is sluggish or likely malfunctioning. But when they have 2 GB ram and 64 GB storage, that seems more future proof.

The move away from subsidized phones, and the maturing of smartphone technology, will be a big problem for smartphone makers in the US and other very developed countries. I think Apple's iPhone sales are probably peaking now in the US, and in coming years, they will need big growth in developing countries to offset stagnant or declining sales in the US and then in Western Europe.

The mobile carriers used subsidized phones to acquire and retain customers, but it because too expensive so they have moved away from those models. So then how will they retain customers?. 4G is all but ubiquitous, in a year I suspect Sprint and T-Mobile coverage will be close enough to Verizon and ATT coverage for almost everyone. 5G is 3 to 5 years off. Their customers are increasingly no longer bound by contracts, ATT's last two year contract will expire in Jan 2018. I suspect that in the coming few years, the carriers will be forced to compete on price far more than they do now. Since they don't like that, the carriers will continue trying to buy each other to create a duopoly. There will be huge money flowing to lobbyists and congressmen, because antitrust laws and the federal government are the only obstacles to that strategy.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

I'm afraid it's already too late.

When I went to renew my contract earlier this year it would have cost me $60 more per month for the same exact plan with no new phones. Simply renewing, that's it.

They are going to tell you that the $25 per smart phone line discount that you have been receiving will no longer apply.

You'll ask "what $25 per month discount? I've never heard of it and never seen it listed on a bill"

They'll tell you that just because they never told you you were getting it does not mean they weren't giving it to you.

They want everyone off contracts.

Give them a call, see what they say.

This is my understanding as well. It's too late to get a free phone. Replaced 2 this year and neither was free. If someone has a way around this, I'm all ears.

JR

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I've discussed this elsewhere but what I've done is buy the phone new and unlocked direct from Apple, then swap in my Straight Talk SIM which costs $45 a month, no contracts, no headaches, no BS.

13 30-day cycles per year x $45 = $585 a year. The comparable plan (unlimited text & voice plus 2 GB LTE data & unlimited 2G or 3G after that) from ATT, Verizon, Sprint, etc. is around $100 a month. Therefore you're saving $55 (call it $50 give-or-take to make the math easy) versus using one of those carriers. If the new iPhone costs $700 you break even in 14 months. Not too bad.

Personally I can't stand the major telco companies. They've been unabashedly ripping people off for years and it's nice to have a way to get service just as good without having to be beholden to any of them and their lousy business practices.

I'm never going back for as long as there options like this available.