Mykie64 wrote:I've been with AT&T for seven years now. We recently upgraded two out of three of our phones to smartphones in March. Had I found out sooner in February if I upgraded then I would have been paying 15 instead of 40 a month for the plan. Of course they don't tell you this. Which by the way we share 2GB of data for 3 phones at a wopping 145 a month I've tried numerous times for getting a better rate plan but if we upgraded to the next plan it'll be 175.00 a month for 4GB. I'll be paying more for my phone than my car payment. I've called and chatted and all they keep saying that they thank me for being such a loyal customer, can't do nothing with the plans, this is what we have take it or leave it basically and the plan we have best suites our needs. No it don't. We keep it under 2 just so we don't get those over usage charges. Well I'm ready to leave them all together. People that don't commit to AT&T for 2yrs get a better plan than the people that do like myself. That next plan is basically a lease on the phone. I'm ready to switch carriers.
In reality, everyone gets the same deal. If you get s cheaply discounted phone from AT&T you pay higher service fees, if you don't get a discounted phone from AT&T you pay lower service fees. The difference in how much you pay depends upon what your data package is. The real nice thing about not getting a discounted phone from AT&T is that you can get your phone from anywhere you like as long as it's compatible with the AT&T network. You can even but it at an on-line site where you can potentially get it for far less that what AT&T would charge you for it. You are no required to buy your phone from AT&T, it just has to be compatible with their network.
If you purchase a phone using AT&T NEXT, it is not a lease, it is an interest free financing. You purchase the phone over 20 or 24 monthly installment payments, and it's yours to keep. Just like purchasing a new car, if it's in good working order, you can trade it in and get a new purchase agreement later, but depending upon when you trade it in, you may have to pay a lump sum payment (if less than 12 monthly installments have been paid), or you may just get the remainder of the purchase price waived as your "trade in value" (if 12 or more monthly installments have been paid).
NEXT is not for everyone, but for some people, it is a good deal. If you are a person who wants a new phone every year and gets 10GB or more data, then Next will get you a new phone and you will pay about $35-50 per month for that phone (voice, text & phone). If you upgrade about every 2 years you can get a new contract phone for $0-$300 and still pay $40/month (voice, text & phone), but you can only get a new phone every 2 years. Now, if you get your phone with NEXT, but only upgrade it every 2 years, you may pay $35-50 for 20 months, then you pay $15 for the last 4 months and you still keep the phone, so in this light you might save money on NEXT and still keep the phone.
Another interesting point is that there is a point wher eit starts becoming cheaper to pay for 10GB of data to get the larger off-contract discounts on your phone service. That extra $15/month for each phone can add up, and for an account with 2 phones, it is the same cost for 8GB of data as it is for 10GB IIRC. For 4 phones, I believe that 4GB of data costs about $10 more than 10GB of data (and 6GB of data costs even more than that believe it or not). Of course, all of these still mean you are using your own phones and not getting discounted phones from AT&T (or that you are not including the cost of the phone in your comparisons).