Buying a new iphone — help

I’ve made the decision on which phone I want — all by myself— but now another decision must be made.

What is the up side and or down side of paying for the phone outright as opposed to going on the providers payment plan? The obvious $$$lump sum at the outset is doable — but are there benefits for paying up front? How about the value of phone insurance?

Five years ago, buying a phone was easy!

Previous post got lost in another topic, but for background, I am reposting here.

TIA

mtierney said:

I’ve made the decision on which phone I want — all by myself— but now another decision must be made.

What is the up side and or down side of paying for the phone outright as opposed to going on the providers payment plan? The obvious $$$lump sum at the outset is doable — but are there benefits for paying up front? How about the value of phone insurance?

Five years ago, buying a phone was easy!

Previous post got lost in another topic, but for background, I am reposting here.

TIA

 When I got a new phone last year (I have Verizon), I paid for almost all of it. I needed to pay off the remaining $100 in installments in order to qualify for some rebate. I don't even remember what the rebate was.

Apparently a 5 year old, original, 6se is worth diddly, so no rebate is offered. What is frustrating is the variety of options offered by Verizon’s salespeople — it seems to vary so the customer never knows if another, better deal might be struck. Anyone else get that impression? 

Since Verizon hasn't charged any interest or fee for paying off over 24 months, I let them do that (even when it was a $50 flip phone). 

For a nice new ($$$) phone like the one you've chosen, i would certainly get insurance, but maybe i'm just an anxious person.  Ask about different programs they may have.

I bought my last iPhone from a Verizon store because the Apple store was shut down during the pandemic. Never again. I told them repeatedly I didn't want Verizon loss/damage insurance, but they gave it to me anyway along with some other feature I declined. It took multiple phone calls over several months to get the charges removed from my bill. It was clearly a standard practice for them to bill customers for the insurance and then make it as difficult as possible to cancel it. They had scripts for this. "Oh, I am very surprised and sorry that you have been inconvenienced in this way! I will be happy to assist you in resolving this matter!"

These upgrade plans are mostly beneficial for people who change phones every year. Or at least that was the case when I bought my second-generation SE last year. I hang on to my phones forever, so I just pay cash. Plus that lets me switch carriers if necessary. Verizon service is not very good where I live now, so I'm looking to move.

I still miss my original SE, though. I loved that phone.

Thanks for the insurance heads up. If I buy ii outright, and just keep my original se6, I’m thinking Version looses without a trade-in deal? 

Off to the store tomorrow — last minute advice welcomed.

I think the "spread payments out" plan would include financing charges, so you'd end up paying more for it.

dave said:

I think the "spread payments out" plan would include financing charges, so you'd end up paying more for it.

 Not in my experience with AT&T.

dave said:

I think the "spread payments out" plan would include financing charges, so you'd end up paying more for it.

 I read that fees would not be added in the 5 month payment plan, but thanks for the heads up, plausible deniability might be in play here! 

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dave said:

I think the "spread payments out" plan would include financing charges, so you'd end up paying more for it.

 That's not how it works with Verizon (and, recently, they have had rebates and such that were also spread out and, therefore, not available if you pay it all upfront.) At least, that's how it worked for me earlier this year.

Thanks for the help, and I am posting here on my beautiful new 13mini!!

Lots to learn going forward, just enough new stuff to make me anxious.

Received no hard sell at the store. I chose to buy it outright. Although I still buy green bananas, I thought it wiser to do so.

I may be back with questions 

I am back this time with portable charger. Bought the red IWalk because of its portability, compared to my old one, the size of a brick and just as heavy.

The photo shows the charger and the black wire which came with it. The white wire is my new iphone one.

The device came with Apple-like printed fold-out, a tad bigger than a postage stamp, with one line of info in six languages printed on each itsy betsy pages, in microscopic grey font!

The short attached plug in fits nothing pictured.

TIA

White wire = USB-C to Lightning Cable. Your iPhone power port is a Lightning port. The USB-C end goes into the plug.

Black wire on the right looks like a USB to Micro-USB cable. Many other devices utilize this one, but Apple products don't.

The black wire sticking out of the red charger look like a Lightning cable. So that should fit into the plug to charge it, then into your phone to charge the phone.

Does it not work like that?

Edited to add, my bad. There's another wire on the other side that's USB-C that goes into the plug, according to the iWalk listing on Amazon.