Seems like I’m always buying phones and switching plans, probably because I am! Great deals came together to convince me to convince my family to join forces on one plan.
Current Status
We have four lines scattered on plans: Verizon $70, Google Fi $30, Sprint $45, Tracfone $3 which totals $148 a month. Three devices are paid off and there is a lease on one which gives $30 a month off with 4 months left.
The Deal
T-mobile had deals on phones and plans. For plans you could get the 3rd line free. For phones, they had several for trading in an iPhone and discounts on Androids. The stars aligned, so I decided to take the plunge into postpaid after avoiding it for the past 15 years.
I’ll start with the plan. We got 4 lines where one was free, so the total was $130 a month. Additionally, if you have autopay, you get $5 off per line. So the bill goes down to $110 with taxes and fees included. They also have 5G which brings us to the 5G compatible devices we purchased.
Everyone else wanted new iPhones, so that’s what they got. Here is what we got and the retail price.
iPhone 12 $830
iPhone 12 Pro $1000
iPhone 12 Pro Max $1100
Samsung S20 FE $700
That brings to total price of the phones to a whopping $3630. The Samsung was $600 off in the form of bill credits over 24 months. For the iPhones there was a deal that if you trade in an older iPhone you get discounts in the form of bill credits over 30 months. We got $830 off each by turning in three iPhone 8. We did not own any iPhone 8, but did have an iPhone X and iPhone 11. However, the discount for trading in any of those was $830, so I figured I would be better off selling the X and 11 and buying the 8 for cheaper. So I purchased 3 iPhone 8 for $810 solely to trade in. Assuming I was going to pay retail price for the phones I managed to save $830 * 3 – $810 + $600 (Samsung) = $2280 on phones.
The deal gets better because if you port in your number you get $100 gift card. However, Sprint and Google Fi don’t qualify. So I ported those numbers over to Ting and Tracfone before porting them into T-mobile. That cost around $40, so I’ll come out $160 ahead on those 2 lines.
Comparison
What if we stuck it out with our old providers and bought new phones? The cost over 30 months would be $4,440 (plan) + phones $3,630 = $8,070 or $269 a month. Instead, $3,300 (plan) + $1,350 (phones after discount) – $400 (rebate) = $4280 or $143 a month.
Through Sprint we got Hulu with Ads included ($24 value on Black Friday) and AAA ($50). With T-mobile we get Netflix ($108). So we are coming out $34 better a year which would drop our monthly cost from $143 to $140 which is even lower than our current $148 a month, so everyone is happy!
Improvements
I got excited when I saw you could get $950 for trading in an iPhone XS Max and bought one for $500 thinking that was better than trading in the iPhone X. Although true, I failed to consider that the iPhone 8 was an even better value for trading in. I plan to resell the XS Max I bought.
There was some confusion for one person where I first got an Android but they wanted an iPhone, so I had to return it and pay the $70 restocking fee.
Since my wife’s Sprint account had 4 more payments left we had to pay $120 to get the phone. Ideally, we could have finished the lease and saved that $120, but the timing worked out such that paying was a much better deal and will more than pay for this.
What probably would have made the deal a bit better is if we only did 3 lines with all iPhones. My Tracfone plan was only $3 a month. But now the 4th line adds $15 a month plus $5 for the phone. That’s a $17 a month difference, which over 24 months comes out to $408, but I’m getting a new phone out of it and not having to port my number every which way searching for the next deal, so not too shabby.
Conclusion
When there is something you want, keep an eye on things and you may find that you can get a good deal on it. My wife is a fan of iPhones, so that has lead me to buy her phones like this or that and now the very latest. I believe T-mobile will allow me to add lines for only $20 each and up to 12. So I best be off to convince 8 more people to join my plan for a tremendous deal.