Best place/time to buy new mobile phones

[skatalite]

Hey all!

My wife, father, mother and I are all on a family plan through T-Mobile. We have a heck of a plan so we're not wanting to leave T-Mo unless absolutely necessary... But they no longer offer phone discounts for contract extensions, so new phones cost the full sticker price.

Considering my wife and I use smartphones, I'm curious if anyone has any tips on places/times to look for new phones and get the best prices.

Maybe Black Friday? I know some stores/carriers offer good deals, but usually with contract extensions.

Any help/tips would be appreciated! Thanks.

 

[BadgerGirl84]

I got a used iPhone off eBay. I've had it for almost a year and it works great. I made sure to buy one from a good seller with a good return policy in case I didn't like the condition of the phone they sent me or it didn't work right.

 

[DisneyOrBustColorado]

I had T-mobile for years, but was having trouble upgrading my phone & dealing with the contract. So I went & bought a Straight Talk phone from Walmart. You just buy the phone cash up front (mine was $89. for a smart phone) and then it is $45.00 a month for unlimited everything on the phone or you can get a $30.00 a month plan for limited minutes & web. My phone that I purchased uses the T-mobile network so my service is exactly the same as it was before. I am not under any contract so I pay month to month. We travel quite a bit & the phone still works great. My DH got a Straight Talk phone that works off of the Verizon network. Which Straight Talk phone you buy will determine which network that it runs off of. Straight uses Verizon, T-mobile & Sprint networks for their phones. I have been happy with my phone & it seems much cheaper than anything else I can buy. Dave Ramsey strongly recommends them if you have ever heard of him. You can go to StraightTalk.com to get some information. That all being said, I am the kind of person that doesn't need the latest & greatest iphone. I just need a phone that is functional & I do almost all of my web surfing & work on my home PC.

 

[DizMe]

I had T-mobile for years, but was having trouble upgrading my phone & dealing with the contract. So I went & bought a Straight Talk phone from Walmart. You just buy the phone cash up front (mine was $89. for a smart phone) and then it is $45.00 a month for unlimited everything on the phone or you can get a $30.00 a month plan for limited minutes & web. My phone that I purchased uses the T-mobile network so my service is exactly the same as it was before. I am not under any contract so I pay month to month. We travel quite a bit & the phone still works great. My DH got a Straight Talk phone that works off of the Verizon network. Which Straight Talk phone you buy will determine which network that it runs off of. Straight uses Verizon, T-mobile & Sprint networks for their phones. I have been happy with my phone & it seems much cheaper than anything else I can buy. Dave Ramsey strongly recommends them if you have ever heard of him. You can go to StraightTalk.com to get some information. That all being said, I am the kind of person that doesn't need the latest & greatest iphone. I just need a phone that is functional & I do almost all of my web surfing & work on my home PC.

To add to this, when I was looking for a new phone in February, WalMart had a couple of phones I was interested in. One was the iPhone 5, but they could only sell it at full price. However, they had some perks that went with it that other stores weren't offering at the time, and you could open a WM account, have 18 months interest free, get $20 off the price, and they would reduce the StraightTalk cost from $45/month to $25/month for 1 year. I'm not sure whether or not that's still an option, but it was a good deal.

 

[skatalite]

Thanks!

We definitely don't want to leave T-Mo because me and my wife's part of the family plan is only $65 for the both of us, and it includes unlimited data and texting. So, you can see why we want to stay, because it's cheaper than all major alternatives.

 

[mommyrosa2]

Hey all!

My wife, father, mother and I are all on a family plan through T-Mobile. We have a heck of a plan so we're not wanting to leave T-Mo unless absolutely necessary... But they no longer offer phone discounts for contract extensions, so new phones cost the full sticker price.

Considering my wife and I use smartphones, I'm curious if anyone has any tips on places/times to look for new phones and get the best prices.

Maybe Black Friday? I know some stores/carriers offer good deals, but usually with contract extensions.

Any help/tips would be appreciated! Thanks.

We too have a great family plan with Tmobile and just today went looking for an upgraded phone. I can tell you that you do NOT have to pay full price for a phone. If you know for sure you're not switching you can still do a traditional upgrade with a 2 yr extension. I'm actually looking at the galaxy S III - and went to Walmart today. My "traditional" upgrade is as of 5/25 (next wk). I'll be going to Walmart and paying 79.99 for the S III and that's it...my plan won't increase or change but I will have to extend my contract for another 2 years which I don't mind as I've been with TMobile for over 8 years and I already know there is no other cell carrier that can match my family plan cost. Hope that helps!

 

[skatalite]

We too have a great family plan with Tmobile and just today went looking for an upgraded phone. I can tell you that you do NOT have to pay full price for a phone. If you know for sure you're not switching you can still do a traditional upgrade with a 2 yr extension. I'm actually looking at the galaxy S III - and went to Walmart today. My "traditional" upgrade is as of 5/25 (next wk). I'll be going to Walmart and paying 79.99 for the S III and that's it...my plan won't increase or change but I will have to extend my contract for another 2 years which I don't mind as I've been with TMobile for over 8 years and I already know there is no other cell carrier that can match my family plan cost. Hope that helps!

That's awesome news. Thanks!

 

[DisneyRunner2009]

My family just signed up with Tmobile. A few of us bought the Nexus 4 off the google website. Doing it this way was cheaper than Tmobile's price. I just took the phone in there and had to pay the $10 sim card fee. The LG Optimus can be purchased at Target or Walmart for about $200.

 

[Taylor'sMom]

We recently upgraded our phones. DH did a lot of research for purchasing direct through AT&T, versus going to BestBuy,WalMart, etc.
He found the best deal at Radio Shack. About $100 cheaper than anywhere else. He got the Samsung Note II and I got the Samsung galaxy S3 (I didn't care to wait for the S4, only to pay a lot more).
We weren't even due for our 18-month upgrade until another month but the RadioShack guy called their AT&T rep and they waived it so we got the upgrade and signed the new term. in addition to the $100 savings they had over other stores, they had a promo for a free $10 credit for a future purchase, and I traded my old phone in for another $50. So I just used that $60 credit towards a new point-and-shoot camera (needed one anyway)... and got another $10 credit! The camera had a promo for a free bag and SD card. All-in-all, glad we went with RadioShack. And I'll be going back to use my $10 credit on SOMETHING. Min. $10 purchase, so it's like free money.

Without a contract, try WalMart?

 

[Sheaboys]

We too have a great family plan with Tmobile and just today went looking for an upgraded phone. I can tell you that you do NOT have to pay full price for a phone. If you know for sure you're not switching you can still do a traditional upgrade with a 2 yr extension. I'm actually looking at the galaxy S III - and went to Walmart today. My "traditional" upgrade is as of 5/25 (next wk). I'll be going to Walmart and paying 79.99 for the S III and that's it...my plan won't increase or change but I will have to extend my contract for another 2 years which I don't mind as I've been with TMobile for over 8 years and I already know there is no other cell carrier that can match my family plan cost. Hope that helps!

So in reading this, I can buy a phone at Walmart or where ever, and my plan with Verizon does not change. The minute I upgrade my phone, I would have to change my plan with Verizon if I upgrade through Verizon. So to get around that, I can buy a phone else where? Is that right???

 

[mommyrosa2]

So in reading this, I can buy a phone at Walmart or where ever, and my plan with Verizon does not change. The minute I upgrade my phone, I would have to change my plan with Verizon if I upgrade through Verizon. So to get around that, I can buy a phone else where? Is that right???

No...I was specifically referencing a traditional upgrade/contract extension as a current TMobile customer. I have no idea how Verizon handles their upgrades.