I think I have the AT&T Next versus two year contract differences down, but I am not getting straight answers from the AT&T rep on my questions (surprised?). I am hoping for clarification and what not:
For the sake of this discussion I am talking about getting the LG G3 (though I am not sure yet to be honest).
Traditional two year contract:
Pay $200 up front
Pay $40 Activation fee
Pay $40 monthly for data plan (I am on the low data plan, I do not use too much data).
Overall this ends up being $240 up front (plus taxes), then $960 total over the course of two years for the data plan. So basically a total of $1200 of the phone/data and I do get to keep this phone after the two years.
NEXT 12:
Pay taxes up front
Pay $29/month for the phone
Pay $25/month for data
After 12 months I trade in for a new phone: At this point I would have paid $648 for the phone/data, but do not get to keep it (but do get a new phone)
OR I can pay for 20 months to keep the phone: Paying a total of $1080 for the phone/data (but I do get to keep the phone and will no longer be on contract)
NEXT 18:
Pay taxes up front
Pay $24.17/month for the phone
Pay $25/month for data
After 18 months I can trade in for a new phone: At this point I would have paid $885.06, but dont keep the phone (can trade for new phone)
OR I can pay for 24 months to keep the phone, bringing my total to $1180.08 for the phone/data (keep the phone, no contract, with options for new phones at that time)
Am I getting this down correctly?
Am I wrong in saying the NEXT 12 plan is the better deal here? If I want the phone and dont care about "wasting" my investment of $680 I can get a new phone in 12 months. But if I like the phone and want to eventually keep it, after 20 months its paid off and I am no longer under contract, correct?
AM I wrong in thinking that the traditional plan is the worse plan no matter how I look at it? Assuming I keep either the NEXT12 or 18 plans for 24 months, I would be paying $1180 overall, whilst paying $1200 for the traditional plan. That is 20 more overall (not much considering 2 years), BUT no option to get a newer phone before that...
My other question is that assuming I pay NEXT 12 for 20 months, and keep the phone and stick with my services with AT&T will my data plan go back up to 40/month or will it stay at 25/month? ***For the record I assumed this is true, the data stays at 25/month when I made all of my above calculations...
These numbers are spinning my brain around too much. As I said before I think I have it down, but I have spun around too much and am worried I am overlooking something.
For the sake of this discussion I am talking about getting the LG G3 (though I am not sure yet to be honest).
Traditional two year contract:
Pay $200 up front
Pay $40 Activation fee
Pay $40 monthly for data plan (I am on the low data plan, I do not use too much data).
Overall this ends up being $240 up front (plus taxes), then $960 total over the course of two years for the data plan. So basically a total of $1200 of the phone/data and I do get to keep this phone after the two years.
NEXT 12:
Pay taxes up front
Pay $29/month for the phone
Pay $25/month for data
After 12 months I trade in for a new phone: At this point I would have paid $648 for the phone/data, but do not get to keep it (but do get a new phone)
OR I can pay for 20 months to keep the phone: Paying a total of $1080 for the phone/data (but I do get to keep the phone and will no longer be on contract)
NEXT 18:
Pay taxes up front
Pay $24.17/month for the phone
Pay $25/month for data
After 18 months I can trade in for a new phone: At this point I would have paid $885.06, but dont keep the phone (can trade for new phone)
OR I can pay for 24 months to keep the phone, bringing my total to $1180.08 for the phone/data (keep the phone, no contract, with options for new phones at that time)
Am I getting this down correctly?
Am I wrong in saying the NEXT 12 plan is the better deal here? If I want the phone and dont care about "wasting" my investment of $680 I can get a new phone in 12 months. But if I like the phone and want to eventually keep it, after 20 months its paid off and I am no longer under contract, correct?
AM I wrong in thinking that the traditional plan is the worse plan no matter how I look at it? Assuming I keep either the NEXT12 or 18 plans for 24 months, I would be paying $1180 overall, whilst paying $1200 for the traditional plan. That is 20 more overall (not much considering 2 years), BUT no option to get a newer phone before that...
My other question is that assuming I pay NEXT 12 for 20 months, and keep the phone and stick with my services with AT&T will my data plan go back up to 40/month or will it stay at 25/month? ***For the record I assumed this is true, the data stays at 25/month when I made all of my above calculations...
These numbers are spinning my brain around too much. As I said before I think I have it down, but I have spun around too much and am worried I am overlooking something.
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