Samsung cash, Promotions, Pre-Order gotcha

[KPMcClave]

That makes no sense. I've been with Verizon for over 15 years with no plan to leave. I choose to stay with Verizon, they didn't trick me.

Exactly. Whether anyone likes or dislikes the way they have replaced the old 2-year-contract-with-a-"free"-phone model with interest free financing over time, who the heck doesn't clearly understand it's essentially the same thing. Do it or don't, but nobody is being tricked. Not liking an option doesnt mean you don't udnerstand it.

 

[tismydroid]

Because it's 36 month lock in disguised as $1000.

Imagine you were selling your phone independently for a grand and the buyer said they would pay you in 36 installments of $27 a month and if you leave your current carrier, they can stop paying you. Would you accept that as a reasonable offer?

Is it a 36 month lock in? I know the financing is spread out over 36 months at 0% interest but can't you pay it off in two years if you want? Isn't their only requirement that a phone has to be paid off before you can upgrade to a new phone? It also seems like there was an option to have 24 or 36 month financing?

 

[danhartman26]

Is it a 36 month lock in? I know the financing is spread out over 36 months at 0% interest but can't you pay it off in two years if you want? Isn't their only requirement that a phone has to be paid off before you can upgrade to a new phone? It also seems like there was an option to have 24 or 36 month financing?

It's bill credits. If you want out of the contract you have to pay the full price; essentially giving up the credits / discount.

It works for some people, but I paid to get out of that deal on a couple of phones a few years ago. Now I finance through Samsung directly and I'm happy. With Samsung trade in values, it works for me.

I've been with Verizon for over 20 years with no plans to leave, but I still like not being locked in with a big payout if I do decide to leave.

 

[tismydroid]

It's bill credits. If you want out of the contract you have to pay the full price; essentially giving up the credits / discount.

It works for some people, but I paid to get out of that deal on a couple of phones a few years ago. Now I finance through Samsung directly and I'm happy. With Samsung trade in values, it works for me.

I've been with Verizon for over 20 years with no plans to leave, but I still like not being locked in with a big payout if I do decide to leave.

Bill credits? I've had the two year financing for many many phones. I've paid in full prior to the 2 year expiration so that I could upgrade early and didn't lose any discounts or the 0%. It seems the only requirement is that you pay in full if you change carriers or want to upgrade and doing so doesn't relinquish your discounts or the 0%. Doesn't seem like a contract that's forcing you to stay in their plan for the three year duration.

 

[RapidTurtle]

If you pay off the phone, then yes, you are giving up those monthly credits. Say the phone is $25 a month for 2 years. You decide you want a new phone after year one. Then you pay the remaining balance of the phone, which then does away with your $25 monthly credit for the phone.
So this is just like a contract. You have to pay off the phone to get out of it, or stay with it, and then it's yours after the 2 years.

 

[danhartman26]

Bill credits? I've had the two year financing for many many phones. I've paid in full prior to the 2 year expiration so that I could upgrade early and didn't lose any discounts or the 0%. It seems the only requirement is that you pay in full if you change carriers or want to upgrade and doing so doesn't relinquish your discounts or the 0%. Doesn't seem like a contract that's forcing you to stay in their plan for the three year duration.

In my case I was getting bill credits - for the sake of argument let's call it $15/mo; then when I wanted to upgrade I had to pay $15 (that would have been credits - costing me nothing) times the number of months left on the agreement.

To be clear, I am not opposed to using this deal, and it works for some people. I just decided I prefer to not be locked into that contract.

If you don't believe me, read any article about these carrier deals - You will find that the whole reason they do this is to lock customers into spending a monthly fee for an extended period of time.

 

[trucksmoveamerica#AC]

Verizon is bill credits, Samsung is usually flat out zero interest financing and you can pay it off early without losing anything. Verizon you will lose remaining monthly credits not applied if you pay off early.

 

[tismydroid]

Darn, I never got bill credits. If the phone cost $1000, I could pay it in equal payments over the course of 24 months (41.67/mo) or 36 months (27.78/mo). My phone costs the same whether I pay it in 20 months, 24 months or 36 months.

 

[trucksmoveamerica#AC]

Darn, I never got bill credits. If the phone cost $1000, I could pay it in equal payments over the course of 24 months (41.67/mo) or 36 months (27.78/mo). My phone costs the same whether I pay it in 20 months, 24 months or 36 months.

Verizon or Samsung financing?

 

[tismydroid]

Currently, I have Samsung financing on my phone and Verizon financing on the other three phones. Before the S22 U, I always had Verizon financing.

 

[J Dubbs]

How are they making me pay more than I otherwise would've? I got a $1,000 trade-in crtedit that will be equally paid out over 36 months. There is no interest added. I'm ultimately paying ~$300 for the phone whether I get the lump sum up front or in installements every month for three years.

I understand complaints about the length of the payment contract. I understand the preference to want the money up front. However, I don't see where they're making anyone pay more.

My point was that you need to be on a qualifying plan.... the type of plan that a lot of folks don't need, but upgrade to anyway to get the big trade in money, and all the other enticements, then stay locked in to that plan. When you're paying for a more expensive plan than you really need for years, the perceived money you saved up front doesn't end up being that much.

Now if someone wants the big monthly phone bill and actually uses their plan to the max, then you can save money on new phones, and your carrier will be happy. Most folks I know though pay for way more phone plan than they actually use... so every month that's money wasted. And that wasted money eats up the perceived up front savings.

There's a YouTube channel called Payette Forward that does an excellent job of breaking down the ultimate cost over 3 years of these deals. I recommend folks check it out... very informative

 

[VidJunky]

Well if anyone is wondering, I refused the package by calling FedEx the day before delivery. I have the FedEx app and had already started getting delivery updates. Once I'd made the call I simultaneously started getting delivery delayed notices and progress notices allowing me to watch the package travel back across the country to it's shipping center. It arrived Thursday and Friday/Saturday I received an email saying that my code was restored and eligible for use.

My new order is expected in 2 weeks, no harm no foul, almost no effort.

I noticed some mentioning Verizon credits. We recently returned to Verizon after a short trial of AT&T. Of course we were BYOD which gave us $500 per device. The nice thing with Verizon credit is it comes as unexpiring gift cards. The crappy thing about it is they're nothing more than store credit but at least credit you can pay your bill with. As someone mentioned about the Samsung credit, it just makes you spend money you wouldn't have trying to use all the credit, and they were right. I ended up spending less than a month's Verizon bill, on top of the Samsung credit I used. So in a way the Verizon credit freed up $ and kinda paid for my Samsung stuff.

 

[trucksmoveamerica#AC]

Well if anyone is wondering, I refused the package by calling FedEx the day before delivery. I have the FedEx app and had already started getting delivery updates. Once I'd made the call I simultaneously started getting delivery delayed notices and progress notices allowing me to watch the package travel back across the country to it's shipping center. It arrived Thursday and Friday/Saturday I received an email saying that my code was restored and eligible for use.

My new order is expected in 2 weeks, no harm no foul, almost no effort.

You played a dangerous game and this time you got lucky. I'm glad it worked out for you, I found a few it did not.

 

[Mike Dee]

I thought when you tried to use the promo money that it tells you at checkout you have to use it all or you lose it?

I could be wrong. It's been awhile since I've done the Samsung promo thing.

It does

 

[Mike Dee]

Geez. That's such a grimey way of doing business. I don't care if that's how it's always been, it shouldn't be like that ever.

There is a prompt that tells you will lose it. You can't partially use a promo code like you can with gift cards.

 

[tismydroid]

My point was that you need to be on a qualifying plan.... the type of plan that a lot of folks don't need, but upgrade to anyway to get the big trade in money, and all the other enticements, then stay locked in to that plan. When you're paying for a more expensive plan than you really need for years, the perceived money you saved up front doesn't end up being that much.

Now if someone wants the big monthly phone bill and actually uses their plan to the max, then you can save money on new phones, and your carrier will be happy. Most folks I know though pay for way more phone plan than they actually use... so every month that's money wasted. And that wasted money eats up the perceived up front savings.

There's a YouTube channel called Payette Forward that does an excellent job of breaking down the ultimate cost over 3 years of these deals. I recommend folks check it out... very informative

In the recent past (6 years or more)I have not had to change my plan to take advantage of most of Verizon's promo's. My plan has not changed in several years despite taking advantage of promo phone incentives via Verizon. The last time I used a Verizon trade-in promo was last September for Z flip 3. Currently I pay $35/month for 5G unlimited everything for each phone. I can't see any benefits to upgrading this plan and don't see what more it could be upgraded to. Several years ago, withVerizon, you paid $20 less for any phone that was not under contract. And usually it was under contract because it was on a 2 year payment plan. I have noticed promo's in the past where it was buy one get one free but it involved adding another line on your account which was required (contracted) to be on your account for two years. If you cancelled that line, you had to pay a pro-rated balance for the phone. I never got a monthly credit though. Over the course of two years, a $15 credit would be a $360 savings. But if I had to change my plan to a more expensive one, then definitely not worth it.

 

[MoreDef]

There is a prompt that tells you will lose it. You can't partially use a promo code like you can with gift cards.

Right, but there's no reason it should be that way at all. Literally no reason why you can't use part of it, and no reason why it can only go towards certain things in the store. It's not credit when they're telling you how and what to spend it on. Especially when you're choices are highly expensive things that you can easily get for way cheaper...like cases and a quality set of earbuds. I stand by the fact that it's predatory and grimey because they're steering you either towards one of their over priced items, or manipulating you into spending more in order to use the entire gift card for fear of leaving money on the table. It's the old gambler's addiction of throwing money at a bad situation. Example:
You have $200. Earbuds cost $150. A case costs $60. Do you spend $10 more dollars to get both. Of course you do, except now you're a sucker who spent $60 on a case because you didn't want to "waste" $50. In reality, they got you to spend $10 trying to get earbuds and conned you into buying an overpriced case because you didn't want to "lose" money. It's a crap way to give anyone "credit" and anyone who's tried to do the math to try and figure out how to ONLY use the credit without overspending or leaving anything behind knows this.

 

[KPMcClave]

My point was that you need to be on a qualifying plan.... the type of plan that a lot of folks don't need, but upgrade to anyway to get the big trade in money, and all the other enticements, then stay locked in to that plan. When you're paying for a more expensive plan than you really need for years, the perceived money you saved up front doesn't end up being that much.

Now if someone wants the big monthly phone bill and actually uses their plan to the max, then you can save money on new phones, and your carrier will be happy. Most folks I know though pay for way more phone plan than they actually use... so every month that's money wasted. And that wasted money eats up the perceived up front savings.

There's a YouTube channel called Payette Forward that does an excellent job of breaking down the ultimate cost over 3 years of these deals. I recommend folks check it out... very informative

That's a good point. I know in my current situation, I'm only paying around 8 bucks a month for the S22 Ultra because of the big trade-in credit (which was unheard of up to this purchase). So, even adding 10 bucks for a higher tier, in my situation, is a good deal short and long term. Then there's the tipping point of when I decide to upgrade next.

I won't hold my breath on this becoming the norm.

 

[KPMcClave]

In the recent past (6 years or more)I have not had to change my plan to take advantage of most of Verizon's promo's. My plan has not changed in several years despite taking advantage of promo phone incentives via Verizon. The last time I used a Verizon trade-in promo was last September for Z flip 3. Currently I pay $35/month for 5G unlimited everything for each phone. I can't see any benefits to upgrading this plan and don't see what more it could be upgraded to. Several years ago, withVerizon, you paid $20 less for any phone that was not under contract. And usually it was under contract because it was on a 2 year payment plan. I have noticed promo's in the past where it was buy one get one free but it involved adding another line on your account which was required (contracted) to be on your account for two years. If you cancelled that line, you had to pay a pro-rated balance for the phone. I never got a monthly credit though. Over the course of two years, a $15 credit would be a $360 savings. But if I had to change my plan to a more expensive one, then definitely not worth it.

The only reason it works financially (forgetting any other factors) to upgrade and have to up your tier to get a promo is when they give you a ridiculous trade-in credit as they did this time around. I got $1,000 for my S20 FE, so I'm saving more on the credits than I have to pay for the $10 more per month higher tier. My bill is actually lower now than it was before I got the S22 Ultra.

Of course, there would be a tipping point at some point If I upgraded too soon and forfeited the remaining monthly credits.

 

[KPMcClave]

Right, but there's no reason it should be that way at all. Literally no reason why you can't use part of it, and no reason why it can only go towards certain things in the store. It's not credit when they're telling you how and what to spend it on. Especially when you're choices are highly expensive things that you can easily get for way cheaper...like cases and a quality set of earbuds. I stand by the fact that it's predatory and grimey because they're steering you either towards one of their over priced items, or manipulating you into spending more in order to use the entire gift card for fear of leaving money on the table. It's the old gambler's addiction of throwing money at a bad situation. Example:
You have $200. Earbuds cost $150. A case costs $60. Do you spend $10 more dollars to get both. Of course you do, except now you're a sucker who spent $60 on a case because you didn't want to "waste" $50. In reality, they got you to spend $10 trying to get earbuds and conned you into buying an overpriced case because you didn't want to "lose" money. It's a crap way to give anyone "credit" and anyone who's tried to do the math to try and figure out how to ONLY use the credit without overspending or leaving anything behind knows this.

Well, there's a big difference between not understanding or noticing you have to use the credit all at once, and simply not liking the terms of your extra stuff. You seem to be complaining about the latter.