How does Best Buy trade-in work now?

[phillthedrill]

So, with the S22 coming out at either the end of December (what's been talked about on Twitter) or January, how does the Best Buy trade in program work now? I haven't traded a phone since the Note 10+ came out. I've heard they don't trade in your phone at the store now. They give you something to send it to Verizon (my carrier). I'm getting differing answers. Does anyone know if you do an upgrade for a new phone, say when the S22 Ultra comes out at Best Buy and still keep your plan without upgrading? I know Verizon always wants you to upgrade to their 5G plan. The thing is, I still have grandfathered unlimited data and I don't want to lose that. What I did before was trade in my old phone at Best Buy, get the new one for around $650 or so and then use my Best Buy card to pay that and then make monthly payments to pay off the phone with a 2-year interest free. They don't do that anymore, right? If not and they send it in and it gets credited to my bill cycle every month, how do I keep the plan I'm on without switching to 5G? Or do you have to buy it outright and not get any discounts or trade-in options? Anyone know?

 

[trucksmoveamerica#AC]

So, with the S22 coming out at either the end of December (what's been talked about on Twitter) or January, how does the Best Buy trade in program work now? I haven't traded a phone since the Note 10+ came out. I've heard they don't trade in your phone at the store now. They give you something to send it to Verizon (my carrier). I'm getting differing answers. Does anyone know if you do an upgrade for a new phone, say when the S22 Ultra comes out at Best Buy and still keep your plan without upgrading? I know Verizon always wants you to upgrade to their 5G plan. The thing is, I still have grandfathered unlimited data and I don't want to lose that. What I did before was trade in my old phone at Best Buy, get the new one for around $650 or so and then use my Best Buy card to pay that and then make monthly payments to pay off the phone with a 2-year interest free. They don't do that anymore, right? If not and they send it in and it gets credited to my bill cycle every month, how do I keep the plan I'm on without switching to 5G? Or do you have to buy it outright and not get any discounts or trade-in options? Anyone know?

This is a loaded question. Verizon isn't forcing 5G yet, they will down the road, so your grandfather unlimited I'm sure will be gone at that point. Verizon usually requires a 5G plan to get certain promos or a new line. The promo is usually cut in half without those things, and yes Verizon always gives the promo, including the trade in as monthly credits. Then you throw best buy in there as a pre-order location and it can get messy getting the phone.

With you having the grandfathered unlimited I thought you pretty much lost Verizon's promo pricing, did that change? I don't know, I gave up a few years ago paying extra and no promos to keep that unlimited, for me I haven't messed it. You ever look at ordering direct thru Samsung and getting the unlocked? You get the trade in 100% up front plus Samsung's promos. I'm not sure how best buy does the promos for unlocked version. I don't think they are as good at the pricing as Samsung is for the unlocked phones, but I would check the unlocked phones out, you get rid of Verizon's control on pricing structure that way.

 

[phillthedrill]

The best promos at the time came from Best Buy when I was getting the Note 10+. Everyone was saying the way to sidestep going through the carrier to keep unlimited was to go through a 3rd party like Best Buy. I was still able to get the full promos on the Note 10+ when I traded in the Note 8 that I had. But all of it was done in the store. I didn't have to send anything in to Verizon in order to get any credits. The credits Best Buy gave me were right away when I traded in my old phone. All Best Buy did was apply the credits which dropped the phone to around $650. I called their bank and got the bank to give me an extra year with no interest since Best Buy was only offering 12 months no interest at the time. The bank gladly did it right there over the phone. I had to pay taxes on the phone at the full amount the phone was. Probably around $1200. So it was $650 plus tax on the $1200. I used my Best Buy card to pay it. That was the way to save my grandfathered plan. I'm not sure how it's done now.

 

[danhartman26]

If you go to Samsung directly they will give you the trade in up front, plus they offer interest free financing. You send the trade in back after you get the new phone...

I went unlocked with my Note 20 Ultra on Verizon last year and I love it. No more bill credits, or big payouts if I want to pay the phone off early. I actually paid mine off after a couple of months because I could afford it, but with a 36 month plan you can get that monthly payment down to almost nothing.

I highly recommend at least looking at the option.

 

[pduffer]

I've bought my last 5 phones unlocked directly from Samsung. They also provide 2 years interest free financing if you need it. If/when I decide to replace my Note 20 5g I'll purchase the next one the same way. With an unlocked phone you can use it with any carrier.

 

[vnmous1]

Just bought 2 Note 20 Ultras direct from Sammie. Traded in Note 10+ for $450 off, $100 instant cash off, $50 Samsung gift card. Paid $650 for the Note 20 Ultra 5G (unlocked) with no down, no fees and 0 interest for 36 with no pre-pay penalty. They pay for the shipping for trade in.
VZW waived access fee to keep us as customers since we had options. No VZW bloatware.

I will never do a carrier phone again

 

[mustang7757]

Just bought 2 Note 20 Ultras direct from Sammie. Traded in Note 10+ for $450 off, $100 instant cash off, $50 Samsung gift card. Paid $650 for the Note 20 Ultra 5G (unlocked) with no down, no fees and 0 interest for 36 with no pre-pay penalty. They pay for the shipping for trade in.
VZW waived access fee to keep us as customers since we had options. No VZW bloatware.

I will never do a carrier phone again

Nice , i agree unlocked version for awhile now .

 

[BerryBubbles]

After going through a 'mock' trade-in from this Best Buy trade-in site:

https://tradein.bestbuy.com/client/#/catalog


The following details are revealed:

"Take your trade-in item to a Best Buy store near you or mail in your item to receive an e-Gift Card for the value of your trade-in."

So it appears that they have changed things up a little.

 

[phillthedrill]

VZW waived access fee

When you say they waived the access fee, are you talking about the $40 upgrade charge? And if so, how did you get them to do that? Everytime I call Verizon, I ask for the loyalty dept and still get transferred overseas and they can never really understand me. Verizon has really gone downhill big time!

 

[phillthedrill]

So I finally got a hold of someone knowledgeable at Best Buy. He said the trade-ins are basically the same as they always have been. The only thing is, if you want to trade in, say....right now, Verizon offers $800 for a trade in for an old phone such as the S10+ to get a S21 Ultra. This is definitely more than Best Buy offers. In that case, you can still trade in at the store but you have to ship your phone to Verizon and then they put that $800 on your bill credits every month. He said for brand new phones when they offer huge discounts for preorders, I can still keep my plan as I have now and just come in at the store and trade it in as it was done in the past. I was relieved.

 

[trucksmoveamerica#AC]

When you say they waived the access fee, are you talking about the $40 upgrade charge? And if so, how did you get them to do that? Everytime I call Verizon, I ask for the loyalty dept and still get transferred overseas and they can never really understand me. Verizon has really gone downhill big time!

If he is talking about the $40 activation fee, it is possible to not pay that. You have to buy a unlocked phone and use your SIM card from your current phone. Throw the sim card that came with the unlocked phone away.

Getting Verizon to wave the activation fee is about impossible now days, in fact they are usually charging it up front now to avoid the calls month later from people claiming they were not told about that fee getting them waived.

 

[phillthedrill]

Problem with that though is you don't get the discounts you would if you have the phone activated. Best Buy has an "activate today" and then it's cheaper that way with discounts. Otherwise you forfeit the discounts.