Subsidizing your N5

[JonK]

So my contract with VZW ends most conveniently this month. While I have enjoyed this LTE network with my GNex, the N5 looks too hot to pass up. I'll be switching to ATT and picking up a N5 from the play store (even if it is sold through carriers I don't much fancy a ATT logo on my nexus). Presumably I will be staying on ATT for a while. To me it seems like if you are with a carrier for two years and never signed a contract you just forfeited a few hundred dollars. My plan is to buy a phone with a contract, sell it on ebay, and pop the SIM into my N5. If I want to leave early, the ETF is less than the typical smartphone subsidy (and prorated), so worst case scenario I break even.

How many have done this in the past? I gotta shop around and see what phone would make the most profit (going price on ebay minus on contract price from ATT) but I assume it would likely be the iphone 5s. I have heard the ithing comes with the SIM already installed. Does this mean I would have to open the box to get my SIM (affecting the potential sale price)? How open should I be with ATT about my intentions? Do they care about people doing this? Not like its cheating them or anything. Just trying to get the same benefit all the other customers get.. Thanks for any input.

 

[Haalcyon]

I don't find this nefarious at all. AT&T has zillions of dollars. You and I don't. I'm a self-confessed gadget and phone more and sometimes you gotta do what ya gotta do to get the gadget (as long as it's not illegal). ...just my .000002 cents.

 

[anon(5716633)]

To me it seems like if you are with a carrier for two years and never signed a contract you just forfeited a few hundred dollars.

Why not just go prepaid with AT&T GoPhone? It's the same AT&T service for less money and no contract.

Prepaid Cell Phone Plans, GoPhone Plans, & Prepaid Smartphone plans from AT&T

 

[JonK]

Why not just go prepaid with AT&T GoPhone? It's the same AT&T service for less money and no contract.

Prepaid Cell Phone Plans, GoPhone Plans, & Prepaid Smartphone plans from AT&T

Hmm. That is an interesting option. Unfortunately for me that would not save me any money. I dont use a lot of minutes and I use google voice so my texts are already free. So the comparison is:

Regular plan: 450 minutes for $40, 3GB for $30 = $70
GoPhone: Unlimited minutes (which I dont need), unlimited messages (which I dont need), and 2GB for $60, additional 1GB for $10 = $70

Even if I stayed under 2GB per month (which I dont) the most it could save me is $240 over a 24 month term. That is still less than the subsidy you get for signing a contract. Id rather sign the contract and get something out of it. Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[itic]

Why not save yourself the hassle of buying and then selling a phone just for the SIM. Since the contract is over you should be able to go month to month. I did it on AT&T while i shopped around and bought my N4. Then buy the N5 and take it to AT&T and sign a contract. Then sell the verizon phone.

 

[ttwiitch]

Great idea!

Sent from my SPH-L710

 

[JonK]

Why not save yourself the hassle of buying and then selling a phone just for the SIM. Since the contract is over you should be able to go month to month. I did it on AT&T while i shopped around and bought my N4. Then buy the N5 and take it to AT&T and sign a contract. Then sell the verizon phone.

Im not buying and selling a phone for the SIM. Im buying and selling a phone for the subsidy. Im not saying sign a contract with VZW. That would be pointless. I want to switch to ATT and sign a contract with ATT and get the phone subsidy that comes with that. But since they dont sell the phone I want, I buy some other phone at a discount, sell it at full price, and use that money toward the phone I really want. I guess no one else does this? I thought it would have been common practice when buying a phone from the play store. It only makes sense. Like I said, if you are with a carrier for two years and didnt sign a contract, you just passed down a $300+ loyalty bonus..

 

[anon(5716633)]

Hmm. That is an interesting option. Unfortunately for me that would not save me any money. I dont use a lot of minutes and I use google voice so my texts are already free. So the comparison is:

Regular plan: 450 minutes for $40, 3GB for $30 = $70
GoPhone: Unlimited minutes (which I dont need), unlimited messages (which I dont need), and 2GB for $60, additional 1GB for $10 = $70

Even if I stayed under 2GB per month (which I dont) the most it could save me is $240 over a 24 month term. That is still less than the subsidy you get for signing a contract. Id rather sign the contract and get something out of it. Thanks for the suggestion though.

I guess no one else does this? I thought it would have been common practice when buying a phone from the play store. It only makes sense. Like I said, if you are with a carrier for two years and didnt sign a contract, you just passed down a $300+ loyalty bonus..

I see. It's a good deal for me because I use normal text messaging and I'm on WiFi most of the time. Text messaging is another $20, which makes the plan $90 a month before tax. The savings for me is about $720 over 24 months, which is a better deal for me than doing what you're talking about. Plus I've been getting a new phone every year for the last few years, so like you said it would just break even after paying the ETF and then I would have passed on the savings I would have had by going prepaid.

It does make sense for someone who uses Google Voice for text messaging or uses a lot of data, but otherwise someone would save quite a bit more by going prepaid.

 

[Tech First]

You could always try the LTE AT&T sim from straight talk, its about $45 a month for unlimited voice/txt and 2.5gb of high speed data. Customer service is pretty awful from what i hear but fortunately I have not needed to use it.

Something im looking forward to doing is testing out AT&T, Tmo and possibly sprint pre paid plans on the N5

 

[JasW]

Im not buying and selling a phone for the SIM. Im buying and selling a phone for the subsidy. Im not saying sign a contract with VZW. That would be pointless. I want to switch to ATT and sign a contract with ATT and get the phone subsidy that comes with that. But since they dont sell the phone I want, I buy some other phone at a discount, sell it at full price, and use that money toward the phone I really want. I guess no one else does this? I thought it would have been common practice when buying a phone from the play store. It only makes sense. Like I said, if you are with a carrier for two years and didnt sign a contract, you just passed down a $300+ loyalty bonus..

Sure, I've done it, although just when I want a new phone halfway into the 2-year contract with AT&T. So the phone I end up selling isn't the one with the highest resale value because it's one I actually want to use (and that's never been an iPhone). For example, right now I have a Note 2 that is less than a year old. Both the Note 3 and the Nexus 5 have my eye. If I sell my Note 2 on eBay, I'll probably only get $350 for it, from what I've seen. That means covering the other $350 for an off-contract Note 3 or $0-$50 for a Nexus 5. People do this all of the time, and I would think nothing of doing what you plan on doing. And since the iPhone 5S will undoubtedly have the highest resale value -- particularly a never-used one -- you're obviously going to make a little profit. AT&T doesn't care -- they just want you locked into that contract. Pop the SIM from the iPhone with the little tool that comes with it or use a paper clip -- you won't affect the resale value -- and enjoy your Nexus 5.

 

[itic]

excuse me but im new to this. So you get the subsidized phone with a new contract and sell it but continue to make payments on it over the length of the contract that came with the subsidized phone even though your not using that phone? Am i sitll missing the point?

 

[JonK]

You could always try the LTE AT&T sim from straight talk, its about $45 a month for unlimited voice/txt and 2.5gb of high speed data. Customer service is pretty awful from what i hear but fortunately I have not needed to use it.

Something im looking forward to doing is testing out AT&T, Tmo and possibly sprint pre paid plans on the N5

Hmm. Another interesting option, thanks for the tip! The downside here is that data stops at 2.5GB (you get 2G after that.. virtually unusable), unlike a regular plan where you pay $10 to get another chunk of 4G. I occasionally go over 2.5 so this one wouldn't work for me. Great option otherwise though.

Sure, I've done it, although just when I want a new phone halfway into the 2-year contract with AT&T. So the phone I end up selling isn't the one with the highest resale value because it's one I actually want to use (and that's never been an iPhone). For example, right now I have a Note 2 that is less than a year old. Both the Note 3 and the Nexus 5 have my eye. If I sell my Note 2 on eBay, I'll probably only get $350 for it, from what I've seen. That means covering the other $350 for an off-contract Note 3 or $0-$50 for a Nexus 5. People do this all of the time, and I would think nothing of doing what you plan on doing. And since the iPhone 5S will undoubtedly have the highest resale value -- particularly a never-used one -- you're obviously going to make a little profit. AT&T doesn't care -- they just want you locked into that contract. Pop the SIM from the iPhone with the little tool that comes with it or use a paper clip -- you won't affect the resale value -- and enjoy your Nexus 5.

Thanks for the tips! Another thing to note is that the iphone has a nano sim so I would need an adapter. Maybe I could convince the store rep to sell me the iphone but give me a separate SIM and leave the iphone sim inactivated.

excuse me but im new to this. So you get the subsidized phone with a new contract and sell it but continue to make payments on it over the length of the contract that came with the subsidized phone even though your not using that phone? Am i sitll missing the point?

You would not continue to make payments on the subsidized phone. You bought it up front and sold it at a profit. That is the point. It goes like this:

Customer A: Typical ATT customer buying a $300 phone that sells:
Customer signs a 2 year contract and therefore gets the $300 dollar phone for free. They pay $70 a month for service.
Total cost (for a phone and 2 years of service): $1680

Customer B: ATT customer buying a $300 nexus:
Since ATT does not sell the nexus, customer pays full price ($300) for the phone but signs no contract. They then pay $70 a month for service.
Total cost (for a phone and 2 years of service): $1980

Since the person buying the nexus didnt want a phone that ATT offered they could not sign a contract, pass go, and collect $300. So, in order to get a nexus and still get the benefit of signing a contract:

Customer C: Clever ATT customer buying a $300 nexus:
Customer signs a 2 year contract and gets a popular $300 dollar phone for free. Customer sells the phone on ebay making $300. Customer then buys nexus from play store for $300. They pay $70 a month for service.
Total cost (for a phone and 2 years of service): $1680

Sure, customer B had the freedom of not being on a contract. Yay. Dont they feel good about themselves. Customer C had the same exact phone and got the same service for $300 less. Plus if customer C decided they wanted to leave ATT, they pay the ETF (which starts at about the same price of the phone subsidy and is prorated) and at the worst case (if they decide to break contract the day after joining) they end up at the same place as customer B. Make sense?

 

[ne0ne]

Another small issue to consider is the size of the SIM card. This is what I would do.

Let them activate the iPhone with the Nano SIM that it comes with. Do not even open the box.

Once that's said and done, tell the guy you want a Micro SIM activated on your account. The att stores don't Charge for sim replacements.

Or buy a really nice nano to micro SIM adapter , however if you are simply only going to use the nexus 5 then don't bother and get att to activate a microsim card for ya.


Here is a quick write up I did regarding the German made nano to micro sim adapter I use.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

 

[Shilohcane]

Hmm. Another interesting option, thanks for the tip!

Customer B: ATT customer buying a $300 nexus:
Since ATT does not sell the nexus, customer pays full price ($300) for the phone but signs no contract. They then pay $70 a month for service.
Total cost (for a phone and 2 years of service): $1980

Or Customer B: switches from ATT to Metro PCS that uses T-Mobile network and customer buying a $300 nexus:
Customer pays full price ($300) for the phone but signs no contract. They then pay $40 a month for service for unlimited services with no additional taxes.
Total cost (for a phone and 2 years of service): $1260

Note with Metro PCS with two phones I get a $5 discount on each $40 monthly bill that includes taxes so I am really only paying $35 a month per phone. So in my case I pay $35 a month for unlimited services with no additional taxes (note 1st 200mbs are at 4gLTE speed then after 200mb moden it drops to unlimited 3G speed. You have more 4GLTE bandwidth options at $50 and up to $55.
My Total cost (for a phone and 2 years of service): $1140

 

[skippyrulzzz]

You would not continue to make payments on the subsidized phone. You bought it up front and sold it at a profit. That is the point. It goes like this:

I get where you're going with this, but you actually ARE making payments on the subsidised phone every month. Since AT&T, Verizon, etc, do not currently lower your monthly service costs once your contract is fulfilled, the subsidy is built into that $70 (or whatever it is) a month. It's the reason they have an ETF. One of the big draws (to me, and others I know) of buying a nexus phone off contract is that you are free to go wherever you want, regardless of subsidy, ie: Straight Talk, AIO, any other MVNO. That's why an MVNO charges less for (essentially) the same service - most people bring their own devices, so there are no subsidies for them to make back.

That said... if you ARE going to stay with a provider Like AT&T or VZW who do not reduce the service cost after the subsidy has been made back, then you should definitely get something out of signing a new contract. So get the nicest free (or super cheap) phone on your selected network and flip that sucker on eBay as soon as you walk out of the store! You'd be crazy NOT to!

 

[JonK]

Or Customer B: switches from ATT to Metro PCS that uses T-Mobile network and customer buying a $300 nexus:
Customer pays full price ($300) for the phone but signs no contract. They then pay $40 a month for service for unlimited services with no additional taxes.
Total cost (for a phone and 2 years of service): $1260

Note with Metro PCS with two phones I get a $5 discount on each $40 monthly bill that includes taxes so I am really only paying $35 a month per phone. So in my case I pay $35 a month for unlimited services with no additional taxes (note 1st 200mbs are at 4gLTE speed then after 200mb moden it drops to unlimited 3G speed. You have more 4GLTE bandwidth options at $50 and up to $55.
My Total cost (for a phone and 2 years of service): $1140

Again, a downgrade in speed once you hit your cap. 3G is not as bad but still a downgrade. If you want unlimited 4G your bill is $60. The math favors ATT. The $300 signing bonus you get (up front) is better than the $240 you save with MetroPCS over a 2 year duration. You get a better network anyway.

Lots of good options here that might suit some people. For me, ATT is the best. I dont need many minutes, I dont need text (with google voice paying for 160 byte texts is ludicrous), and I want 3 to 4 GB of 4G data. And I prefer ATT's network to T-Mo. Better coverage in the places I live/travel to.

 

[JonK]

I get where you're going with this, but you actually ARE making payments on the subsidised phone every month. Since AT&T, Verizon, etc, do not currently lower your monthly service costs once your contract is fulfilled, the subsidy is built into that $70 (or whatever it is) a month. It's the reason they have an ETF. One of the big draws (to me, and others I know) of buying a nexus phone off contract is that you are free to go wherever you want, regardless of subsidy, ie: Straight Talk, AIO, any other MVNO. That's why an MVNO charges less for (essentially) the same service - most people bring their own devices, so there are no subsidies for them to make back.

That said... if you ARE going to stay with a provider Like AT&T or VZW who do not reduce the service cost after the subsidy has been made back, then you should definitely get something out of signing a new contract. So get the nicest free (or super cheap) phone on your selected network and flip that sucker on eBay as soon as you walk out of the store! You'd be crazy NOT to!

That makes sense. I wasnt looking at it that way so I didnt realize that's what he meant by you continue to pay for the phone. I would gladly go with a MVNO instead but none seem to offer a price benefit without compromising on data speed/cap. They all force unlimited talk and text on you and tell you its a good deal. It's like cable TV packages. Give someone a bunch of channels they don't want bundled with one or two they do want and tell them its a great deal..

 

[ConTejas]

Unless you're a fool buying an unsubsidized phone and paying for the subisdy anyway each month, you're not going to save any money over prepaid. Tmobile's plans, for example, have all stripped the subsidy to the true cost of only the plan. So $300 nexus + $30 x 24 = $1,020. I was paying VZW $200/$300 subsidized + $105 x 24 = $2,720/$2,820. Saving quite a chunk of change each month : ) LOL you are certainly NOT getting a better value with a subsidized phone/plan.

Oh, and check out Solavei. Painlessly ported my lady's N4 over from the $50 Tmobile plan w/ unlimited everything with only 500mbs at 4G/LTE to Solavei now she pays the same price, same service/signal and still gets LTE, but unlimted everything w 5 GB 4G/LTE for $50. That's what I would do if I needed the minutes. 100 mins is fine for me plus I used Groove IP/Google Voice if I need or want to. Only 10 cents per min over 100 anyway (compare with VZW 49 cents...)

 

[JonK]

Unless you're a fool buying an unsubsidized phone and paying for the subisdy anyway each month, you're not going to save any money over prepaid. Tmobile's plans, for example, have all stripped the subsidy to the true cost of only the plan. So $300 nexus + $30 x 24 = $1,020. I was paying VZW $200/$300 subsidized + $105 x 24 = $2,720/$2,820. Saving quite a chunk of change each month : ) LOL you are certainly NOT getting a better value with a subsidized phone/plan.

Oh, and check out Solavei. Painlessly ported my lady's N4 over from the $50 Tmobile plan w/ unlimited everything with only 500mbs at 4G/LTE to Solavei now she pays the same price, same service/signal and still gets LTE, but unlimted everything w 5 GB 4G/LTE for $50. That's what I would do if I needed the minutes. 100 mins is fine for me plus I used Groove IP/Google Voice if I need or want to. Only 10 cents per min over 100 anyway (compare with VZW 49 cents...)

One thing to keep in mind is that which network you are on does matter (at least, it does to me). You are comparing VZW to a MVNO that operated on T-mobile's network. YMMV. For me, I am not interested in going back to T-Mo or an MVNO that uses T-Mo's network. I am willing to pay more for the best coverage. The only reason I am leaving VZW is that I want the nexus. And $105/month on VZW is steep. I pay $70/mo (though if I were to re-up my contract they would force me onto a share everything plan and my price would go up). Everyone has different needs. I am not looking for the cheapest network. I am looking for the cheapest way to get on ATT while still getting the services that I want.

It seems like the bottom line is if you want T-mo's network and are bringing your own phone, a MVNO will give you a better overall deal. If you want ATT, depending on your needs (data cap, text messaging) you might get a better deal on a MVNO or you might be better off signing a contract to get the subsidy you pay for monthly.

 

[JasW]

Thanks for the tips! Another thing to note is that the iphone has a nano sim so I would need an adapter. Maybe I could convince the store rep to sell me the iphone but give me a separate SIM and leave the iphone sim inactivated.

Don't know nuthin' about what would appear to be yet another proprietary piece of BS courtesy of Apple, but I'm pretty sure you can just go into the local AT&T store and ask for a new, regular SIM. They're not going to care.