# Is it really cheap when buy phone with a plan?



## mrthanhnguyen (Feb 17, 2021)

I have an iphone X and AT&T says I can trade in my phone and pay $100 plus tax then $3/month for 30 months so I can get an iphone 12 which is $900 or so if I buy directly from Apple. I think Apple buyback iphone X at $250. So $250+$100 + $90 payment plan plus tax. Does AT&T really sell phone this cheap or I will see an increament in price in a next bill cycle? Business makes profit and that equation yields a loss. Anyone has an idea?


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## sam_86314 (Feb 17, 2021)

I got my LG V40 from my provider with a payment plan, and I ended up paying a total of $450 (before tax and interest methinks) when I finished with the payments. I think the MSRP was over $900 (!) when I got it. Wasn't a lease plan or anything (since I still have the phone and it's now unlocked for any carrier).


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## jjnissanpatfan (Feb 17, 2021)

100$ a month for 30 months = $3000 = profit!   So you pay 450 of the 900 and they might use $300 of the 3000 for the network. They probably pay more in tax from your money in the 30 months than they will pay for the additional maintenance. 450+3000=3450  then minus the 900 and 300 = 2250$ PROFIT BABY!


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## Deleted member 202104 (Feb 17, 2021)

They're essentially just giving you an $15.33/month discount on your plan. (900-250-100=550) and (550/30=18.33-3=15.33)

And by doing so, locking you in for another 30 months.


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## hat (Feb 17, 2021)

Yeah, that's what it's all about, locking you into the plan via the phone you're paying a negligible amount each month for over a very long time. They know that they'll have that customer for at least the next 30 months, because they lured them in with the shiny new thing, and they're going to make it really inconvenient to get out if the customer decides to do so before the phone is paid off.


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## ThrashZone (Feb 17, 2021)

Hi,
No at&t don't they are a waste
Go to xfinity mobile plans are a lot cheaper and work just fine cell phones too.


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## jboydgolfer (Feb 17, 2021)

phone plans are like credit cards, you get lower cost now at a price later. if possible (& it is always possible since no one NEEDS a new phone) pay full price for your phone, making you the owner. Plans are one thing, subsidized is another. both are technically subsidized, but a phone you get from AT&T, sprint, Tmobile, with a plan, is not the same thing as a phone you get from say Boost mobile. with boost there is no contract (unless you want one), you pay a subsidized price (usually 20% off) & that lower price is given, with the understanding you will use boost as your provider (sim lock), but youre not paying any interest or phone payments, just the service fee. when you get a phone & dont pay the full cost of the phone, you get a credit check, & you pay a monthly payment to pay back the cost of the phone, plus interest, as well as any fee's for the service that phone is running on.

a few years back, i realized i was paying for 4 phones, one for each kid, & my wife from 3 different providers. so i got a family plan from boost mobile, it cost me $150/month, for 5 phones, with unlimited data, calling ,& text. there is no other charges. no phone payments (since i paid the full cost minus subsidize discount). its eay & simple, they even come with 35Gb high speed hotspot


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## Jetster (Feb 17, 2021)

I pay $33 a month and no contract. Bought the phone for $250. A contract is never cheap


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## Hyderz (Feb 17, 2021)

never go with a 24 month contract, you will always end up paying more for the services you don't actually need.
unless you dont have enough money to pay upfront for a new phone, even then you can choose the lowest plan.
but usually those have mediocre plans attached to them such as limited data, limited speed, etc etc


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## Toothless (Feb 17, 2021)

Worked as support for a while at a major phone retailer.

They get the phones at discount and make enough money from the plans to do big discounts like this. What you should do is add all payments, plus buyout (if you want to keep/own) and tax.

My V40 was $15/no for 18 months, plus 6 months for buyout. I paid a little under MSRP for it over time but got a free tv, so yeah.

(Per month payment - discount) x months + buyout.

Aim for promotions, that's where you can match or save money. Flat leases are where you lose.


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## simlife (Feb 17, 2021)

if your worried about money dont but anything apple you are paying more for the name then anything its like buying alien wear or gucci they are posting billions in profit noy because they are value or customer based... my  mom got a budget moto phone for 350 with 4 gbs of ram a 2-3 day battery aka slightly higher then iphones when it came out with 0 trade in or aggrement... phones are like cars dealers will try to get as much money as they can... even though a diff car or dealer can give you the same for less.  you can litterly buy a car at one dealership for 2-3k more then one 4-5 miles aways its kinda like gas stations.. how is one 20c per gallon higher then the one down the street

i live in a low cost area of the usa but i own a house and bought it making 12.70 a hour  when i bought it with 0 roommates dont get nickled and dimed track all your money the phone market is in fact dying... hence the billion dollar company's diching replacing battery's


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## Toothless (Feb 17, 2021)

simlife said:


> if your worried about money dont but anything apple you are paying more for the name then anything its like buying alien wear or gucci they are posting billions in profit because they are value based


That's how anything is. Some people prefer how Apple has their devices and if they want that then so be it. I've seen Apple for cheater than Samsung or LG on promotions, so more power to them.


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## oxrufiioxo (Feb 17, 2021)

I got 2 Note 20 ultra for 600 usd. At&t was running a $1000 off promo for every device traded in so yeah you can get decent phones for cheap. 

I paid the difference though out of pocket so I wouldn't have 20 usd per month added to my bill.


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## DrCR (Feb 17, 2021)

@mrthanhnguyen  The major question is what sort of plan you need. Something like Ting could be a far cheaper route despite initial up front device cost than whatever short-term benefit you might get from AT&T or the like trade in + service deal.


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## Vya Domus (Feb 17, 2021)

I imagine it's 3$/month + whatever the plan was before, right ?

That's how they make money, those plans already cover the price of the phone over the 30 months + the service itself and profit.

Word of advice, sell the phone yourself and buy one without a contract and then get a cheaper plan.


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## kurosagi01 (Feb 17, 2021)

The way I calculate my monthly payment vs buy it now/outright the phone and if the total cost after the contract only cost slightly more than the phone itself.
So most phone contracts in the UK are 2 years so I generally look at it like: 24 x (£x per month) + initial payment vs  £x monthly sim x24 + buy phone outright.
And if the cost is only 50-100 quid more then I would consider it if the sim package is good.


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## Vayra86 (Feb 17, 2021)

The general idea is that any mobile plan that comes with a supposedly 'cheap' or 'free' phone can be replaced with a bought model alongside a long term Sim-Only plan, that doesn't necessarily lock you into a contract longer than a year, or even monthly. The price is hidden within the actual call tariffs or price/GB or just a fixed amount that you lose if you don't use it. In the Netherlands its now officially forbidden to use the 'cheap/free' phone marketing any longer, because its a straight up lie and places people in debt, especially the weaker groups at the bottom of the social ladder.

And the net result will be better with sim only in the long term, in many cases. But ideally you'd get the whole deal paid by employer tbh, in that case see if you can get your hands on something with Dualsim for a neat way to have private/work separated on the same device. The main reason now to still get a sub+phone on a lengthy contract is because you want a phone you can't afford. Not exactly the best way to approach finance, but who am I.

When I did pay my own mobile bills, I ran with the Simonly idea and paid about 8 eur/month for call/internet usage, and phones can be resold after a few years time too, plus you can switch to even cheaper plans if your usage changes or if plans change.


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## ThrashZone (Feb 18, 2021)

Hi,
Yeah nothing is free with at&t lol they actually don't know what a contract is, price will fluctuate upwards every month.
Hit you with 10.us just for voice mail too eventually if not already.


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## Toothless (Feb 18, 2021)

ThrashZone said:


> Hi,
> Yeah nothing is free with at&t lol they actually don't know what a contract is, price will fluctuate upwards every month.
> Hit you with 10.us just for voice mail too eventually if not already.


Contracts for discounted phones has been dead for a long time. When contract buyouts started happening people would get a $1000 for $200 and switch providers. Partly why phones are locked to carriers and the whole buyout lost traction. 

If you sit down and figure out what your bill should be, you can call in and raise hell to get anything extra adjusted. Your taxes might be fluctuating causing your bill to go up and down $5 or so.

Also do read the lease agreement, it'll help in the long run.


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## xrobwx71 (Feb 18, 2021)

ThrashZone said:


> Hi,
> No at&t don't they are a waste
> Go to xfinity mobile plans are a lot cheaper and work just fine cell phones too.


Comcast uses the Verizon network which is reliable for the most part. (In my neck of the woods)


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## ThrashZone (Feb 18, 2021)

Toothless said:


> Contracts for discounted phones has been dead for a long time. When contract buyouts started happening people would get a $1000 for $200 and switch providers. Partly why phones are locked to carriers and the whole buyout lost traction.
> 
> If you sit down and figure out what your bill should be, you can call in and raise hell to get anything extra adjusted. Your taxes might be fluctuating causing your bill to go up and down $5 or so.
> 
> Also do read the lease agreement, it'll help in the long run.


Hi,
I haven't had to call into xfinity/ comcast yet 
I had to call at&t every other month on overcharges, life is short and at&t is the devil lol


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## Toothless (Feb 18, 2021)

ThrashZone said:


> Hi,
> I haven't had to call into xfinity/ comcast yet
> I had to call at&t every other month on overcharges, life is short and at&t is the devil lol


You can escalate enough to get that fixed. Cause enough chaos and you'll get there eventually.


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## ThrashZone (Feb 18, 2021)

Toothless said:


> You can escalate enough to get that fixed. Cause enough chaos and you'll get there eventually.


Hi,
I'm going to sick with life is too short to do that over and over again 



xrobwx71 said:


> Comcast uses the Verizon network which is reliable for the most part. (In my neck of the woods)


Hard to believe this because plans on verizon are as high as at&t's are and xfinity mobole is 25.us a month if you pay by the gig which is great because I don't use data on cell very much at all literally email stuff only anything else is local wifi data.


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## Toothless (Feb 18, 2021)

ThrashZone said:


> Hi,
> I'm going to sick with life is too short to do that over and over again
> 
> 
> Hard to believe this because plans on verizon are as high as at&t's are and xfinity mobole is 25.us a month if you pay by the gig which is great because I don't use data on cell very much at all literally email stuff only anything else is local wifi data.


The data caps are literally because Comcast runs on Verizon. You have to pay more for unlimited and it just more money for Verizon.


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## P4-630 (Feb 18, 2021)

I'm still using an "old" Galaxy S7.... (at first with a 2 year contract 36 EUR/month)
Now the phone is mine, unlimited phone calls/unlimited sms/1000mb data 12,50 EUR/month


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## yotano211 (Feb 18, 2021)

Walmart has a $45 plan with tmobile towers. I bought a used samsung s10+ last month and enjoy prepaid instead of post-paid plans. Unlimited everything, I download alot of stuff, it shows last month I downloaded 464gb, this month I'm going on 3.12tb downloaded over cell towers.


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## ThrashZone (Feb 18, 2021)

Toothless said:


> The data caps are literally because Comcast runs on Verizon. You have to pay more for unlimited and it just more money for Verizon.


Hi,
Indeed but verizon/ at&t dumped all their pay by the gig plans and all are unlimited just so they can charge more knowing you don't need or want unlimited data 
Phone minutes is still unlimited.


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## Toothless (Feb 18, 2021)

ThrashZone said:


> Hi,
> Indeed but verizon/ at&t dumped all their pay by the gig plans and all are unlimited just so they can charge more knowing you don't need or want unlimited data
> Phone minutes is still unlimited.


The family data shared plans were causing too many issues with overages and having to keep a certain number of staff to explain this and that. When data is extremely cheap why not cut corners and make it all cheaper? 

Talk and text will always be unlimited unless you're out of network or international. That's a given.


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## xrobwx71 (Feb 19, 2021)

ThrashZone said:


> Hard to believe this because plans on verizon are as high as at&t's are and xfinity mobole is 25.us a month if you pay by the gig which is great because I don't use data on cell very much at all literally email stuff only anything else is local wifi data.


I looked it up before I posted


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## ThrashZone (Feb 19, 2021)

Toothless said:


> The family data shared plans were causing too many issues with overages and having to keep a certain number of staff to explain this and that. When data is extremely cheap why not cut corners and make it all cheaper?
> 
> Talk and text will always be unlimited unless you're out of network or international. That's a given.


Hi,
Think they just throttle speed and get you that way lol
Either way I'd rather save the $$$ for something worth spending it on saving 35.us a month adds up fast thank you xfinity for not being tone deaf


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## GerKNG (Feb 19, 2021)

i buy smartphones in a shop and a seperate contract.

at the moment i have unlimited calls,SMS and 5GB LTE per Month for 6.99€


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## P4-630 (Feb 19, 2021)

GerKNG said:


> i buy smartphones in a shop and a seperate contract.
> 
> at the moment i have unlimited calls,SMS and 5GB LTE per Month for 6.99€



And you live in Eastern Europe? Like Romania or something?

I pay 12,50 EUR for unlimited calls/sms and 1 GB data.


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## GerKNG (Feb 19, 2021)

P4-630 said:


> And you live in Eastern Europe? Like Romania or something?
> 
> I pay 12,50 EUR for unlimited calls/sms and 1 GB data.


Germany.


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## Toothless (Feb 19, 2021)

ThrashZone said:


> Hi,
> Think they just throttle speed and get you that way lol
> Either way I'd rather save the $$$ for something worth spending it on saving 35.us a month adds up fast thank you xfinity for not being tone deaf


They throttle when you go over because there was too many issues with the $15/1GB overages, and they were losing too many customers. 

As for Xfinity, we bought our own router and went with the unlimited pack. Technically we're paying only $15 more for data since, well, not paying for renting their hardware.


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## R-T-B (Apr 1, 2021)

ThrashZone said:


> Hard to believe this


It's true.


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## jboydgolfer (Apr 1, 2021)

phone plans are for suckers, just buy a prepaid phone & youre done. no commitment, no monthly phone payments, interest, credit impact.....
i think my families 3 iphones, & 2 samsung galaxy's cost me $1200 outright to buy, & the monthly service fees are $150/month , unlimited everything with 30Gb hotspot on all 5 phones.


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## The red spirit (Sep 10, 2021)

P4-630 said:


> And you live in Eastern Europe? Like Romania or something?
> 
> I pay 12,50 EUR for unlimited calls/sms and 1 GB data.


I used to pay only minutes that I spoke, but operator became very greedy real fast and now I'm on plan. It sucks to be on plan, but I get 300 minutes and unlimited SMS for 2.89 Euros. That's way more than I need, I would be fine with 20 minutes and 200 SMSs. That's still cheaper than without plan, one SMS is now 0.23 Euro and just year ago it used to be 0.03 Euro. Can't remember how much talk time used to cost and what it costs now, but it also grew obscenely. Basically 3 minutes of talk time can cost more without plan than what plan does. Since I almost never call anyone, after first price raise I though that initial price hike may not affect me much, but when it became really shitty I gave up and am on plan. I sometimes buy data, but only lowest plan, which is 2GB for month. That costs 2.5 Euros per month. Now this isn't too bad, but it used to be better too. I don't really need data, why would I need it if I have WiFi at home? Unfortunately, I spend some time not at home and thus having data is pretty nice and can be handy. I still use it like a monk. I think I only used 0.06 GB in one week, which is really not much. Using Opera Mini with high image compression helps. So in total, I pay 5.39 Euros sometimes. I guess that's low by TPU's standards, but I used to pay a lot less before my operator became greedy asshole. I think, that if they raise prices third time, I will just switch to the last seemingly cheaper operator, but all in all it's not looking great. For what I need, I think that it's unjustified that I have to pay more than 2 Euros per month. If this shit with prices continues and reaches something as stupid as 5 Euros per month just for calls and SMSs, I may for real just stop using my phone and look for alternatives. I ain't no charity for people that I don't like.


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## Hyderz (Sep 10, 2021)

The red spirit said:


> I used to pay only minutes that I spoke, but operator became very greedy real fast and now I'm on plan. It sucks to be on plan, but I get 300 minutes and unlimited SMS for 2.89 Euros. That's way more than I need, I would be fine with 20 minutes and 200 SMSs. That's still cheaper than without plan, one SMS is now 0.23 Euro and just year ago it used to be 0.03 Euro. Can't remember how much talk time used to cost and what it costs now, but it also grew obscenely. Basically 3 minutes of talk time can cost more without plan than what plan does. Since I almost never call anyone, after first price raise I though that initial price hike may not affect me much, but when it became really shitty I gave up and am on plan. I sometimes buy data, but only lowest plan, which is 2GB for month. That costs 2.5 Euros per month. Now this isn't too bad, but it used to be better too. I don't really need data, why would I need it if I have WiFi at home? Unfortunately, I spend some time not at home and thus having data is pretty nice and can be handy. I still use it like a monk. I think I only used 0.06 GB in one week, which is really not much. Using Opera Mini with high image compression helps. So in total, I pay 5.39 Euros sometimes. I guess that's low by TPU's standards, but I used to pay a lot less before my operator became greedy asshole. I think, that if they raise prices third time, I will just switch to the last seemingly cheaper operator, but all in all it's not looking great. For what I need, I think that it's unjustified that I have to pay more than 2 Euros per month. If this shit with prices continues and reaches something as stupid as 5 Euros per month just for calls and SMSs, I may for real just stop using my phone and look for alternatives. I ain't no charity for people that I don't like.



that's really cheap consider how much you use, but i think most people use data nowadays. 
i guess you are one of those rare individual with a low usage for communication. 
If your provider does raise prices, you will see other competition raise similar price but maybe with different price plans to be competitive.
I've seen some countries have plans at $149 dollars per month and people do sign up for it because of perks like.. $600 dollars off phones, spotify premium, netflix, unlimited data, calls, messages. People consume data more than minutes these days, back 15 years ago it used to be all about getting the best deal for call minutes. 
I should be more like you and monitor more of my usage so i can plan on saving more money with the right plan.


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## The red spirit (Sep 10, 2021)

Hyderz said:


> that's really cheap consider how much you use, but i think most people use data nowadays.


In month I probably only use 5% maybe 10% of my both plans, I wouldn't call that a great deal. I'm really buying a lot more than I need only because that is the most minimal configuration. 



Hyderz said:


> i guess you are one of those rare individual with a low usage for communication.


Being partially deaf and since childhood perceiving mobile data as luxury helps. I remember that in dark 00s I was really excited to buy 20MB. Back then mobile internet was only WAP and thus it barely used few kilobytes on basically any site. I remember that JAVA games were 60 kB, maybe with some really uncommon game approaching 100 kB. And surprisingly enough in that tiny amount of space it was possible to fit some rather complex games. I remember there was full Asphalt (maybe 5th) with career mode, many races, different locations. Mind you driving physics were really basic, SNES level at best, but that's still something. There was Gangstarr, GTA close with top down view and full city with missions, cars and obviously car stealing. My phone had too low JAVA version to run that, but other could. I think my Nokia was S30 something. Another impressive titles was College Basketball. A full basketball game with maybe 20 teams, full career mode and probably even team building. The only clear downside of that game was that my phone ran it quite poorly, probably 10-15 fps, so playability wasn't great, but for 60 kB, it's awesome. Today you need 20-30 gB for what is essentially the same game, but with nicer graphics and physics. Speaking of 3D games, I remember there were bunch of Counter Strike 1.6 clones, but those all needed S40 version and were several hundred kB big. It's really impressive what kind of games actually ran on very modest hardware. And I guess that explains why 20MB of data was a lot back then.



Hyderz said:


> If your provider does raise prices, you will see other competition raise similar price but maybe with different price plans to be competitive.
> I've seen some countries have plans at $149 dollars per month and people do sign up for it because of perks like.. $600 dollars off phones, spotify premium, netflix, unlimited data, calls, messages


Some people just can't do math. That's literally 4 months of saving up for that same discount and everything else in plan like spotify, netflix is really just shovelware, that carrier probably doesn't even pay a dollar to buy. Unlimited data, calls and SMS sound really cool, until you realize that you only need so much of them and that you are basically paying for something that doesn't truly cost that much or likely doesn't even cost anything. Pandemic has shown that data caps are basically a scam, if carrier says that it's for traffic control or else their network will be overloaded. And I highly doubt that just wireless equipment maintenance costs much. Maybe a dollar or two for each customer if even that much, not just cents. Considering that coverage in US is like 65%, which is not great at all. Here in Lithuania, it is 94-97%. And likely with as much speed as they can provide and as much as your device can receive over LTE. 




Hyderz said:


> I should be more like you and monitor more of my usage so i can plan on saving more money with the right plan.


I don't really have any good monitor for such stuff. My own operator's app has almost 1 day delay in measurements and in Opera Mini I only see how much it manages to compress data over all time. If I need entertainment I would rather download videos for offline viewing, same with books. Things like Youtube are WiFi only. I don't use things like Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram or Tik Tok. I don't even know how they all look, except for Facebook. I also disable background data usage on all apps. I have zero auto synchronization, no auto updates, no online only maps. I have disabled some stock bloat and removed some of it with adb. Over data, I try to only use Opera Mini as it compresses websites. It helps, but how much depends on web sites. Sometimes 20%, other times nearly 70%. I use automatic level of website compression and highest picture compression. Now one disclaimer about compression, phone itself doesn't compress any websites it just sends website and user compression settings to Opera server and it sends back already compressed websites to phone, so that could be a privacy concern and if you use manual website compression levels some websites will break. Auto seems to be the best mode, but even then some websites can be broken as Opera Mini is somewhat worse at rendering websites than full Opera.


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## ThrashZone (Sep 10, 2021)

mrthanhnguyen said:


> I have an iphone X and AT&T says I can trade in my phone and pay $100 plus tax then $3/month for 30 months so I can get an iphone 12 which is $900 or so if I buy directly from Apple. I think Apple buyback iphone X at $250. So $250+$100 + $90 payment plan plus tax. Does AT&T really sell phone this cheap or I will see an increament in price in a next bill cycle? Business makes profit and that equation yields a loss. Anyone has an idea?


Hi,


Oops missed the necro lol


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## R-T-B (Sep 10, 2021)

ThrashZone said:


> Go to xfinity mobile plans are a lot cheaper and work just fine cell phones too.


Only usable if you have xfinity internet too.



ThrashZone said:


> Hi,
> 
> 
> Oops missed the necro lol


me too lol.


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## ThrashZone (Sep 10, 2021)

R-T-B said:


> Only usable if you have xfinity internet too.
> 
> 
> me too lol.


Hi,
I'm full anti at&t so yeah xfinity internet to about 90.us for gigabyte
I cut the cord so all content come off the internet not t.v. subscription so a lot better.
iphone se free and since I don't use a lot of cell service which is verizon monthly cell is only 25.us 
That is 40.us less than at&t cell.


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## jhelton48 (Dec 24, 2021)

Father-in-law donated me a Samsung Galaxy j3 from at&t. Went to straight talk and got the $35 plan. Unlimited talk & text plus 10gb data.


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## DrCR (Dec 25, 2021)

jhelton48 said:


> Father-in-law donated me a Samsung Galaxy j3 from at&t. Went to straight talk and got the $35 plan. Unlimited talk & text plus 10gb data.


Nice. With Straight Talk, Ting, Mint, et al., there's good value to be had for those that don't need/want an unlimited data plan.


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## seth1911 (Dec 27, 2021)

Never ever i have a plan without a phone for 25€ per month:

Internet Flatrate  (did sometimes load 480GB in a Month) (15GB in the EU)
3 000 min (1000 EU wide)
500 sms (250 EU wide)

My Mom with a phone 30€ per month:
10GB (no EU roaming)
3000 min (no roaming)
200 sms (no roaming)

1 min phonecall in the EU it cost her 6,7 cents, 10 MB of datas 8,9 cents


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## Kovoet (Dec 27, 2021)

I will only buy a phone outright and get a sim only deal. In the UK they have got so greedy they are using 36month contracts now


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## GamerGuy (Dec 28, 2021)

I used to think getting a phone with a plan was less painful than buying outright, in a way, that's still true. But when measured over time, I'm paying a fair bit more. Take the time I'd gotten the Samsung Fold 2 (prices quoted are in local currency, prices quoted are as accurate as I could remember):

Paid $2888 outright for the phone, plus bought a $10/mth SIM only plan (for 50GB/mth data). So, IF I were to use the phone for two years, total cost of phone + SIM plan is 2888 + 240 = $3128

Now, had I'd gotten the phone with an $88/mth plan, the phone would have 'entitled' me to buy the Fold 2 at about $1900 (or thereabout). So, 88x24 + 1900 = 2122 + 1900 = $4022

That's about $900 difference over a two year period, hence my preference to buy phones outright. Like the Flip 3 I'd recently gotten, paid outright for it, and got myself same 50GB/mth SIM only plan at $10/mth.

Basically, buying a phone with a plan seems cheaper in that the initial cash outlay isn't as painful as buying the phone outright, but a lot hinges on how fair/unfair one sees the plan to be I guess.


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