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Are the fees for the phone and the service separate, such that, say, I can get a new $600 phone with minimum advertised $25/month payments over two years, but I

Are the fees for the phone and the service separate, such that, say, I can get a new $600 phone with minimum advertised $25/month payments over two years, but I could pay it off in 3 months at $200/month, and from then on out just pay for service?

Karunamon 11y ago
I know Verizon lets you do this - you can pay off the phone by itself at any time.
- fluxquanta 11y ago
  Looks like that's probably true for all of them now. I have Sprint and after posting my question I looked up Sprint's "Easy Pay" option, which is exactly this. For some reason I thought it was a rebranding of the current subsidized model where your phone and service payments were locked together.
  - mikeash 11y ago
    A phone company providing reasonable options and not screwing you over at every opportunity is rather weird, and I didn't believe it at first either.
    - Karunamon 11y ago
      Agreed - there's probably a business reason for it. Perhaps the fact that it's now a bog-standard financing arrangement forces them to allow it to be paid off separately?
      - fluxquanta 11y ago
        Here's an idea: What if they studied customer behavior and found that when the traditional 2-year contract is up people started shopping around with other providers to see if they could get a better deal, and an unacceptable number were then lost as customers? I'm betting this happened quite a bit, actually. With the new system when the two years are up (assuming the phone wasn't paid off before then) the customer automatically sees a nice little drop in their bill, which may make them feel more positive about staying with the company, or upgrading their phone again with the thought of "I was already paying that extra amount before anyway". Just a thought, but I wonder what kind of research has gone into this sort of thing.
mikeash 11y ago
Yep, totally separate. Pay it off early, buy the phone outright, pay it off on schedule, however you do it the service itself stays the same.
smackfu 11y ago
Yes, a current AT&T phone bill for a 64GB iPhone line looks like this: Mobile Share Value iPhone: $40 Discount for Mobile Share Value Savings: $-25 Equipment Charge ($749 financed over 24 months): $31.21 If you were on contract, the second two lines would go away. After the phone is paid off, the equipment charge goes away.

Karunamon 11y ago

I know Verizon lets you do this - you can pay off the phone by itself at any time.

fluxquanta 11y ago
Looks like that's probably true for all of them now. I have Sprint and after posting my question I looked up Sprint's "Easy Pay" option, which is exactly this. For some reason I thought it was a rebranding of the current subsidized model where your phone and service payments were locked together.
- mikeash 11y ago
  A phone company providing reasonable options and not screwing you over at every opportunity is rather weird, and I didn't believe it at first either.
  - Karunamon 11y ago
    Agreed - there's probably a business reason for it. Perhaps the fact that it's now a bog-standard financing arrangement forces them to allow it to be paid off separately?
    - fluxquanta 11y ago
      Here's an idea: What if they studied customer behavior and found that when the traditional 2-year contract is up people started shopping around with other providers to see if they could get a better deal, and an unacceptable number were then lost as customers? I'm betting this happened quite a bit, actually. With the new system when the two years are up (assuming the phone wasn't paid off before then) the customer automatically sees a nice little drop in their bill, which may make them feel more positive about staying with the company, or upgrading their phone again with the thought of "I was already paying that extra amount before anyway". Just a thought, but I wonder what kind of research has gone into this sort of thing.

mikeash 11y ago

Yep, totally separate. Pay it off early, buy the phone outright, pay it off on schedule, however you do it the service itself stays the same.

smackfu 11y ago

Yes, a current AT&T phone bill for a 64GB iPhone line looks like this: Mobile Share Value iPhone: $40 Discount for Mobile Share Value Savings: $-25 Equipment Charge ($749 financed over 24 months): $31.21 If you were on contract, the second two lines would go away. After the phone is paid off, the equipment charge goes away.