Is Verizon’s ‘Free’ iPhone 14 Pro on Black Friday Really Free?
Better black friday phone dealsAnd often the best smartphone deal of the year, it’s usually an offer to get a free phone when you sign a contract agreement with a mobile network like Verizon or T-Mobile. Even though you might save a few hundred on a phone from a major retailer, your mobile network provider has deals you can get. Best iPhones or the The best Samsung phones Free. Of course, there is a problem.
Now, you can get iPhone 14 Pro or a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 Free from Verizon. On T-Mobile and AT&T, you can get a file iPhone 14 with a similar contract. First, you will need to sign a long-term agreement. Usually, that’s 24 months, but we’re seeing options that extend up to three years.
Verizon may give you $1,200 off your new iPhone 14 Pro, but it doesn’t give you that one time. You sign an agreement to pay for the phone over 24 installments, and as long as you’re a Verizon customer, they pay your installment every month. If you stay a customer for 12 months and then leave, you owe them 12 months of payment for the phone you bought a year ago.
In other words, you thought you were getting a free phone, but since you left early, you only got half the discount you expected. That’s still a great discount on a flagship smartphone, but if you’re not expecting to stumble upon a $600 bill at once, it doesn’t look great.
You can’t get an iPhone for free with a good phone plan
We’re using Verizon as an example, but every major carrier offers a similar deal. If you want a free iPhone 14 Pro on Verizon, you don’t just need to sign a contract. You need to sign up for one of the most expensive phone plans that Verizon offers.
We’re not just talking about 5G. We’re talking ultra-wideband 5G, a mmWave service that pretty much only works in stadiums and some big airports. If you want a free iPhone 14 Pro, you pay for it.
You will get unlimited data, but you will only get 50GB on the premium 5G network. Then your speed will decrease. That’s a huge amount of data, but you can burn it quickly if you watch multiple seasons on Netflix while on vacation. You are also required to pay for 25GB of hotspot service, whether or not you are going to use this feature.
Wait, there is more. You can also get the Disney/Hulu/ESPN+ streaming services as a “feature” of your mobile network plan. You can skip these services and give Verizon the same monthly fee, after which the network will give you a 50% discount on a watch or tablet, or other similar discounts. We love Disney and Hulu for streaming, but this one is a little complicated.
All of the items on this list together will run you $80 a month on Verizon in the US, which is the lowest price for a plan that gives you a free iPhone 14 Pro. You can find a $70 plan that cuts out most of the benefits but gives you a much lower discount on the iPhone.
If you choose the $70 plan, you’ll need to pay monthly for the iPhone. Your monthly payments will generally be more expensive than if you choose the more expensive monthly service when you add the price of the iPhone to the monthly fee.
You need to trade something good
If you don’t have a phone to trade, you don’t get one for free. When Verizon or T-Mobile says they’ll give you an iPhone for free, that count involves giving you enough value for the phone you’re trading that your trade pays you for your new iPhone. On T-Mobile, we were offered $800 if we traded in an old iPhone 11 Pro Max. This would pay for the new iPhone 14.
At Verizon, we were offered $1,000 for the same phone, plus $200 in additional credit to purchase an iPhone 14 Pro. Thus, the same trade will pay for a nicer phone. Verizon was also willing to take a broken phone, while T-Mobile slashed the value of the broken deal to less than $200.
During deal season like Black Friday or around a new phone launch, carriers will offer more value to trades, often accepting broken trades for more than they’re worth. This urges you to sign a long-term contract, which is really what your mobile network wants from you.
Do you want to leave your mobile network early?
Statistically speaking, signing a mobile phone contract is a good bet. We rarely change network providers, so we must gain benefits from our commitment. Verizon Reports (Opens in a new tab) The average service change rate is just over 1%, which means that only 1% of their customers quit each month and go elsewhere. Other networks have reported similar loyalty.
Since you bundle Disney+ with your phone plan, you can’t cut costs by cutting the streaming service from your diet
However, there are factors that make us rethink our network decisions, especially in the case of Verizon. Verizon’s monthly plan is expensive. We are in the midst of a global cost-of-living crisis, and the economy could only get worse, not better.
If that happens, we’ll want to reduce every possible expense. Monthly subscriptions are the first of their kind. If you sign up for Verizon’s “free” iPhone 14 Pro deal, there’s a big penalty for leaving. Since you bundle Disney+ with your phone plan, you can’t cut costs by cutting the streaming service from your diet.
Why should it feel so superficial?
These “free” phones are legitimately good deals if you understand and agree to the terms. Even with the higher monthly contract fees, you still get an expensive phone for free. The Disney streaming package is also good value, for an additional $10 to your monthly mobile plan.
Why does everything have to feel so superficial? From the moment we visit the Verizon website to initiate the transaction, it feels like we’ve been scammed.
On the first page, there’s a $30 per month offer for unlimited plans. We’re hoping for a low monthly cost, but in the little script, we read that only a family of four qualifies. Our cheapest option would be nearly three times as much.
When we choose to trade in our old phone, Verizon makes us jump through many loops before we get a value for the device. We’ve offered a full $1000 feature on older flagship phones like Galaxy S21 UltraOr the iPhone 11 Pro Max, which is pretty cool. It still seemed like the value of the trade was a secret Verizon didn’t want to tell us.
When it comes time to choose the right plan, we lose roughly $500 off our discount by choosing the monthly service with neither Disney nor mmWave 5G. Again, the text explaining the different deduction is too small.
Overall, it’s easy to get to the end of the deal only to be greeted with a much higher price than we expected. It’s easy to make a mistake, and mistakes on Verizon result in a high monthly bill. advance mobile network Black Friday Deals and adversity alike.
Bottom line: Should I buy a Black Friday contract phone
If you haven’t changed your mobile network in years and your financial situation is strong, go for it. You can really get the best smartphones for free if you are willing to commit to one carrier for two years. Your monthly rate will be higher, but you won’t run out of data and additional features, like a portable hotspot on your phone and a Disney streaming package, are very useful.
If there is any doubt about the future, it is best to own your phone and pay a much lower monthly fee. Even if you have to buy an old or refurbished phone, then you can take this device anywhere. When you already own your phone, mobile networks have to shop for your business, rather than shopping for free phones.
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