Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter
Did you know that Apple has an iPhone Upgrade Program?
Well, they do, and if you’re the type of person who always wants to have the most recent iPhone (and you can afford it) this plan could well be for you.
Once you’re enrolled in the iPhone Upgrade Program you’ll make a monthly installment payment every month for a year and then you’ll receive a brand new iPhone after you’ve made the last payment.
Remain in the program and keep making the payments and you’ll receive a new iPhone each and every year thereafter.
The monthly payments vary depending on how much storage you want your new iPhone to have. To be frank, these plans aren’t cheap but once you’re enrolled you’ll never again own a phone that’s more than a year old.
There are a couple of bonuses thrown in with this plan as well:
1 – Your phone will be covered by AppleCare+ at no additional charge. That’s a pretty nice perk in itself.
2 – The phones sold under these agreements are unlocked. That means you can take your new phone to any carrier and have it activated on the spot.
With the cell carriers moving away from subsidizing their customers’ phone purchases, Apple’s new iPhone Upgrade Program will make it easy to always have an iPhone that’s no more than a year old without having to pay hundreds of dollars up front.
To summarize, the advantages of participating in the iPhone Upgrade Program are a follows:
- You’ll receive a brand new iPhone every 12 months.
- Your iPhone will always be covered by AppleCare+ at no additional cost.
- You’ll be able to use your iPhone with any carrier because it will be “unlocked”.
There are a couple of disadvantages as well:
- As mentioned above, the monthly fees for the available plans aren’t cheap.
- You’ll be making these monthly installment payments forever unless you decide to drop out of the program at some point, at which time the last phone you received will be the last one you’ll get until you decide it’s time to buy another new one at the regular price.
You’ll need to do the math yourself in order to decide whether this deal makes sense for you. I suspect it will for some folks, but not for others.
Either way, it’s good to know that Apple is giving their customers another option when it comes time to purchase a new phone, even though this option obviously won’t be beneficial to everyone.
Click here to learn more about the iPhone Upgrade Program at the Apple website.