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vdawgs22

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 18, 2012
115
14
Is there any reason not to upgrade through the Carrier offer? As an example, I plan to trade in an unused XS Max and pass my 13 Pro Max along to family

Apple offers $210 in for trade in
T-Mobile offers $205 + $195 in bill credits (non magenta max plan)

I know T-Mobile locks you into contract for 2 years to get the credits, but even if you leave early, even in the first month aren't you only risking the $5 initial credit difference? with the potential to get $195 more if you do end up staying?

I see people debating what to do so am I missing something? It seems like a no brainer....

Thanks!
 

Tooks2089

macrumors member
Nov 9, 2021
30
19
Is there any reason not to upgrade through the Carrier offer? As an example, I plan to trade in an unused XS Max and pass my 13 Pro Max along to family

Apple offers $210 in for trade in
T-Mobile offers $205 + $195 in bill credits (non magenta max plan)

I know T-Mobile locks you into contract for 2 years to get the credits, but even if you leave early, even in the first month aren't you only risking the $5 initial credit difference? with the potential to get $195 more if you do end up staying?

I see people debating what to do so am I missing something? It seems like a no brainer....

Thanks!

I’ll be trading in my iPhone 12 pm for $530 to apple to get the iPhone 14 pm. No brainer
 
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vdawgs22

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 18, 2012
115
14
for 12's or newer.. the apple value and T-Mobile value seems to be the same for non magenta plans.. but for older phones... carrier plan offers seem to be double the value and even double that if you do have Magenta Max
 

usmaak

macrumors 6502a
Apr 13, 2012
877
666
I was wondering this as well. I have an old Note 8 that I am going to trade in to t-mob for 400. Not bad for a 4 year old phone. If all 400 is bill credits and I decide to move on after a year, then I still ended up with $200 that I wouldn’t have ended up with if I’d just bought it outright. It’s like getting free money, so I have been wondering why anyone would pass it up.

One reason to pass up something like this on carrier branded Samsung phones is because the carriers lad the phones with garbage apps and can disable some of the more usable aspects of android based phones (looking at you, Verizon). But isn’t it true that there is no carrier branding on iPhones?
 

tis

macrumors 6502
Dec 8, 2020
310
413
You could also go somewhere like Redpocket and get $300 off the MSRP of the phone before trading in a phone.
 
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