Other Those who upgrade every year, what is your method?

[fs454]

I live like 5mins from a police station. You dont work 24x7 lol. You are not taking time off to go and sell a phone. Anyway you will have to go the Apple Store for IUP, that almost always takes more time meeting a buyer locally.

There's absolutely no way IUP takes more time than the process you describe. The time spent backing up, selling, restoring selectively to a backup, dealing with the inconvenience of being on a bridge device without all your stuff, etc. If it works, you do you - that's the freedom they give us with a bunch of different purchase options. But for me, the numbers play out just fine for the convenience of the program. You also don't need to step foot in an Apple Store at all. new device and return box show up at your doorstep on launch day.

Here in California if I were to pay outright this year:
iPhone X 256GB $1149
AC+ $199
Sales tax 9.75%
~$1479 out the door.


Apple Upgrade Program:
"Financed" $1348, payments of $56 per month over one year = $672 out the door.
I paid $0 via Apple Pay on preorder night and the tax never showed, so I'm not sure what happened there.


Not only that, but Apple will take the phone back, close the remainder of the loan, and hand me a brand new flagship phone next year on day one? And it'll let me in a little earlier to the preorders? And you're building credit? That does it for me.

 

[PBz]

I live like 5mins from a police station. You dont work 24x7 lol. You are not taking time off to go and sell a phone. Anyway you will have to go the Apple Store for IUP, that almost always takes more time meeting a buyer locally.

At the end of the day, you do what's convenient. For me, meeting at local PD and dealing with a buyer locally has been more convenient.

I carry concealed.
I don’t have time for the BS text blowing up my phone to get to the one that is real.
People flake.
People are late.
People ask a gazillion questions .. and I usually over-help.
The accelerated decline in value since popular upgrade programs is real.
I have kids.. my time is valuable in and out of work.

 

[Mlrollin91]

I did the whole buy full and sell next year for several years. It was an absolute pain in the butt, waste of time, and just sucked. I jumped onto IUP as soon as it became available and haven't looked back since. The convenience and the 50% guaranteed rate on my phone are perfectly acceptable for me. There are some years that I would make more than 50% selling, but then there were years that I would make well under 50%. Its too market dependent. IUP is risk-free.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

I went to Apple and picked up a Verizon iPhone X. Everything went through Apple but the IUP payment is through Verizon. No AppleCare+ unless I want to add it later and fortunately I was able to get Verizon to only charge a $15 upgrade fee. I tried to get them to remove the entire $30 since activating the phone needs no assistance from them but, they would only split it with me.

 

[anthony13]

I do the carrier program with at&t now. But back when the phones were still subsidized, my process was this: buy the new phone. Get apple care. When the next new phone comes out a year later I’d take my old phone in with some defect and get a new one for the $49 apple care replacement fee. Then I’d sell it (effectively a brand new one model year old phone) and typically clear enough to more then pay for the new phone.

I should add that I don’t typically buy every year anymore. I skipped the 5S and 6S and while I did get the 7plus and then X I can’t see why I’d need to upgrade the X anytime soon (if there even is a XS?)

 

[lsutigerfan1976]

I live like 5mins from a police station. You dont work 24x7 lol. You are not taking time off to go and sell a phone. Anyway you will have to go the Apple Store for IUP, that almost always takes more time meeting a buyer locally.

At the end of the day, you do what's convenient. For me, meeting at local PD and dealing with a buyer locally has been more convenient.

You don’t need to go to the Apple store. That’s not true.

 

[snufflebiter]

If the two of you have different brands, each one goes to the opposite store or website and upgrades to the other brand. They are almost always willing to give some discounts to a new customer, including Apple. If you don't like the other brand, swap Sim cards later at your carrier.

 

[biracialfamily91]

We’re on the Jump plan from T-mobile and it works great for us but we don’t trade in our devices. We pay off the remaining balance of the phones before the new ones come out, then we sell our old phones to co-workers who don’t want the newest iPhone but still want something recent then we upgrade through the program. We do this every year since the iPhone 6.
We actually save more money this way while still upgrading every year.

 

[Cricketman]

Did it for the first time the cycle, I Was on the iPhone upgrade program but paid off my balance and give the phone to a family member.

 

[NBAasDOGG]

My method is very simple and unique.
I find a new girlfriend every year and convince her for a trip to India. Usually, I also manage to convince her to sell one of her kidney and we get back to home country with tons of money.

I afford an iPhone and Apple Watch for our first year anniversary. I dump her, and find another one!
One year I even convinced one of my girlfriends to sell both kidneys for charity and we earned well enough money to afford her a portable dialysis-machine.

Now iPhone prices are increasing significantly, I must also turn gay
At least I can afford a new iPhone every year.

 

[tarsins]

Buy new one from Apple. Recycle old one. This year I bought the X for £999 and recycled the 7+ for £370.

 

[1rottenapple]

I usually resell or give. My 5s was given to my mom. My 6 Plus was sold to someone on Craigslist. The 6s Plus was sold to my friend for a really great price. But my 7s Plus was given to my dad bc his 6 died.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Previously I would buy outright from Apple and then sell my old iPhone to recover some of the cost. This year I joined my carriers yearly upgrade programme.

 

[MyMacintosh]

For people who buy phones at the rate I do, the IUP has helped me save so much more money. I upgrade ~ 3 years, and sell on ebay to the people who upgrade like every 4-6 i'd suspect. I buy at 50-60% discounts from the people who feel the need to have the latest and greatest every year. the IUP allows me to do that because they either get 50% back auto from apple, or they can try and eek out a few more dollars on eBay which most seem to try to do. I use the phone for those 3 years then sell to the people who hold onto older devices longer and either get 100% back what I paid for the phone or on average $20 - $40 less. It works perfectly if you dont need the latest phone, and want to save money.