Posts tagged: Cell Phone Carriers

Deal of the day

 

 

Listen up kids! One most excellent deal of the day, brought to you by AT&T.

 

Online only, for a limited time and with waived activation, you can now get a new phone on a 2 year contract for HALF the price at AT&T. That’s  a HALF price discount. Divided by two, people.

 

Here’s how you get it:

 

Step 1. Choose a smartphone priced between $0.99 and $199.99 ( we’d say go for the iPhone 5. Wait, was that obvious?…).

Step 2. Magic! ( also…choosing an appropriate plan and stuff)

Step 3. You get a 50% discount automatically applied to the phone in your shopping cart.

 

 

So, iPhone Antidote, can you give me an example?

 

We sure can guys! This means that you can get a 16gb iPhone 5 for only $100! That’s RAD!

 

 

You wanna know what else would be rad?  I got a couple more steps for you…

 

1. Buy shiny new iPhone online using 50% discount. Laugh maniacally.

2. Send us your old stinky iPhone. Laugh maniacally.

3. We give you a bunch of cash for stinky old iPhone, and hey, that new phone cost you next to nothing! LAUGH MANIACALLY.

 

This deal is only available online and for a limited time so get your butts into gear! As always, terms and conditions apply, check out the deal here: http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/devices/smartphones.html

 

 

 

Image courtesy of Forbes.

 

 

What’s next for Apple?

 

2013 should bring some interesting moves from Apple, and these are already being rigorously debated by those who are in the position to do so, and those who aren’t.

 

As per usual with Apple, everything is a guessing game, and we are only at the mercy of the limited amount of information analysts pour through patent documents to discover or that which is leaked – purposefully or not.

 

Over the next couple of days we’ll be looking at and making predictions for everything coming up in the Apple world in 2013 – their release schedule, the possibility of new products, new updates to existing products, and how this will affect you, as a customer, and the industry as a whole.

 

There are people who say that after the very public lawsuit with Samsung, Apple (as well as other industry players) will be reticent to create anything unless it is completely new and revolutionary. In other words, we won’t see anything new released that might be seen to have been built on the technology of other products as that would only welcome more lawsuits, which is bad for not only the company but for the whole industry.

 

There are others that are adamant that this year, after an arguably lackluster year in 2012, Apple must impress the tech world and it’s fans with new products or surprising updates to current products if they want to stay relevant.

 

Who’s right?

 

We’re going to pick through all of the  predictions and rumors, educated guesses and outright optimistic hopes for Apple in 2013, and give you the best of all of it.  Stay tuned!!

 

 

A Prepaid iPhone Coming Soon?

A Prepaid iPhone to be Released?

First came God, then Steve Jobs, then came the iPhone. We all know that the iPhone is an amazing and beautiful thing.

However.

 

Whilst every little rumor heard about the next upgrade or new iPhone release is leapt on with glee, there is one part of the market that Apple needs to, and indeed may be looking into entering.

 

A huge percentage of the world, and an estimated 70 million Americans use pre-paid phone plans, (otherwise known as pay-as-you go), rather than what is the main billing/buying method here in the states, and Apple’s only official method -post-paid, or simply put- chain yourselves to a carrier for a few years, then, good consumer, you get an iphone.

 

The advantage of the post pay contract is that, yeah, you get a ‘free’ iPhone.  But it’s not really free is it? No matter how much you use your phone, you pay the same rate every month, it involves credit checks,  early termination fees are applicable, there is no discourse if you happen to lose your job or can’t pay the monthly fee anymore. Prepaid, is easy, you pay for what you use, and if you can’t afford it one month, well, you find out where the closest payphone is.

 

There were rumors last year, and continuing this year that Apple is looking at releasing a very basic iPhone specifically for the pre-paid market, but until then- there are still options.

 

But… surely you can’t expect us to pay for an iPhone outright? Right?

 

Yeah, you’re right. Unless you’re lucky enough to be able to drop a few hunnids to do this, there is a huge phone market on eBay. You can buy cheap second hand/as new iPhones everyday, or if you’re really smart, wait until just after the new release- everyone wants to get rid of their stinky old iPhone so they can get the new one.

Stinky old iPhone? It’s fine! eBay is a buyers market, and if you don’t get what you paid for you’ll be looked after. But most of the time, you get a great, recycled, as-new iPhone. It’s even environmentally friendly! Kind of.

 

Now to the tricky part. Most iPhone’s on eBay are going to be locked.  This means that you may not be able to use your previous carrier.

 

Insurmountable Problems? Nah.

 

Yes, most of the iPhones from the US on eBay are locked, but you always have the option of looking further afield-  find an international seller as they tend to have unlocked ones- think Hong-Kong, Australia, Greece.

 

Walmart now sells pre-paid Sim cards by StraightTalk. $45 a month unlimited voice and Data and No contract. If you have  picked up a locked iPhone, they also apparently even show you how to unlock it.

Verizon, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile also offer pre-paid sim packages for unlocked phones.

 

Another option is H2O Wireless’ iPhone unlimited plan. H2o offers 3 different plans ( $40/ month unlimited talk and text, $50/month unlimited talk, text and 250mb data or $60/month unlimited talk, text and 3G/4G.) and you don’t need to unlock your iPhone.

 

The great thing about this is that the technology becomes available to more people, and until Apple makes an iPhone that is cheap enough to become part of the pre-paid market- be smart, look at your options, and you can still have an iPhone, just on your own terms.

Cancel Your T-Mobile Contract With No Fee!

Cancel Your T-Mobile Contract without an Early Termination Fee

If you act soon you should be able to cancel your T-Mobile contract with no early termination fee (ETF).

 

As it turns out, T-Mobile recently introduced a limit on the amount of domestic off-network data (roaming data) whereas previously there was no limit.

 

What this means is that if you call into T-Mobile and cancel your service you should be able to actually cancel your service without paying an early termination fee.  Make sure you act fast however, as the service change happened at the end of February and there is only a limited time to call and cancel regarding the change in data plans.

 

Hope this helps out

 

Here is a link to a more in depth post on a forum

AT&T Will Unlock Your iPhone if You are Off Contract!

Unlock Your iPhone

 

 

AT&T will now finally allow you to unlock your iPhone starting today.  This is a really great change for anyone that is currently using AT&T as their service provider and has had their iPhone long enough that they are off contract (essentially eligible for an upgrade).

 

Having an unlocked iPhone is great for several reasons.  One of the biggest being that the iPhone is actually worth more than a “locked” iPhone.  So if you were to sell your iPhone, you would likely be able to get more money for selling your iPhone.  Additionally, you will have the availability to switch carriers to another GSM carrier such as T-Mobile.  And another final benefit that is great is the availability to use your iPhone in different countries with local carriers (previously you would need to use AT&T as your sole service provider which would be much more expensive).

 

You can unlock your iPhone at an AT&T store, or even via online chat.  The only information that you need to unlock your iPhone is your IMEI number which is located in Settings -> General -> About  on your iPhone.

 

Once you have finished the process, Apple actually emails the unlock code for your iPhone to your email address.  Then simply unlock your iPhone using the code!

 

Should be really valuable for a lot of people!  Hope this helps!

 

How to Get Out of Your Sprint Contract without Paying an Early Termination Fee

Cancel Your Sprint Contract without an Early Termination Fee

 

Have you been itching to leave Sprint, but you are still on contract?  As it turns out, their terms and conditions have changed recently, and this may mean that you can get out of your Sprint cell phone contract without paying the dreaded early termination fee (or ETF).

 

This is applicable for people on family plans and have a discount applied on their account.  Basically what Sprint has done is that they have decided that only the first line of your family plan will be able to have a discount (not the additional plans), whereas previously, they did give this discount.  Since this discount will raise most people’s plans prices each month, there are opportunities to get out of your contract without paying the ETF.

 

Call the Sprint Consumerist Hotline (703-433-4401) and tell them that you would like to cancel your service because of the increase on your bill regarding your discount on your family plan lines.  Make sure to mention that since this is an increase of your bill on your contract, that you do not need to pay the early termination fee.  They should know about this, and if they do not, ask to speak to a manager.  This will be valid as long as they are made aware within 45 days of the change.  Make sure you have a new carrier to port your number to after you cancel your Sprint service.

 

Enjoy your savings and don’t worry about paying any of the dreaded ETF!

 

How to Pre-Date your Phone Bill and Avoid Overages

Never Be Stressed About Cell Phone Overages Again!

Uh oh.  It happened.  You sent too many texts, used too much data, or called too many people.  Don’t worry, as long as you haven’t actually been billed for the usage, you can actually predate your bill with AT&T.

 

This can come in particularly handy if you are trying to “get by” with the smallest cell phone service package, if you are traveling and didn’t upgrade to an international or roaming package, or if you just happened to use your phone a little bit more than normal this month.

 

The process is surprisingly easy, but many people still don’t know that it is an option, and end up paying hundreds, even thousands, in overage fees (international data is billed at a staggering $20,000/GB as opposed to the normal $12.5/GB for domestic data).

 

First go to https://www.att.com/wireless/ and login to your wireless account.  Then click “My AT&T” and then continue to “Wireless”.  At this point, if you are on a family plan, make sure that you are on the phone number that you want to change the rate plan for.  Click “Manage Features”.

 

Now you are able to select the features that you want to have on your account (or wished you had at the beginning of this billing period).  Choose the features which you want, and click continue at the bottom.

 

This brings you to a new page where you are asked to “Select an Effective/Expiration date”.  Now you have the option of three choices:

 

1) Backdate to the beginning of your billing period

            This is really great in case you are already over your limit for your bill.  This is the primary situation where you can save a considerable amount of money. Say goodbye to cell phone overages!

 

2) Make effective today

            If you know you are about to start using your phone more, or going traveling starting today, this is the option for you.

 

3) Future date to the next billing period

            This option is great for those who are well prepared, and don’t want to worry about going over in the future.  Unfortunately, you cannot choose a specific date for the features to be enacted, so you either need to future date it to the next billing period or wait until you actually need the features and choose “Make effective today”

 
Click confirm on the bottom of the page and that’s it!  Now you will never need to worry about pricey cell phone overages again!

How to Check for Cell Phone Upgrade Eligibility

Check for Early Upgrade with your Carrier

 

Have you ever wondered if you could upgrade to a new phone?  Maybe you have had your phone for quite some time, but when you signed up to buy your last phone you had to sign a two year contract.  Many times AT&T and the other major cell phone carriers will allow you to upgrade your phone before your two year contract is up.  This is something that many people do not know, and can be very beneficial (See why upgrading your phone as often as possible is important).

 

Usually, it turns out that carriers will allow you to get a discount on your new phone every 12-18 months (rather than the 24 months which is agreed upon).  In fact, new iPhones have been released just about every 12 months (with the exception of the 4S which was released 16 months later) and AT&T has almost always allowed for people to upgrade to the new iPhone early, thus giving their customers a $400 discount every 12 months!

 

So if you are interested in upgrading to the newest and latest phone follow the instructions below.  And if you aren’t interested in upgrading phones, maybe you should read here and see how you could be wasting almost $20 a month.  You might as well upgrade, sell your phone and make a profit!

 

Luckily, checking to see if you are eligible for an upgrade is pretty simple!  Simply follow the instructions below.

 

For AT&T:

 

Grab your AT&T phone and dial:  *639# and press send.

After doing this you will receive a text message shortly after letting you know when you are eligible for an upgrade.

 

For Verizon:

 

Verizon is a little bit more complex, but still rather easy.

Simply go to their website here:

http://www.verizonwireless.com/eligible-upgrade.shtml

 

And type in your cell phone number and email address to find out if you are eligible for an upgrade with Verizon.

 

For Sprint:

 

Grab your Spring phone and dial : *2 and press send.

Press 1.

Enter your phone number.

Press 1 to check your upgrade eligibility.

 

 

For T-Mobile:

 

And currently for T-Mobile, it appears as though the only way to find out if you are eligible for an upgrade is to contact them directly, or use this third party website:

 

http://www.wirefly.com/upgrades/

Stop Wasting Money Every Month (on Your Cell Phone Bill)!

Stop Wasting Money!

Something tells me you are wasting money every month.  Not a lot, but I bet after you read this you could save anywhere from $5 to $20 a month on your cell phone bill.

 

It turns out most people are eligible for a discount with their mobile phone service provider, and they don’t even know it.  For example, any student from the University of California is entitled to a 10% discount with AT&T and possibly even more with the other carriers!  A simple 10% discount is very easy to find, and sometimes you can get a discount of up to 25%!  It all depends on your email address.  Do you have an edu email address?  Maybe you just started working at a new company and you have an email address with them?

 

It is pain-free and very easy to check for and add a discount to your service plan.  You can do it in about 5 minutes.  You don’t need to visit a store or even make any calls.  All that you need to do is check your email address for the discount and then login to your wireless account.

 

For AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, the process is amazingly simple.  All you need to do is go to their website and type in your email address (the one with your school, employer, or other organization).  If your email address doesn’t provide you with a discount, look to see if you have another email you could use.  For example, if you used your employer and there was no discount, try using your school, or other organization.

 

Here are the links to check your discounts (some of them tell you the discount percentage right away, while others require you to login to your account or pretend to start a new account first).  Start saving money today!

 

 

AT&T Wireless : https://www.wireless.att.com/business/authenticate/

 

Verizon Wireless : http://www.verizonwireless.com/employee-discounts-email-authentication.shtml

 

Sprint: http://sprint.p.delivery.net/m/p/nxt/dev/wdyw.asp

 

T-Mobile : https://my.t-mobile.com:443/Corporate/Default.aspx