A Prepaid iPhone Coming Soon?

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!

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!

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

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!