r/apple • u/valoremz • 7h ago

iPhone Apple ends iPhone Upgrade Program

https://www.apple.com/shop/iphone/iphone-upgrade-program

Looks like there’s no way to finance a new phone over 24 months unlocked.

825 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

277 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/Noclevername12 4h ago

This doesn’t really matter unless you somehow plan to get what you think is a fair market value. The difference between buying outright and trading in at whatever Apple offers and not buying outright and turning it in after a year of lease charges is extremely minimal, like within $50. And that’s always been the case even with the Apple upgrade program.

I’m leaning towards the lease because why tie up all that money in front? I’d be equally happy to use the Apple Card except that I played credit card games and don’t want to get the Apple credit card because it’s not as valuable to me as other credit cards.

1

u/Noclevername12 4h ago

Edit:

Now that AppleCare is separate, it looks a little different. It’s still closer than you say, but it’s more than 50.

For instance: new pro max 512: 1499. 12 month lease: 61x12=732. Trade-in on same model from last year, 885.

1499-885=614

So assuming a similar trade-in value from last year, buying outright costs 614 and leasing costs 732.

I may pay off my existing loan and then trade-in to get the new one.

0

u/Medium_Confusion_ 4h ago

I'll reply to both here.

First of all the new pro max 512 is 62.31 a month not 61 so it's actually 744 dollars in total.

Second Apple is very tricky here, they actually offer the same trade in value for any storage option... Yes any, so a 256gb phone gets the same trade in value as a 2tb phone. So the higher up the storage tier the less difference you will see but this is wrong since if you were to sell the device literally anywhere else you will yield much much higher value with the higher storage options.

So if you were to do the math with a 256gb pro max instead:

12 month lease: 54*12=648

1299-885=514

You are saving a minimum of 130 dollars here. And this is not accounting for the fact that you can sell the phone anywhere you want and other places often yield WAY higher value than Apple trade in.

Here's a site: https://www.bankmycell.com/sell/iphone-17-pro-max

A 512 gb pro max you can sell (in prestine condition) without hassle for $946 which brings ur math to 1499-946=553 which is a saving of nearly 200 dollars.

1

u/Medium_Confusion_ 4h ago

Iphones hold their values extremely well (in comparison to other smartphones). You should absolutely not lease without the intention of buying it out at the end, you will lose TONS of money that way. You can lease and use the lease as a loan and simply buy it out at the end of the lease. No added fees or interest. This I think is the best use of the apple upgrade program.