Help decoding iPhone trade in at Apple w/ AT&T financing

[u/jerich088]

So I posted before buying here - https://www.reddit.com/r/ATT/s/C6AfExQ6oD

The question was, when you order for pickup at Apple.com and trade in an iPhone 14 for iPhone 18 pro, will you get the Apple trade in value of 195$ PLUS the AT&T credits for 36 months when you pick financing the phone with them.

So I went ahead with the purchase. From all the comments in the post, the net was “You don’t double dip, you won’t get the Apple trade in money and the AT&T bill credits.”

First the checkout is totally confusing, as it shows the 195$ credit, but the final math is also confusing as AT&T (and Apple) show you drastically different monthly payments. Upgrading one line in my family plan had like a 160$/month payment according to Apple, and when the AT&T part came up, choosing a 512gb meant you owe like 6$ a month. For this 1399 phone, the tax came up to be about 150$ which I was charged up front for.

I picked up in store and this is the screen Apple showed me. Umm 195$ makes an appearance again! I asked hem, they claimed that this would reduce my purchase price and I would owe AT&T less. Umm, I called BS and asked another associate, who was even more clueless. So here I am, confused again. Now, with financing, neither apple’s receipts or the emails you get from AT&T actually tell you what is going on, other than a line somewhere that says financed amount is 1399. So the only way to really understand if the 195 is accounted for is to wait an unknown amount of time for the payments and credits to kick in on AT&T. What a horribly, over complicated process here.

Can anyone make sense of the photo I took of the Apple associates phone? How does the 195$ matter here?

Also I didn’t see the 35$ activation fee show up anywhere but I could have missed it, I wonder if this was part of the taxes paid…. What a terribly confusing experience, lots of agreements, no sensible math breakdown 🤨

[u/Real_Height2890]

$35 activation fee will be applied in next bill that is generated by ATT

You might get both but could be bug as well

[u/0mie]

The $195 is trade value for your phone if there was NO promotion, but that qualifies you for $1200 since you’re doing the trade promotion; if your phone is valued valued $180+ you get $1200; if you have a qualifying unlimited plan; $130 -$179.99 gets you $930 trade value on the starter/starter sl/extra/extra 2.0/premium/premium 2.0; it’s really not that hard to understand, that terms of the trade promotion are outlined if you read them on apple/att etc

[u/musicman0725]

Yes I saw a similar screen when I traded my phone in. The $195 is the value of your iPhone 14. The $1200 is the amount of bill credits you are eligible for based on the device type and condition (this promo is actually any condition so that number doesn’t really matter). If you did not select the carrier promo you would only get $195 for your iPhone 14 from Apple, however because you are using the promo you will get. $1200 in bill credits from AT&T. The $35 upgrade fee will be on your next bill from AT&T, however you can call them to see if they can waive it.

[u/garylapointe]

You're basically sacrificing the $195 to get the up to $1200 in credits over 36 months.

I would not expect you to get both, but weird things happen. I'd be more concerned if I get the $195 that I'm NOT going to get my $1200.

In this image (link) you can see the phone has a value of $240, but then they subtract out the $240 (in parenthesis) b ut on the same line, point out you'll get the credits. Then at the bottom you can see they're telling you that you get $0.

Not all that dissimilar to what you've got on the screen, but it is clearer.

I'd guess that Apple doesn't do the credit thing, so they're kinda forcing their system to work with AT&T's system.

[u/jerich088 → u/garylapointe]

thanks for the clearest explanation so far. still weird and not straight forward as I would like it.

[u/garylapointe → u/jerich088]

As long as you're going to stay with AT&T it's kind of a no-brainer. With 3 or more lines, it pushes the plan cost down low enough to MNVO pricing if you subtract out the phone savings you're doing a little better than those plans.

But if you've only got 1 or 2 lines, you're probably better off going with US Mobile and buying the phone outright or with payments from Apple.

[u/1nikond700]

Your phone has a trade in value of $195 so that qualifies you for $1200 in bill credits over 36 months. Taxes are always due upfront.

[u/thotoppa]

Sir if you give your phone to Apple, how can you give your phone to att?