Need to get a new iPhone. Cheapest way to get one?

[Synomenon]

I had a 32GB iPhone 4 (AT&T). Something happened this week and long story short, I don't have that iPhone anymore. I'd like to get another one, but the price for one w/ no upgrade discount is $699 + 8.1% tax. I realize this is a good opportunity to take a look at something else (Android maybe?), but I already have alot invested in iOS and Cydia / jailbreak apps. so I'd like to stay with iOS.

What's the cheapest way to get a new one without having to pay the full price?

Open a new line, get the discount and then cancel the line (after one month) while paying the termination fee?

I'd rather not go to eBay or Craigslist.

 

[gorcorps]

my frend said he gets free stuff thru torrent or sumthin... u could try that?

 

[Dulanic]

You've just mentioned pretty much all your options. Ebay is usually the best bet but you want to avoid that so you are limited to what you just mentioned. Pay the no sevice price, break a contract, or ebay. AT&T doesn't ban phones from a broken contract like that right? I'd assume no as long as there is no balance.

 

[alent1234]

buy a 3G on ebay or CL, wait until you are eligible for an upgrade, but the 5

or use a dumb phone until upgrade eligible and get a iTouch

get an android phone and a gen 1 iPad - probably your best bet. a lot of android features are only found on jailbroken iphones. you can probably dump your paid cydia apps since the same thing is free or very low cost on android. and use an iPad for your iOS apps

 

[Raduque]

Fleabay or Craigslist is going to be your cheapest source for an iPhone 4 32gb.

Open a new line of service with ATT, and you'll be paying $200 for the phone, + $375 to cancel the line + the first months service, and you're going to be over $750 and that's not counting taxes.

 

[pm]

As others have said, you have pretty much gone through the possibilities. Your choices are: pay full price, start a new contract, Ebay, craigslist or find a friend who wants to sell theirs.

Pay full price is $700 + tax
Start a contract is $300 (phone, it's 32MB, Rad) + $375 + $30 activation + $50 for first month + tax = $755 + less taxes

iPhone 4's on Ebay and Craigslist are a bit dubious - I tried this a while ago and I found most of the cheaper ones had an unclear trail of ownership (ie. they looked stolen/acquired to me). If you are willing to drop to an iPhone 3GS you can get something for a lot less and it's less likely you are buying something stolen.

One other option is to find a friend/family/coworker who is with AT&T, is out of contract, is happy with AT&T, and has a phone that they like, and offer to pay them to get you an iPhone 4. That shaves off the biggest cost (the termination and activation fees). Admittedly finding a happy out of contract AT&T customer who loves their current phone is a bit of a long shot... but that's how I got my iPhone 4.

 

[MotionMan]

I had a 32GB iPhone 4 (AT&T). Something happened this week and long story short, I don't have that iPhone anymore. I'd like to get another one, but the price for one w/ no upgrade discount is $699 + 8.1% tax. I realize this is a good opportunity to take a look at something else (Android maybe?), but I already have alot invested in iOS and Cydia / jailbreak apps. so I'd like to stay with iOS.

What's the cheapest way to get a new one without having to pay the full price?

Open a new line, get the discount and then cancel the line (after one month) while paying the termination fee?

I'd rather not go to eBay or Craigslist.

As others have said, you pretty much outlined all your options.

However, we don't want the short story. We want the long story!

MotionMan

 

[Capt Caveman]

Mug someone with one coming out of the Apple Store?

 

[kaerflog]

iPhone 4's on Ebay and Craigslist are a bit dubious - I tried this a while ago and I found most of the cheaper ones had an unclear trail of ownership (ie. they looked stolen/acquired to me). If you are willing to drop to an iPhone 3GS you can get something for a lot less and it's less likely you are buying something stolen.

I totally disagree with this statement.
I've bought many many IP4 from Craigslist and maybe twice I thought they were stolen.
You can get one from CL for $400 or under easily.

 

[Ns1]

I totally disagree with this statement.
I've bought many many IP4 from Craigslist and maybe twice I thought they were stolen.
You can get one from CL for $400 or under easily.

anyway to verify whether or not the phone was stolen / is there any recourse?

 

[dlock13]

anyway to verify whether or not the phone was stolen / is there any recourse?

You could call a customer service rep and see what happens.

I should have clarified that you have to have the MEID number before calling.

 

[gorcorps]

anyway to verify whether or not the phone was stolen / is there any recourse?

If you have a serial number I believe Apple has a S/N lookup. It's mainly for warranty info, but I also think it has reportedly stolen phones too.

 

[pm]

I totally disagree with this statement.
I've bought many many IP4 from Craigslist and maybe twice I thought they were stolen.
You can get one from CL for $400 or under easily.

Well, maybe you are from a more trustworthy part of the country. But out of the four iPhone 4's that I looked at around Mar. of this year, I got to the point where I was going to buy the end of the conversation went something like this:
"Are you the original owner?"
- Yes.
"Do you have the original box?"
- No.
"Do you have a receipt from AT&T or Apple or the contract or any paperwork at all of the details?"
- No.
"Would you be willing to call Apple or AT&T and get a copy?"
- No.
"Can you offer any proof that you purchased the phone?"
- No.
"Ok, well, thanks. I think I'll keep looking"
- Wait. I'll knock $50 off the price.

And if you think I'm making this up or you want to disagree that this is what happened... then ok. But it did. The above transcript was more or less word for word two of them. Another one was a guy who constantly changed his mind on selling it - ok, he might have been legit - he said he had a receipt but no box - but he was frustrating. He agreed to the deal, we agreed to meet. He wanted cash. We were an hour before we were supposed to meet and he calls and raises the price by $50 to $450. I said no, and he calls back a day later and offers it again at $400. Then we are supposed to meet at noon at Starbucks and he calls 20 minutes before we meet and tells me he changed his mind. Then he calls back the next day and offers it again. And I told him he has to be kidding. The last guy was legit - he worked for Amgen, had the original box, said he bought a Verizon iPhone, etc. - but he changed his mind several times too and he strung me along for almost two weeks. So I gave up on him too.

If you've had better luck than this, but I think 3 out of the 4 phones that I tried to buy up here in Northern Colorado in one month (Mar. 2011) on Criagslist were dubious and even the one that was probably legit was really annoying.

 

[Synomenon]

That's how my experience has been with CL and eBay as well.

 

[pm]

On the topic of Ebay, I'm selling my iPhone 3GS on there right now. When I look at the competing listings a lot of them say "unlocked" but they are using that iPad unlocking trick that pretty much locks down the firmware forever unless you are a hacker but none of them mention this. I can post up a bunch of listings like this.... but this is pretty sleazy... they don't mention that there's a major drawback to their "unlocked" iPhone... which is that you have to roll your own .ipsw to upgrade it in the future.

 

[kaerflog]

Wait so since they don't have a receipt, you assume its stolen ??
What if that person just got the IP4 from someone they know and just trying to sell it ??
This is CL afterall, people selling used stuff.
If you are looking to buy stuff with old receipts, sure the sellers would advertise so.
I totally agree that there are alot of fruitcakes on CL and many many times, people change their mind all the time but to assume that its stolen merchandise is wrong.

And we are not talking about CDMA phones, you plug in a working sim, and its good to go.
Haven't bought a GSM phone that didn't work with a working sim.

 

[pm]

Wait so since they don't have a receipt, you assume its stolen ??
What if that person just got the IP4 from someone they know and just trying to sell it ??
This is CL afterall, people selling used stuff.
If you are looking to buy stuff with old receipts, sure the sellers would advertise so.
I totally agree that there are alot of fruitcakes on CL and many many times, people change their mind all the time but to assume that its stolen merchandise is wrong.

And we are not talking about CDMA phones, you plug in a working sim, and its good to go.
Haven't bought a GSM phone that didn't work with a working sim.

If they don't have a receipt, they don't have the original box, and they can't provide a single bit of proof that they own it, then yeah, I'm going with the idea that they "acquired it". If they are selling it for someone else, they should still be able to come up with some paperwork - I mean, who doesn't have any of the paperwork or the box or anything from a phone purchase? For most people, this is a 2 year phone contract and several hundred dollars and they don't have any proof of the transaction...? I sell phones for friends and neighbors and family members - I've probably sold 12+ iPhones on Ebay - and I always offer the box and/or the receipt.

I'm not saying these guys are all thieves - that they mugged or broke into someone's house - but I do know that a lot of phones are lost and they get sold, and I don't want to pay money to someone for a phone they don't own. With all the people working in restaurants, bars, movie theaters, amusement parks, hotels and other places that people tend to lose phones, I really do think that a lot of the phones on Craigslist and Ebay where people can't give any paper trail at all are not totally legitimate. Or they are repaired by the seller but the seller doesn't want to admit it. Yeah, maybe I'm too suspicious, but this is $400+ which is a reasonably large amount of money to me.

 

[kaerflog]

I'm like you that i keep receipts of everything I buy.
I also keep all the boxes and accessories.
But its amazing to me that I know so many people throws everything away after they buy something.
I just can't assume that everyone is like me.
We are talking about a used market afterall.
If a person doesn't advertise a receipt, I don't expect it.
Its a used market. I test everything out before I hand over the money.
I've bought over 10+ IP4(and more other iphones) through CL with 0 problems.
Like I said, I test it out with a sim and if it works, then it works.
Its not like CDMA phones where you need to activate it.
I also don't go around assuming most phones sold on CL are stolen goods.