T-Mobile tries to make the Galaxy Note 9 more affordable with 36 Month Contracts

[AluminiumTech]

T-Mobile is trying to make the Galaxy Note 9 more affordable for customers by trialing 36 Month Contracts.

 

Customers would pay the same upfront cost but the amount to be paid per month would decrease and customers would pay the tariff for 36 months instead of the traditional 24 months.

 

Currently T-Mobile is offering customers with "Awesome Credit" a Note 9 for $24.17 per motnh for 36 months (Total $870.12) with no upfront cost.

 

Quote

T-Mobile has adjusted its Equipment Installment plan to 36 months for certain devices, as spotted by TmoNews. The company’s normal payment plan has historically been 24 months.

T-Mobile hasn’t made a formal announcement about the change, but it does appear that the 36-month payment plan is being offered for the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, which nixes the need for a down payment and drops the monthly payment cost to $24.17. Additionally, on T-Mobile’s Equipment Installment Plan support page, the language has been amended to say “After any required down payment, the remaining balance is divided into 24 installment payments (36-month EIP terms may be available on select devices) on your monthly bill.”

 

Personally I'm not sure if this is such a good idea as I think current 24 month contracts are a bit long as is and I would like to be able to pay off a phone in 12 months rather than 24 but that's just me .

 

Sources:

https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/15/17979728/t-mobile-galaxy-note-9-36-month-equipment-installment-payment-plan

https://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone/samsung-galaxy-note9

[DrMacintosh]

Could I put some money down and pay that rate for fewer months? That sounds better to me  

 

Spoiler

Or you could just buy a cheaper phone

 

[AluminiumTech]

1 minute ago, DrMacintosh said:

Could I put some money down and pay that rate for fewer months? That sounds better to me  

Yeah. Some kind of contract where you pay for the phone and data for  12 months and then you only pay for data and stuff for the next 12 months .

 

That would be wayy better imho but then Students wouldn't be able to pay for the Note 9 and other expensive phones .

[DrMacintosh]

5 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

That would be wayy better imho but then Students wouldn't be able to pay for the Note 9 and other expensive phones .

I think most people would be happy with something like the iPhone XR. Doesn't break the bank at $750, carriers are going to subsidize the s*it out of it, and it has all the features that you could want......like Animoji.....

God save us......

[AluminiumTech]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

I think most people would be happy with something like the iPhone XR. Doesn't break the bank at $750,

Ooof. Idk who's paying your phone bills but for Uni Students the iPhone X, XS, XR, S9, Note 9 or Pixel 3 are all wallet rippers.

 

Especially XS Max which is close to £60 ish per month for 2 years.

[DrMacintosh]

Just now, AluminiumTech said:

Ooof. Idk who's paying your phone bills but for Uni Students the iPhone X, XS, XR, S9, Note 9 or Pixel 3 are all wallet rippers.

Just be unemployed and live with a parent and collect thousands in FAFSA money  

[Curufinwe_wins]

1 minute ago, AluminiumTech said:

Ooof. Idk who's paying your phone bills but for Uni Students the iPhone X, XS, XR, S9, Note 9 or Pixel 3 are all wallet rippers.

 

Especially XS Max which is close to £60 ish per month for 2 years.

Heh I only paid $517 after tax for my S9+ after trading in an s7 (on secondary market only worth like 150-200) direct from Sammy. Sometimes the rewards of preordering are worth it (when you 100% know what the device is going to be like anyways).

[Trixanity]

1 hour ago, AluminiumTech said:

Personally I'm not sure if this is such a good idea as I think current 24 month contracts are a bit long as is and I would like to be able to pay off a phone in 12 months rather than 24 but that's just me .

Luckily my provider has 4 options: 6, 12 and 24 month payment plans with no hidden fees or added costs. The fourth obviously being to pay the full price immediately. 

[D13H4RD]

That awkward moment when monthly phone payments are now considered the norm. 

 

Wasn't too long ago where we had $199/$299 subsidies 

[Taf the Ghost]

40 minutes ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

That awkward moment when monthly phone payments are now considered the norm. 

 

Wasn't too long ago where we had $199/$299 subsidies 

They don't need to attract new phone purchasers. Cellphones are already ubiquitous. 

[D13H4RD]

2 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

They don't need to attract new phone purchasers. Cellphones are already ubiquitous. 

Pretty much, although some countries do still offer subsidies.

[SlidewaysZ]

Why do people continue to pay so much for phones you just have to know how to work the system. I literally never pay more than $250 for a flagship phone every single year just by timing trade in value with price cuts and sales. No joke I'm currently paying $9 a month for my s9+ and I bought it less than 3 months after release.

[Trixanity]

2 hours ago, Shorty88jr said:

Why do people continue to pay so much for phones you just have to know how to work the system. I literally never pay more than $250 for a flagship phone every single year just by timing trade in value with price cuts and sales. No joke I'm currently paying $9 a month for my s9+ and I bought it less than 3 months after release.

Because not everywhere gets potato prices after 3 months. I can find an S9+ offer for $600 if I'm lucky.

[Sauron]

10 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

That would be wayy better imho but then Students wouldn't be able to pay for the Note 9 and other expensive phones .

Maybe they should buy a cheaper phone then... it's not like there's anything crucial you can do on a note 9 that you can't do on a 200$ phone. Besides, in the end you're still paying almost 900$ for a phone, if money is a problem that sounds like a bad idea.

[mr moose]

Can they do the same thing if it decides to blow up? like can they get it to blow up over several weeks as well, you know, give you a chance to take it out of pocket or something?

 

Seriously, if the device you are buying will be obsolete before it's paid off then you can't afford it.  Eat the snow tyres.

[Sauron]

2 hours ago, Shorty88jr said:

Why do people continue to pay so much for phones you just have to know how to work the system. I literally never pay more than $250 for a flagship phone every single year just by timing trade in value with price cuts and sales. No joke I'm currently paying $9 a month for my s9+ and I bought it less than 3 months after release.

You're still dropping 250$ per year - that's 750$ every 36 months which isn't that much lower than this...

[Linus_torvalds]

10 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

That would be wayy better imho but then Students wouldn't be able to pay for the Note 9 and other expensive phones .

I'm sorry but is it a must to have S9 or iphone Xs or macbook? Do not have money do not buy expencive things. Even that i could buy macbook or iphone, first of they are crap! Second there is nothing you can do on flagships that you can't do on budget phones. Thing is for example xiaomi budget phones are even better at many things then those 900$ phones. Some of them look better, their battery lasts longer. Xiaomi had 4100 mah batteries 3-4 years ago and their phones have 2 days of battery life. Now they even charge much faster then any iphone EVER! They even have features like FM radio, Ir blaster, 3.5 mm headphone jack that no iphone had EVER!

 

For macbook alternatives which BTW are VERY LOW quality

There are prety good deals for LEGENDARY thinkpads. I have bought 2 thinkpad t440s with 8 GB RAM, 250 GB SSD and 1080P IPS displays for 192$ and 234$ last month on ebay. They work great they even have spill resistant keyboards. Thinkpads are made with military standards! They are much more relible then any macbook! Even the slimest thinkpads have twice more ports! Haveway better keyboard and so on.

 

Students have made apple and other companies expencive product a must like their social status depends on what phone or laptop they have.

[D13H4RD]

Speaking as a Note user. 

 

There are some things that it offers which might be useful, such as the stylus (I use it frequently for notes) alongside some of its add ons.

 

All very nice, but is that worth $1000 especially for a student? Personally, I don't think so. You can get a solid midrange phone and be just as happy with it. 

[Bananasplit_00]

And I thought 24 months was excessive... Guess this is nice if you know you want to keep the phone for that long though

[MMKing]

Hey if it makes people keep their phones for 3 years, power to them.

[AluminiumTech]

3 hours ago, mate_mate91 said:

I'm sorry but is it a must to have S9 or iphone Xs or macbook?

No, it's not necessary but neither is buying a car or a house or going to the doctor when you're sick.

 

A lot of things are not necessary but are good things to spend money on anyway.

 

A lot of people don't have enough money to buy a car and yet they do it anyway through financing. A lot of people don't have enough money to buy a house so they get a mortgage. A lot of people don't have enough money to buy a flagship so they get a financing plan for it.

 

Unless the salary of the average person drastically increases, people will still need financing plans for expensive things.

3 hours ago, mate_mate91 said:

Even that i could buy macbook or iphone, first of they are crap! Second there is nothing you can do on flagships that you can't do on budget phones. Thing is for example xiaomi budget phones are even better at many things then those 900$ phones. Some of them look better, their battery lasts longer. Xiaomi had 4100 mah batteries 3-4 years ago and their phones have 2 days of battery life. Now they even charge much faster then any iphone EVER! They even have features like FM radio, Ir blaster, 3.5 mm headphone jack that no iphone had EVER!

Budget phones are great phones for some people. They may not be suitable for everyone.

3 hours ago, mate_mate91 said:

snip

 

In my experience amongst Students, if nobody can tell what phone you have as a Student then your social status is probably affected as a result.

[Noctus]

8 hours ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

That awkward moment when monthly phone payments are now considered the norm. 

 

Wasn't too long ago where we had $199/$299 subsidies 

When was it not the norm? Been a thing in the UK since the original iphone lol 

[AluminiumTech]

4 hours ago, Sauron said:

Maybe they should buy a cheaper phone then... it's not like there's anything crucial you can do on a note 9 that you can't do on a 200$ phone. Besides, in the end you're still paying almost 900$ for a phone, if money is a problem that sounds like a bad idea.

Let's be real, most students will buy the expensive phones on financing options and will eat cup noodles everyday or something to make sure they can afford it.

 

I can count the number of people I know irl who have a sub £300 phone on 1 hand.

 

The majority of my friends (who are all students) have flagships. Almost none of them paid the upfront full price and almost all are on financing plans.

 

When I was arranging to get my S8 for £23 per month after discount the person across from me who looked like a student was getting the XS 256GB for like £60 ish per month.

 

One of my friend's last year bought an iPhone X when it came out for around £50 per month and they super could not practically afford it .

 

3 minutes ago, Noctus said:

When was it not the norm? Been a thing in the UK since the original iphone lol 

In some countries it's not the norm such as in Hong Kong and a few other countries.

[Noctus]

14 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

In some countries it's not the norm such as in Hong Kong and a few other countries.

Fair enough, just figured contracts was the standard practice unless buying the mid - lower/mid and below ranged phones etc

[Sauron]

8 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Let's be real, most students will buy the expensive phones on financing options and will eat cup noodles everyday or something to make sure they can afford it.

That's not something I would encourage though let alone in places like the US, where higher education itself can cost as much as multiple luxury cars...

8 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

I can count the number of people I know irl who have a sub £300 phone on 1 hand.

The majority of my friends (who are all students) have flagships. Almost none of them paid the upfront full price and almost all are on financing plans.

 

When I was arranging to get my S8 for £23 per month after discount the person across from me who looked like a student was getting the XS 256GB for like £60 ish per month.

I get it, I just don't think it's a good idea. Being a student myself I wouldn't even consider a phone like that, and not because I couldn't afford it - I'd rather spend my money on far more cost effective things, or keep it. My entire home network and the dozen of computers I own (which include a storage server and a beefy 1U), put together, where most likely cheaper than what some people pay for a phone and a laptop.

 

I understand that it happens, I just don't understand why you'd think that, given limited resources, people would go for the best value whenever possible... then again companies like Samsung are clearly no amateurs when it comes to riding the trend wave...