[Retric]

Without trade in AT&T has iPhone 16 @ 11$/month * 36 months = 396$. iPhone 16e @ 6$/month * 36 months = 216$. https://www.att.com/buy/phones/browse/apple/

Without any contracts an unlocked (renewed) iPhone 15 through Amazon 400 - 500$.

[laurencerowe]

That off requires committing to a $65/month plan for 36 months instead of paying $25/month with someone like Visible for an equivalent plan. So really you're paying $1836 for that iPhone 16.

[Retric]

Hardly, you could do a one time payment of 500$ in a new iPhone 16e or 730$ for a iPhone 16 with AT&T’s prepaid annual 20$/month plan. https://www.att.com/buy/prepaid-phones/browse/apple/

There’s no free lunch here, cheap plans are noticeably worse in various ways, but like cable companies carriers don’t want to give you a good plan without bundling phone upgrades.

Visible’s $25/month plan mentions unlimited Hotspot for example, but good luck finding they always cap you at 5 Mbits on their website. Suddenly it makes more sense why someone might bump up to their $45/month plan for 3x the Hotspot speed. Even then 15Mbps isn’t that bad, but it’s a long way from 5G could provide.

[laurencerowe]

There are definitely folks who need that hotspot speed but many who don’t. I’m on WiFi most of the time nowadays so switched to MobileX and spend about $5 a month on my mobile plan.

[Retric]

Yea, cheap plans are definitely worth it for some people just not everyone.