How to buy a phone direct from Apple when I’m on an existing AT&T plan?
February 24, 2022 12:19 AM Subscribe
… with minimal hassle. Details within.
I’ve bought many iPhones through the years but always through the AT&T store on a payment plan. I’m planning to buy a new iPhone now through Apple. At checkout, there is the option to choose a carrier or choose a carrier-neutral phone. What does it matter if I select AT&T during the purchase process or select neutral and set it up later? Is one easier? And will I need to bring my phone to an AT&T store either way, or can I set it up from home?
Side question: I will also be buying a new Apple Watch, and possibly want it to use the Internet independent of my phone. I see that that makes the watch more expensive. Does it also cost an additional charge per month on my plan, or just the normal data/calling charges? And do I have to do anything special to set it up, like go in store?
Basically I’m trying to decide if I can do this all from home or should just buy all my shit at the AT&T store to make it easy if I have to go out anyway. Please ELI5, I haven’t upgraded my tech in a long time and I’m technically still on a family plan with a bunch of people that I don’t administrate. Thanks in advance for your help!
I’ve bought many iPhones through the years but always through the AT&T store on a payment plan. I’m planning to buy a new iPhone now through Apple. At checkout, there is the option to choose a carrier or choose a carrier-neutral phone. What does it matter if I select AT&T during the purchase process or select neutral and set it up later? Is one easier? And will I need to bring my phone to an AT&T store either way, or can I set it up from home?
Side question: I will also be buying a new Apple Watch, and possibly want it to use the Internet independent of my phone. I see that that makes the watch more expensive. Does it also cost an additional charge per month on my plan, or just the normal data/calling charges? And do I have to do anything special to set it up, like go in store?
Basically I’m trying to decide if I can do this all from home or should just buy all my shit at the AT&T store to make it easy if I have to go out anyway. Please ELI5, I haven’t upgraded my tech in a long time and I’m technically still on a family plan with a bunch of people that I don’t administrate. Thanks in advance for your help!
Response by poster: Perfect, thanks! In case it changes things I am currently planning to buy the phone online and do it at home, but if that makes it significantly more complicated I will go into the store. (My phone is only slightly less ancient, lolol)
I do have data in a few apps that I want to save (Strava, etc.) so if there are certain things I should make sure of in advance, will do. I assume most things are in the cloud these days but will double check.
posted by stoneandstar at 12:30 AM on February 24, 2022
I do have data in a few apps that I want to save (Strava, etc.) so if there are certain things I should make sure of in advance, will do. I assume most things are in the cloud these days but will double check.
posted by stoneandstar at 12:30 AM on February 24, 2022
You’re good at least with Strava- it’s all in the cloud. If you want to reassure yourself, though, just go to the Strava website and log in there and you should be able to see all your stuff (I can, at least).
posted by charmedimsure at 12:50 AM on February 24, 2022
posted by charmedimsure at 12:50 AM on February 24, 2022
I'm just saying the transfer was not as seamless as it could have been. He had to log into each app and those that have settings saved in the cloud did retrieve them, but it was done per app, manually, rather than having a seamless transition.
posted by kschang at 1:21 AM on February 24, 2022
posted by kschang at 1:21 AM on February 24, 2022
The reason to pick a carrier-associated model of iPhone when buying through Apple is financial, since they are $30 cheaper and they also give you access to the carrier’s financing and trade-in deals that may be better for your situation.
posted by michaelh at 3:09 AM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by michaelh at 3:09 AM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
I did this, but for a different carrier. I ordered online from Apple. When it arrived, I backed up my current iphone to my laptop, switched the SIM card to the new phone and activated the phone, & then restored the backup to the new phone. That kept all of my settings, photos, app data, etc. intact.
posted by belladonna at 3:35 AM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by belladonna at 3:35 AM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
Assuming you already have an iPhone, the migration process from your old to new phone is VERY easy and you can do it yourself from home. AT&T doesn’t even need to know you have a new iPhone, you just move the SIM card from one phone to the other. All you have to do is turn on the new iPhone and it will walk you through the entire process — you don’t have to think too hard about the exact order to do things in. Apple has some fancy new system for transferring your app data and settings where you scan a magic code on one phone with the other and it magically transfers everything. I did this last year and I was shocked at how easy the migration process has gotten. It took me about 10 minutes (plus ~20 minutes of waiting for the data to transfer).
The only reason you would need to go to an AT&T store is if your old phone is old enough that the SIM card doesn’t work in the new phone, in which case you’d need to walk into an AT&T store and request a new SIM. I think that’s pretty unlikely though.
posted by mekily at 4:42 AM on February 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
The only reason you would need to go to an AT&T store is if your old phone is old enough that the SIM card doesn’t work in the new phone, in which case you’d need to walk into an AT&T store and request a new SIM. I think that’s pretty unlikely though.
posted by mekily at 4:42 AM on February 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
This may not be helpful, but if you're paying for your own phone out of pocket I highly suggest looking at a carrier like Mint Mobile ... you will save a ton of dough on your plan.
posted by cyndigo at 5:20 AM on February 24, 2022
posted by cyndigo at 5:20 AM on February 24, 2022
The reason to pick a carrier-associated model of iPhone when buying through Apple is financial, since they are $30 cheaper and they also give you access to the carrier’s financing and trade-in deals that may be better for your situation.
I did this recently, paying in full, and found that there was a surprise $30 “One-Time AT&T Upgrade Charge,” which neatly clawed back the value of my trade-in. Still, I was pleased not to have to go to a store.
It’s likely that buying the phone un-associated and shoving in an old physical SIM would work just as well, and it’s possible that it might dodge the upgrade fee. Whether it’s worth having one more thing to potentially go wrong and force you into a store is another question.
I found that the migration was slightly harder than it should have been, because copying from my old phone to my new phone directly kept stalling and failing in strange and opaque ways. Restoring the new phone from iCloud backup worked acceptably, though.
posted by musicinmybrain at 5:43 AM on February 24, 2022
I did this recently, paying in full, and found that there was a surprise $30 “One-Time AT&T Upgrade Charge,” which neatly clawed back the value of my trade-in. Still, I was pleased not to have to go to a store.
It’s likely that buying the phone un-associated and shoving in an old physical SIM would work just as well, and it’s possible that it might dodge the upgrade fee. Whether it’s worth having one more thing to potentially go wrong and force you into a store is another question.
I found that the migration was slightly harder than it should have been, because copying from my old phone to my new phone directly kept stalling and failing in strange and opaque ways. Restoring the new phone from iCloud backup worked acceptably, though.
posted by musicinmybrain at 5:43 AM on February 24, 2022
- Selecting the AT&T option vs connect on your own later should not make a difference now. The main difference would be if you wanted to switch carriers later and the model you purchased didn’t have support for the new carrier (if you purchased the “AT&T” model). Another thing to consider (particularly if coming from an older phone to an iPhone 13) is the type of SIM card you have. The 13 supports 5g, but you may need a new SIM. Your old SIM will probably still function, but may not give you 5G. If you select the AT&T model, it comes with a new SIM card, already connected to your account. If you don’t, you would want to contact AT&T and have them mail you one.
- You can also trade in your old phone for credit towards your new one, from home. Select trade in during checkout, and they will send you a kit to ship your old phone back. You can wait to send it until your new phone is up and running.
- Regarding the Apple Watch, yes it would be a separate charge on your AT&T account. I think it $10/month-ish? It’s treated as a separate line on your account that shares your data plan, so any data usage comes out of your phone’s data allowance. You can also set all this up from home.
Note: I just saw your note about being on a plan you don’t administer. You will probably need the plan admin to log in at some point to approve adding the Apple Watch to the plan, since it incurs additional monthly fees. This would be true whether you did it in person or online. In fact, it will probably be easier to do all this from home; otherwise that person may have to go with you to the store to setup and purchase.
posted by bluloo at 8:35 AM on February 24, 2022
- You can also trade in your old phone for credit towards your new one, from home. Select trade in during checkout, and they will send you a kit to ship your old phone back. You can wait to send it until your new phone is up and running.
- Regarding the Apple Watch, yes it would be a separate charge on your AT&T account. I think it $10/month-ish? It’s treated as a separate line on your account that shares your data plan, so any data usage comes out of your phone’s data allowance. You can also set all this up from home.
Note: I just saw your note about being on a plan you don’t administer. You will probably need the plan admin to log in at some point to approve adding the Apple Watch to the plan, since it incurs additional monthly fees. This would be true whether you did it in person or online. In fact, it will probably be easier to do all this from home; otherwise that person may have to go with you to the store to setup and purchase.
posted by bluloo at 8:35 AM on February 24, 2022
The "phone locked to carrier" nowadays is a non-issue, because Apple tries to make one phone that works all over the world by making it compatible with every 5G and LTE band in the world (and another reason why 3G is being sunset'ed). You can still get phones "locked" to a carrier if you are financing it, but if you're paying cash it would be an unlocked phone, period, and it's easier for the phonemakers to make one model for everybody rather than one for this and one for that for ease of support.
So the only reasons to go directly to the carrier is 1) you want the carrier "upgrade" discount and/or existing customer discount 2) you want the carrier financing, rather than Apple's financing and 3) you get the phone pre-configured to the carrier out of the box rather than go through some config process in your hand.
posted by kschang at 9:32 AM on February 24, 2022
So the only reasons to go directly to the carrier is 1) you want the carrier "upgrade" discount and/or existing customer discount 2) you want the carrier financing, rather than Apple's financing and 3) you get the phone pre-configured to the carrier out of the box rather than go through some config process in your hand.
posted by kschang at 9:32 AM on February 24, 2022
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The watch with its own data plan will add to your monthly cost, but generally not that expensive, extra 10-20 a month. Check with your carrier. You should be able to upgrade your plan from the carrier app or with a phone call.
posted by kschang at 12:25 AM on February 24, 2022