Is AT&T Next a terrible deal?

I've seen smart people on here argue both sides with 100% certainty so I have no clue.

You're probably losing a little money by turning it in for a new phone and not selling on eBay/craigslist and then buying your next phone. If you don't do the trade in, just pretend you bought the phone for full cash price, the next plan is just the retail price of the phone divided up into equal payments over the term. You're right though, for $25 extra dollars a month in your plan, the next plan (or buying outright) is better than buying a subsidized phone.

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You may already know this too, but you don't have to trade in the phone if you pay all of the monthly payments.

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Yeah, the 12 month upgrade is divided into 20 monthly payments I think. 12/20, 18/24, and 24/30 if I remember correctly.

When I signed up you could pay $200-250 up front for the fanciest phone and 2 year contract for lets say $100 a month.

Or you could pay nothing up front, $100 a month, and about $25 a month for the phone. BUT, you would get a $25 a month discount for having a NEXT phone and getting a data plan over a certain amount.

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It would suck for me because I have the unlimited data (please for the love of chocolate don't come freaking out about me saying the "unlimited"). 

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I was on the old unlimited data plan until several months ago when my wife convinced me to get a shared data plan with her. It really saved us some money and I don't come close to using all of our data. I know how you feel about that plan.

It depends on how long you keep your phone and various other factors.

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Is AT&T Next a terrible deal?

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No, not necessarily. You have to realize two things:
#1: AT&T has done a terrible, TERRIBLE job of marketing this.
#2: AT&T is going to jack up the cost of your line if you dont.

I went to the store and told them I wanted to know exactly what I was going to pay, so the girl had an app that she plugged everything into and showed me. That is not available on their website and is part of the confusion.

I ended up with 10gb shared a month with two 128gb iphone 6s for $4 more than I was paying previously for 6gb and a iphone 5 and 5s. It cost me $70/phone in taxes the day of.

If you choose not to use Next, then AT&T will add $25/line when you upgrade. Its not really a "discount" like they say.

Before you walked into Best Buy, what were you paying a month for your service (and how much data), and how much did you pay for your Note 2?


But ignoring service costs, let me paste in what I said in an older thread:

If I were on the Mobile Value Plan, I'd just buy my phone outright elsewhere and keep it for as long as I wanted, whether it's 12 months, 6 months, 14 months, etc. Then I'd sell the old phone and use that money toward a new one. For a couple of reasons:

1. Ordering online, depending on your phone choice and where you buy it, may spare you the sales tax that AT&T would charge, or you might get it for less than retail.

2. Smartphones reasonably hold some value for a year or two, even Android phones. For example, if you'd purchased an HTC M8 when it first came out under AT&T Next 12, you'd have paid all sales tax on it (~$58), then $32.50 a month for 12 months, totaling $448 for the phone, which you then give back if you want a new phone. You'll then pay another $448 to use your next phone for a year.

However, after a year, you could've sold that HTC M8, if in good condition, for $350-400. Put that money toward the new phone of similar pricing, and you're paying around $350 tops for your new phone instead of the $450 to AT&T. If you were considering AT&T next 18 or Next 24, it makes even more sense to buy your phone outright instead, because over 18 months, you'd be paying 75% of the value of the phone and then giving it back to AT&T. You could sell that phone for well above 25% of its original value after 18 months. AT&T doesn't penalize you with the $25 add-on if you buy your phone elsewhere, only if you use the 2-year contract subsidy. It's essentially their way of eliminating this option for everyone except the folks with old, grandfathered plans.

I was able to get a 128gb iPhone for $4 more a month than the 16gb. I've been wanting a larger phone, and I'm extremely happy I did.

I was already on the family share plan, I switched a few years ago when I had an iPad for work.

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You get to keep the phone when you upgrade unless you trade it in earlier than whatever Next plan you signed up for. In that case, you would simply pay the balance to keep it.

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This is what I meant, but I worded it poorly. Basically, anyone who goes with Next with the intent to trade it in before they pay it off should consider buying the phone elsewhere instead and selling it when they're ready to upgrade. My example was for a brand new phone under ATT Next 12 specifically, where the monthly charge is $32.50 a month for a $650 phone.

Otherwise, yes, it's interest-free financing.