re: AT&T ups the ante - Will offer of the cheapest family plans starting Feb 1st

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Is the ATT Next a good option? Seems like you pay monthly for the devices rather than up front.

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ATT NEXT plan is an inherently evil plan that is designed to make ATT lots of money at your expense. I don't want to get into what makes it evil, but you can read all about it here.

But there is a way around it:

Under the NEXT plan, if you upgrade your phone after every 12 months, you have to trade in your old phone to get a new one (you can't sell your old phone to pay for a new phone). The $325 or so payments you would have made towards that phone in one year goes down the drain if you do that. It is almost like leasing your phone.

However, with ATT now offering to take off the monthly payment once you have made the NEXT payments for 20/26 months, you have a chance to own the phone out-right at the end of 20-26 months. Personally I would do that, because at the end of about 2 years, I still have a phone that I could sell for $200-300 on Ebay or Craiglist or at the very least give to a family member, or if I decide to keep it, my monthly bill would go down by $25-35, because I have already paid $650 in installments to ATT which is the true cost of the phone.