I haven't financed a phone for years.

I buy my phones cash and pay about 30$ for unlimited data on Mint.

I finance pretty much everything because it's easy to make 5%+ on cash and fixed payments gradually "decrease" with high inflation.

Verizon is like 100$ a month.

After year 1, your doing better buying the phone out of pocket.

1200 a year for Verizon vs 360$ for Mint.

1k for an iPhone, assume the phone is included with the plan. 2400$ for two years on Verizon vs 1k + 720 for two years of Mint.

We had Google fi for $25/line for 6 lines.

But VZW works out to $31/line for 6 lines; and we got 6 “free” iPhone 14.

So it definitely seems like the better deal over the 3 year contract period — $1300 extra for 6 new phones.

But I air quote becaus there were some extra activation fees, we pay monthly for the phones but then get a credit to zero it out which I worry is tricking me somehow, and I’m pretty sure our monthly service with VZW is NOT fixed under contract, so maybe they can jack up my monthly bill over the 3 years I’m paying off the phones?? I don’t know.

So far, 6 months in, it’s been a good deal but I much prefer buying phone outright and opting for cheapest service — but I THINK this promotion will get me out ahead, as long as I switch back to a cheaper provider at the end and don’t get an escalating service fee before phones paid off.

That's a good point, I generally only run one or two lines for myself.

I'm happy that you got a good deal, but I found phone salesman to be super sketchy when I was younger. I recall trying to buy a phone, and they didn't have it in stock. The clerk was like, it doesn't matter you should get the more expensive one because both are zero down.

I just finance directly with Apple. They offer the iPhone 15 Pro for $1000 or 24 monthly payments of $42. With 7% inflation you'd actually save ~$150 doing the monthly payments.