3 lines on-contract til May 2015

[LVMHgirl]

So we have three lines with AT&T with iPhone 5's on contract until May 2015 with the family share plan. We were planning on buying iPhone 6/6+ full retail for lines 1 & 2 because we (lines 1 & 2) don't want to do the Next plan and the "early" upgrade price only discounts the phone $200 and we'd be stuck on a contract and wouldn't be able to unlock the new phones. We'd rather pay the full price and be off-contract. Line #3 is happy with the 5 and not interested in upgrading to the 6 at this time.

Also, we were planning on switching to the mobile share plan soon which would save almost $100 a month.

The question is, does anyone here know what happens if line #3 decides to upgrade their phone, let's say after the contract expires in May. Lines 1 & 2 would be off contract. Since we would no longer be on the 2-yr contract, would the 3rd line have the option to get a new phone for the subsidized price and be on contract or would they have to be on NEXT (because they would not want to pay full retail up front), while lines 1 & 2 others are off-contract?

Thanks

(sorry if this has been asked elsewhere - did a search and didn't find the same situation)

 

[zerog46]

As long as the contract is up for line 3 I don't see why you would not be able to upgrade at the new price. None of the lines being out of contract should have anything to do with any other lines. I always pay out of contract on my phone and not my families, they upgrade every two years.

 

[LVMHgirl]

Thanks zerog46!

 

[Anthonyiamador]

I was just in this situation myself. This is what I did.

I have 4 lines 1 line was not on contract and the other three were. I wanted the new iPhone 6 so I did a cross upgrade with the line eligible for the neXt. I got the phone I wanted, the line no longer has a contract even though I just signed up for the 2 year contract 5 months ago.
I'm paying the full retail for the phone $649 which I can pay off at any time through neXt. Only taxes were due at time of shipping and the best part is, I requested my iPhone 5 that I got 5 months ago to be unlocked and they approved it!

So bottom line is, if you're eligible for the next plan I would highly recommend using it.
1. I'm only paying the $649 for the 16 gig iPhone 6. No fees.

2. I can pay the $649 off at any time I want, which I can then request AT&T to unlock.

3. The phone I had on contract (iPhone 5) is now currently unlocked.

Isn't that everything you wanted?

 

[LVMHgirl]

^Thanks Anthony!

Yes, after not being able to find any phones available for sale at full retail anywhere, I actually called AT&T today, switched to the mobile share plan and verified that we could basically pay off the phones immediately on the Next plan and still be off-contract. So, the good news is that we have our phones (6+) on order, the bad news is that we have to wait until Oct 21-28, lol. But if we happen to find them in a store before then, we can cancel the online order.

The only thing we couldn't do is get the current 5's unlocked. They said we had to wait until the contracts expired in May.

How did you get them to unlock them? Maybe we should request to do it again after we receive our phones but before we pay them in full so the new phones will be the ones linked to the current contract?

 

[Anthonyiamador]

Yes you should be able to unlock once neXt kicks in. I was told the same thing but realized that neXt isn't a "contract" so neXt should cancel out the contract once it kicks in. Then go to this site https://forums.imore.com/e?link=htt...viceunlock%2Fclient%2Fen_US%2F&token=QDs_5ouF and request unlock. Be aware that you are only allowed so many requests per year believe. Try one and if it works do them all.
Worse case scenario is once you pay off your new iPhone 6's you can technically unlock all your previous phones respectively. Glad I can help.

If you think about it neXt is just a interest- free loan.

P.S remember a contract is tied to the line itself and not the phone.

 

[LVMHgirl]

^Thanks again, Anthony!

And thanks for the link!

 

[Anthonyiamador]

^Thanks again, Anthony!

And thanks for the link!

Please let us know how it works out once you get your new phones and attempt to unlock your current ones!

 

[LVMHgirl]

Will do! Have also been searching around for the phones in-store with no luck. (Well, actually I did find one for personal pickup at a store last week at 1 am and actually got a "we have an iPhone for you!" reservation number and email but there was a "failure to communicate" glitch with the carrier so the next day there was no iPhone for me at the store. Ugh. Double ugh because I had canceled my 10/21-28 order to get the pickup order and afterwards had to place a new order with a later ship date. )

I am hopeful though, because last night I found four stores with phones available but just not in the color we want. So we should have our phones soon. Really wish I comprehended earlier that we could pay off the phones immediately (basically buy them outright) on the Next program because I definitely would have pre-ordered.

Anyway, I will definitely update when I attempt to unlock the 5's.

Thanks again for all your help!

 

[Anthonyiamador]

Will do! Have also been searching around for the phones in-store with no luck. (Well, actually I did find one for personal pickup at a store last week at 1 am and actually got a "we have an iPhone for you!" reservation number and email but there was a "failure to communicate" glitch with the carrier so the next day there was no iPhone for me at the store. Ugh. Double ugh because I had canceled my 10/21-28 order to get the pickup order and afterwards had to place a new order with a later ship date. )

I am hopeful though, because last night I found four stores with phones available but just not in the color we want. So we should have our phones soon. Really wish I comprehended earlier that we could pay off the phones immediately (basically buy them outright) on the Next program because I definitely would have pre-ordered.

Anyway, I will definitely update when I attempt to unlock the 5's.

Thanks again for all your help!

No problem, in confident everything will work out for you guys

 

[LVMHgirl]

I was able to find a 6+ (YAY!) on Friday and bought it outright/no commitment. Went online to do the unlock request for my old 5 but it looks like one of the requirements is that I need to wait for the 14-day buyer's remorse period for the 6+ to pass.

So...I will update in two weeks.

 

[LVMHgirl]

Update:

Submitted unlock requests for the 5's which were denied because the 5's are technically still under contract since we bought our 6+'s outright/no-commitment. I kind of expected that but thought I'd give it a try since we are still on AT&T with new 6 +'s that are still currently (technically, at the time of the 5 unlock request) locked to AT&T anyway.

So we will just have to wait until May 2015 to unlock the 5's. We're keeping them for backup anyway, so no biggie.

 

[LVMHgirl]

Update:

Unlock requests for 6+'s approved.

 

[Anthonyiamador]

Update:

Unlock requests for 6+'s approved.

Thanks for the update! Glad everything worked out like planned. Were you able to unlock your other iPhones as well?

 

[Anthonyiamador]

Never mind, I just realized they can't be unlocked until May of 2015. Try again, I bet you are able to, I was able to as right after I upgraded and I had just started the old contract not even 4 months ago.

 

[LVMHgirl]

Never mind, I just realized they can't be unlocked until May of 2015. Try again, I bet you are able to, I was able to as right after I upgraded and I had just started the old contract not even 4 months ago.

Hi Anthony!

They won't unlock the 5's until May because we bought the 6+'s at full retail so there isn't a new contract/Next plan to take over the current one.

Thanks for checking in and thanks again for your help!