After having my trusty Samsung Galaxy S8 for almost 3 years, I cracked its screen. As I prepared for its imminent death, I started to look at my options for a replacement.
For as long as I can remember, I was limited to 2 options: either buy a phone outright for a hefty price or sign a contract with the devil (A.K.A. a phone provider) to soften the blow over years. Personally, I'd always chosen the contract route even though this meant that both my device and I were carrier locked. However, this time around, I considered buying a phone outright to avoid being chained to particular phone provider for any length of time.
However, I was pleased to find that there are a few more options these days. First, I noticed that Amazon offers payment plans for select devices, allowing me to soften the financial over 5 months. Then I found that Samsung, in partnership with PayBright, offers 36, 24, and 12 month payment plans. Both of these options are interest free, so there really doesn't seem to be any downside to spreading the payment out over time. Amazing, an unlocked device and the option to pay over time. I ended up acquiring a Galaxy S20+ through Samsung, opting into a 12 month payment plan. I was even more pleased to find that my payments do not start for a few months.
All of this led me to wonder, why would anyone choose to sign a phone provider contract? Are phone provider contracts going the way of Blockbuster? Are carriers upset that manufacturers like Samsung are undercutting their business? I'd imagine this would hurt their relationship to some extent.
Submitted June 24, 2020 at 08:58PM by jonbenta https://ift.tt/3du2yAh via TikTokTikk
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