Consumer Law

Free Phones Cost You Plenty

By Sam Glover

Most cell phone service providers offer a “free” phone when you sign up for a two-year contract. The phones are not free, of course, you just pay for them over time. How much? Nobody knows, but T-Mobile just gave a clue.

T-Mobile recently introduced a plan where you cannot get a “free” phone, and it costs $20 less per month than the plan where you can. $20 per month for two years pays for a pretty nice phone—a $480 phone, to be exact. But what are you getting? Most of the “free” phones available on T-Mobile’s website retail for $250 or less. That is a pretty steep markup.

Buy the phone up front; you will almost always save money in the long run.

Why free phones are expensive | Future Tense

Full post as published by Caveat Emptor on November 24, 2009 (boomark / email).