The Cheapest Way To Get The New iPhone Every Year

What is the cheapest way to get the new iPhone every year? You have four options: do a trade-in deal through the carriers, do a carrier trade-in deal through Apple, do the Apple iPhone Upgrade Program, or buy the iPhone unlocked from Apple and sell your old iPhone yourself.

Let's start with doing a trade-in deal through the carriers. You can either get a plan that includes a free phone every year, or you can get a plan that gives you a discount but requires you to pay off your phone every year before you upgrade.

Let's focus on the plans that include a free phone every year. Only three carriers offer this: Boost Mobile, T-Mobile, and AT&T. But how do these plans work?

Let's start with Boost Mobile. Boost Mobile's Infinite Access for iPhone plan includes $1,000 off a Pro Max model iPhone today with no trade-in, and then $1,000 off the latest iPhone every year with a trade-in. The question becomes, how much does this cost per year?

Let's say you have the iPhone 15 Pro Max and you want to upgrade to the iPhone 16 Pro Max. And I'll be using the Pro Max model iPhones in this video as an example because it is the most popular model iPhone. The good news is everything we cover in this video should also apply to the regular, the Plus, and the Pro model iPhones as well. I'll even leave a spreadsheet linked in the video description with all of the calculations done for you so you can compare the yearly upgrade costs for the model iPhone you're interested in.

Okay, so you're ready to upgrade to the new iPhone on Boost Mobile. How does it work? Boost Mobile's plan is on a three-year financing agreement, so you divide the full cost of the iPhone by 36 months to get your monthly device payment. You divide the $1,000 of promo credit by 36 months to get your monthly bill credits. And now you take the device payment, subtract the credit, and you pay $55.55 on your new iPhone. That's $666.60 per year. Then you add in the cost to buy out your old phone. This is $0 because Boost Mobile waves all future payments owed on your old iPhone when you trade it in. And now you add in the cost of the plan to get a yearly total of $872.64 to get the newest Pro Max model iPhone every year from Boost Mobile.

What does T-Mobile do? T-Mobile's eligible plan is the Go 5G Next plan. This is $100 per month. It works the same way, but the financing period is 24 months instead of 36 months. So you divide everything by 24. Take the device credit and subtract the promo credit, and you pay $83.34 per month on your new iPhone. That's $1,000.08 per year on the cost of the phone. $0 to buy out your old phone because T-Mobile waves all future device payments when you trade your old phone in. And $1,200 per year on the cost of the plan. That gives you a grand total of $1,300.08 to own the latest iPhone every year on T-Mobile.

What about AT&T? AT&T offers their AT&T Next Up Anytime add-on. This is a $10 add-on that lets you upgrade your phone anytime you want to after just one device payment is made. The kicker is that after 12 months, you're eligible to upgrade and take advantage of AT&T's best trade-in deals. In theory, that means you'll be able to get $1,000 off the latest Pro Max model iPhone every year because that's been AT&T's best device promotion for the past few years. Financing agreements on AT&T are over 36 months, so divide everything by 36. Take the device payment, subtract the discount, add in $10 extra for the Next Up Anytime add-on, and you're looking at $15.56 per month for the cost of your phone over one year. That's $186.72. Now add in the buyout cost, which is $0 because AT&T waves all future device payments when you trade your old phone in. And add in the cost of the plan. This gives you a yearly total of $1,382 to own the newest iPhone every year from AT&T. That's honestly not too bad.

So right now, we've got Boost Mobile in first as the most affordable option, AT&T in second, and T-Mobile in third. Those are the plans that include a free phone every year. But what about the plans where you need to buy out your phone every year? How do these work?

These are the plans that most people are on. The way these work is you're still eligible for the $1,000 off promotion you see the carriers advertising. But like with the plans we just mentioned, the credit is applied over 24 or 36 months instead of upfront. And if you want to upgrade early, which is what you want to do if you want to get the latest iPhone every year, then when you do that, you forfeit any future promotional credits and you have to buy out the remainder of your phone.

But how does this impact your cost for upgrading to the new iPhone every year? Let's use Verizon and its Unlimited Ultimate plan as an example. With Unlimited Ultimate, you get $1,000 off the new iPhone 16 Pro Max with trade-in. The phone is financed over 36 months, so you've got your device payment, your credit, and the $5.55 per month that you pay monthly for the phone. That comes out to $666.60 per year.

But what about the buyout cost? The financing agreement is 3 years, and to be eligible to upgrade early, you need to buy out the remainder of your phone. Here's how it works: the device payments are always $33.33 per month for the first year. You get $27.78 of credit, so you only pay $5.55 out of pocket. And after your first year, even though you would have only paid $66.60 out of pocket, a full one-third of the phone, or $399.95, would have been paid off. And that's a great deal. Unfortunately, the remainder of the phone has not been paid off, and because you're upgrading early, you forfeit those bill credits. So the buyout cost of the phone is the full $33.33 per month times 24 months. That's $799.99.

So now you've got the yearly cost of the phone, the buyout cost, and the cost of the plan. And all of a sudden, you're looking at $2,287 to own the latest iPhone every year from Verizon on the Unlimited Ultimate plan. And the other plans aren't much better: Verizon Unlimited Plus is $1,962.48 per year, T-Mobile Go 5G Plus is $1,864.42 per year, T-Mobile Go 5G is $1,950 per year, and AT&T Unlimited Starter SL is $1,784 per year.

How do all of the options stack up? It turns out that all of the plans where you need to buy out your phone are more expensive than the plans that include that free yearly upgrade. Going with a plan that includes a free yearly upgrade saves you between $358 and over $1,150 per year. We still have more plans to cover, though, and there are two options that are even more affordable than Boost Mobile. We'll get to those in just a minute.

But first, those were the carrier trade-in deals through the carriers. What about doing a carrier trade-in deal through Apple? The reason this is even an option to consider is it turns out if you're a T-Mobile or a Verizon customer and you do a trade-in deal directly through Apple, you get two forms of credit. You get instant credit upfront for the value of your trade-in device, and then you get the remainder of the promotional credit applied as monthly bill credits. And this lowers your annual device cost per year.

Let's look at Verizon's $1,000 off promotion again, but this time going through Apple. Here, you take the full price of the iPhone, you subtract your instant trade-in credit for trading in last year's Pro Max model iPhone, and then you have the remaining balance that will be financed over 36 months. So you divide that balance by 36 and you get your device payment. And then you divide the remaining promotional credit by 36 to get your monthly discount. Add everything up, and you're looking at $55.52 per month in terms of phone payments. That's $666.24 per year.

But what about the device buyout? This is where everything changes. The financed amount is $559. You pay $55.52 per month for your first year, but with the added promo credit, a full one-third of the amount is paid off, or $186.74. To buy out the remainder of your phone, you now just pay $15.52 per month times 24 months. That's $372.48, which is way less than the $799 from before. Add everything up, and your yearly total is just $1,039.22. That is over $400 less per year than doing the same deal through Verizon directly. Looking at the other options here, Verizon Unlimited Plus comes out to $1,534.80 per year, and T-Mobile Go 5G Plus comes up to $1,559.04 per year. You may be wondering, why is there no T-Mobile Go 5G Next plan? While you can initially sign up for the T-Mobile Go 5G Next offer on Apple's website, it turns out you need to do all future device upgrades through T-Mobile directly.

Okay, how does everything stack up now? Doing carrier trade-in deals through Apple slot in right in the middle of everything we've covered so far. They're about $150 to $600 more expensive than the plans that include a free yearly phone upgrade, but they are around $100 to $400 cheaper than doing the trade-in deals through the carriers directly.

But what about those two options that are even more affordable? Don't worry, we're getting there. Next up is the Apple iPhone Upgrade Program. This is what a lot of people think of when they think of getting the newest iPhone every year, and it's pretty simple. You select what iPhone you want, and the full cost of the iPhone and AppleCare+ is spread out over 24 months. For the entry Pro Max model iPhone, that's $58.32 per month. After 12 months, you're eligible to upgrade. You can trade in your current iPhone to Apple, Apple clears out any remaining payments owed on that device, and then you get your new iPhone and a new set of payments start. That's $699.92 per year on the cost of the phone. You pay $0 on the buyout, and then you add in the cost of whichever cell phone plan you choose. These plans do have to be from AT&T, Boost Mobile, T-Mobile, or Verizon, though. If we use AT&T's Unlimited Starter SL plan as an example, your total comes to $1,550.52 per year. However, if we use Boost Mobile's Unlimited plan, which is the new most affordable option for the iPhone Upgrade Program, your total comes out to just $1,249.90 per year.

When we add the iPhone Upgrade Program options to the list, they seem reasonable at first glance. That is until you realize you can save money by going through AT&T directly with the Next Up Anytime add-on or by going with Boost Mobile directly with their Infinite Access for iPhone plan. So the iPhone Upgrade Program probably isn't worth it.

And before we talk about the best options for families, which you'll want to stick around for because prices change a lot for two, three, four, and five lines with the multi-line discounts, we finally have our two options that are more affordable than any of the other ones. What are they?

It is time to talk about the fourth method of getting a new iPhone every year, and that is buying an unlocked iPhone from Apple and selling your old iPhone yourself. This method is straightforward. You buy your new iPhone unlocked from Apple at full price, you subtract however much you sell or trade in your old iPhone for, and then you pick any cell phone plan you want to. And this is where you can really save some money. You can consider unlimited data plans from Visible, Cricket, Metro by T-Mobile, or US Mobile that are all just $25 per month. Or you can get a super affordable plan from US Mobile that's just $15 for 5 gigs of data. Or you can get the premium Visible Plus plan for $45. This comes with priority data, unlimited hotspot data at 10 megabits per second, great international calling and roaming features, and a free Apple Watch line as well. This is the plan I have with my personal number on it, and I think it's a great value.

You can also lower your cost by getting more money for your old iPhone. Here's how much money you'd get from Apple, OC Buyback, Swappa, and Facebook Marketplace for trading in or selling your old Pro Max model iPhone. My favorite option here is Swappa because I believe it's the best balance of time you put in and money you get out. You don't have to deal with messaging potential buyers and coordinating meetup times like you do on Facebook, and you're way less likely to get scammed. Plus, for the extra effort of taking a few photos and creating a listing, you'll get around $150 more than by trading in with Apple directly. As you can tell, I'm a fan of Swappa. I've sold 26 items on there and bought another 11 items, and I've even got my iPhone 15 Pro Max listed on there right now. Don't worry, I'll keep it in great condition, so I suggest you consider Swappa when you go to sell your old iPhone.

Of course, Apple is also great for the convenience. There is nothing more convenient than going to an Apple Store, handing them your old iPhone, and walking out with your brand new iPhone all in one seamless transaction. Plus, Apple's trade-in credit applies towards the purchase price of the new iPhone, so you end up paying less in taxes. The biggest downside to Apple is they give you the same trade-in credit regardless of what storage capacity iPhone you have. So if you paid extra to upgrade to the 512 or 1 terabyte models, you may want to consider selling on Swappa or Facebook Marketplace to get more money for your pricier model.

So where does this leave you when it comes to upgrading your iPhone every year? I'm going to use Swappa and trading in with Apple as examples because those are my two favorite options, and I'm also going to use Visible's $25 unlimited plan and $45 unlimited plans as example plans because I think they are great value. For these examples, your totals come to $699, $849, $939, and $1,089 per year to own the latest iPhone. And here is how these new options stack up when we add them to the rest of the pack.

So before we move on to family plans, what is the best way to get a new iPhone every year? If you want the best price, buying your iPhone from Apple and selling your old phone on Swappa and then going with an affordable prepaid plan such as Visible's $25 unlimited plan is your best option. If you want the most convenient option at a great price, you may want to consider Boost Mobile. It's not that much more expensive, and Boost makes it super easy. You don't need to worry about selling your phone or anything like that. You just order your new iPhone, trade in your old iPhone to Boost, and you're done. If you want convenience and flexibility, then you may consider trading your iPhone into Apple and getting a cell phone plan of your choice. A $25 plan such as Visible's base will be a great value, and a more premium plan such as the $45 Visible Plus plan will still be a good value, but it is more expensive. If you want the best option from a major carrier, then AT&T's Next Up Anytime add-on paired with the Unlimited Starter SL plan is your best bet. And if you plan on getting AppleCare+ with your phone, then you may consider doing the iPhone Upgrade Program with Boost Mobile's $25 unlimited plan. In fact, if you add in the cost of AppleCare+ to the rest of the plans, suddenly the Apple iPhone Upgrade Program jumps up and becomes the fourth most affordable option. Plus, it's got some nice benefits such as always giving you an unlocked phone and the convenience of doing your trade-in directly with Apple.

Okay, back to normal pricing now. I know some of you out there are die-hard AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon customers. You've been loyal customers for the past 20 years and you're not going to switch no matter what, and that's totally fine. That's awesome. So quickly, right before we dive into family plans, these are your best options if you want to stick with a plan from one of the big carriers.

If you're an AT&T customer, your best option is hands down the AT&T Next Up Anytime add-on. It saves you over $200 per year versus buying the phone from Apple and selling on Swappa. You could save money by considering a prepaid plan, but if you want AT&T directly, Next Up Anytime is your answer.

On T-Mobile, your best option is surprisingly to go with the T-Mobile Go 5G Next plan. It's the most affordable option, and it also happens to be T-Mobile's most feature-packed plan, so I think you'll really like it. Now, you could save between $450 and $600 per year by considering one of the prepaid options, but that's totally up to you.

And on Verizon, your best option is to get the Verizon Unlimited Plus plan and do your trade-in directly through Apple. That is actually crazy. That is your best option still. It is expensive, though, and considering a prepaid plan could save you between $445 and $835 per year.

Okay, what about family plans? For two lines, selling on Swappa and going with a prepaid plan such as Visible Base is the cheapest. Boost Mobile remains the best combination of price and convenience, and AT&T Next Up Anytime remains the best option from a big carrier.

For three lines, things change up a surprising amount. Going with Swappa and Visible Base is still the most affordable option, but now AT&T's Next Up Anytime offer is in second place, and even more surprising, T-Mobile's Go 5G Next plan is in third. This is a great deal. You're getting T-Mobile's best plan and a new Pro Max model iPhone every year for just $820 per line per year. It's also worth mentioning that trading in with Apple or selling on Swappa remain good values here as well, and they give you the flexibility to choose any cell phone plan you wanted to. As one example, you could grab Total Wireless's promotion right now where you pay just $15 per line per month for unlimited priority data on the Verizon network. This is one of the best deals the prepaid industry has ever seen, and getting such an affordable cell phone plan can save you a lot of money in the long run.

For four lines, AT&T jumps up and becomes the single most affordable option. Selling on Swappa, buying unlocked, and going with a prepaid plan is in second place, and in third place is T-Mobile, which remains just an awesome value. This is honestly the option I would sign up for if I had four lines that all wanted the new iPhone every year. And trading in with Apple or selling on Swappa remain reasonable options here as well.

As for five lines, everything is in the same order, but with lower prices per line. AT&T is in first, Swappa and T-Mobile follow closely behind in second and third, and then you've got Apple, Boost, and Swappa in fourth, fifth, and sixth.

There is one big caveat we need to mention for T-Mobile's Go 5G Next plan, and it's that the savings only work if all lines on the account are upgrading to the newest iPhone every year. This is because all lines on a T-Mobile account need to be on the same plan. So if only one line is upgrading every year, then you are effectively paying $10 extra per line per month on the other lines just for that one line to be able to upgrade early. With AT&T, you can add the Next Up Anytime add-on to just one line, so you're good there. And doing anything with Swappa or trading in with Apple directly gives you complete control and flexibility over when each line upgrades and what cell phone plan each line is on.

Also, I know a lot of people use the new iPhone deals as an opportunity to switch carriers. So if you're curious how your current carrier compares to the one you're thinking of switching to in terms of coverage or data speeds, then you may want to check out my free application called Coverage Map. You can use the coverage search tool to enter your state, city, county, or zip code and instantly see the carriers with the best coverage in your area. You can compare coverage percentages, download speeds, and reliability. You can also scroll down on the page to see a more detailed breakdown of coverage quality as well as the median download and upload speeds. And you can browse some pretty cool interactive maps. The speed test map is all crowdsourced speed test data that shows how fast each carrier is in a specific area. You can use the best view to instantly color the squares by the carrier with the fastest speeds in each square. And you can use the signal strength map to compare coverage footprints and reception quality between the carriers. The Coverage Map app is completely free, and if you're interested, you can download it right now at the link in the video description.

Okay, five miscellaneous things you should know that didn't quite fit anywhere else in the video. Number one: the prices for all cell phone plans and the yearly totals shown in this video include all estimated taxes and fees on the cell phone plans based on what I see in Longmont, Colorado. Two: the estimated totals did not include taxes and fees for the iPhone. Three: if you do a financing agreement, you typically do need to pay tax on the full cost of the phone upfront, even if the phone is advertised as being free. So for a $1,199 phone and 8% sales tax, that's $95.99. Four: if you trade your old phone into Apple, they typically deduct the trade-in credit from the final sale price, which means you'll save money on taxes and fees because you'll pay tax on that lower sale price. And five: I used the Pro Max model iPhone in this video as an example, but the relative pricing between the trade-in and the financing options will likely stay the same for the Pro, the Plus, and the baseline model iPhones as well. If you're curious, I will leave a Google Sheet in the video description with the full pricing breakdown between all the options.

If you enjoyed this video, please click the like button and share this video with one friend because it helps me out and I appreciate it. I'm Ston, and I hope that's helpful. I'll see you next time.