When I heard about Sprint’s newest offer, where you switch over to them and they pay off your phone AND buyout your contract I was excited, but cautious.
I have seen phone companies promise a lot and give back very little, so I hoped for the best, but expected the worst.
The good news is, Sprint really will pay off your phone and your old contract, just like they said.
The bad news is it does come at a price, putting consumers right where they were before the switch – only with Sprint instead of another company.
Plus, the whole process is a bit confusing and time consuming, which is a turn-off.
Let me explain-
With Sprint’s new deal anyone can bring their old number and switch using Sprint’s Easy Pay or Sprint Lease and they’ll “pay off your contract and whatever you owe on your phone via an American Express® Reward Card after online registration and phone turn in.”
Okay, right there is the first and most glaring issue: you have to switch using Easy Pay or Lease.
For those who don’t know, Sprint Easy Pay is a plan where you make a down payment on a new smartphone (unless you have perfect credit), then make payments over a 24-month period.
With Easy Pay you also pay the FULL, unsubsidized price of the phone, no discounts.
Sprint’s Leasing plan is similar: you can lease a select variety of iPhones and Android phones, with the option to buy it at the end of your leasing period or upgrade when a newer model becomes available.
Again, for the newest phones, you will have to put money down if you have less than perfect credit, then pay monthly.
There is also a $36 activation fee with the leasing plan and a$10 monthly fee to allow you to upgrade early if you want.
Not to mention the phone still belongs to Sprint unless you buy it at the end, so you need to be sure you don’t damage or lose it if you plan to give it back.
Finally, while you’re not paying full price for the phone, you still pay more than you would on a two-year contract with a subsidy.
So that means that Sprint is paying off your phone- just to free you up to start paying for one of theirs.
Even worse, their phones are more expensive because you are paying retail price – no money off like when you sign up with other carriers.
Yes, I know that no matter what company you choose you will have to pay for a phone, but how is this a deal then?
Where are the savings?
Yes, they will pay off your existing contract, but there is no termination fee to pay off if you don’t switch, so again, how are they helping you to save?
Sprint’s service plans are the cheapest around, but not by much, as illustrated in a report by Droid Life.
As the article shows, versus T-Mobile they are neck-and-neck in pricing and even Verizon is comparable when larger data packages are used, so where is the payoff to switching?
Especially when you factor in that Sprint ranks at the bottom when it comes to quality service.
The other issue with this offer is you have to wait for them to send you a pre-paid Visa card to pay everything off, after you register and send in your phone using their return kit.
It takes about a week for them to send the kit and another 15 days from when they receive it to send the card.
So you will be waiting a month or longer to get this all done.
Unless you love Sprint, this sounds like a lot of hassle for such little payoff.
While their plans cost a bit less, they also give you less in comparison to Verizon and AT&T, proving that you really do get what you pay for.
What do you think of Sprint’s latest offer?
Tell us what you think below and be sure to follow all my latest TV and streaming reports on Twitter.
Have A Question? Ask Jessica!
-
Jessica: Hi, I'm Jessica, the Consumer Press AI, can I help you with a consumer question?
