Originally Posted by billdokes

Yeah, as someone who has been in or associated with the 'phone business' for the past 20 years, I can tell you that's not a good deal.

The best/cheapest thing to do is buy the phone you want on sale at Best Buy and then sign up for a BYOD plan separately. The Carrier deals may look attractive but if you do the math they are not really and you're then locked in which you don't want in an environment where monthly rates continue to go down and available data continues to go up. In a lot of cases you have to return your phone in PRISTINE condition in 2 years and the whole thing starts over again.

When you want to change your phone you can always get more from Kijiji or Facebook Marketplace than the Carrier is going to offer you in residual value/trade-in, so if you have a credit card and a calculator you will always find you are better off to un-bundle the phone from the service and go BYOD as opposed to locking into a Carrier contract.

Best time to buy is usually: last 2 weeks of March, last 2 weeks of June, Back to School, Black Friday + Xmas...that's when the Carriers go to war with each other so the competition is greatest. Best Buy generally has the most aggressive offers in the market both in terms of raw price/value as well as 'extras' like Gift Cards.