Those tears of joy shed by iPhone loyalists are turning into cries of grief with the announcement by AT&T that it will impose a $200 fee to upgrade to the next-generation iPhone, which lands in stores Friday.
For iPhone 3G users who are not eligible for subsidized pricing, the upgrade “tax” brings the grand total to not $200 or $300 — but a hefty $400 or $500 for the iPhone 3GS, depending on the model (16GB or 32GB, respectively).
But tech geeks and criminal masterminds share one philosophy: They understand there’s a way around everything. You don’t have to pay that extra fee, iPhone 3G customers. Here are a few quick, painless methods to shave off that $200.
Sell your iPhone 3G to Gazelle
Gazelle, an e-junk trader, is offering $200 to $300 for used iPhone 3G handsets, depending on their condition. The site makes it extremely easy to sell your iPhone: Just enter “iPhone 3G” in the search bar, select your model, click “Sell it now,” rate the condition of the phone, mention which of the included accessories you still have and then click “Calculate.” Then, Gazelle will give you an estimate. As you can see in the screenshot above, a 16GB iPhone 3G in perfect condition, including accessories and the instruction manual, will sell for $232. Not bad!
From there on, Gazelle will send you a shipping label to print out. Then you’d pack your iPhone in a box, slap the shipping label onto it, drop the package at a UPS location and wait for payment. Oh, and it gets better — this week you get an extra 10 percent for your iPhone if you use the coupon code “iPhone.” Pretty sweet, huh?
I sold my first-generation MacBook Pro through the site, and I got a pretty good deal. I procrastinated on shipping it out, and Gazelle even sent me a notebook-friendly box to ship it in. After dropping off my MacBook Pro at UPS, I received the promised payment within a week. (If you lie about the product’s condition, of course they’ll dock some dollars off the provided estimate.)
Unlock your iPhone 3G and sell it on Craigslist
This is a pretty obvious option: Stick an ad on Craigslist asking for a reasonable price for your iPhone 3G. Don’t expect much from AT&T customers, though, since Apple is still selling the iPhone 3G for a new low price of $100. Your target market is non-AT&T customers who have intentions to Jailbreak and unlock the iPhone to work with their carrier.
Want to add value to your used iPhone 3G? Jailbreak and unlock the thing yourself, before you put it on Craigslist. To figure out how to do that, visit the Dev-Team Blog, where a group of hackers is providing all the instructions and tools to stick it to the man.
Pay the early termination fee
We’re listing this trick last because it’s the least beneficial. You pay a fee to cancel your AT&T account before the two-year contract is up. Here’s the kicker: The fee is pro-rated; Each month AT&T shaves $5 off your termination fee. That means if you bought the iPhone 3G when it hit stores in July 2008, you’ll be paying $120 rather than the initial $175 termination fee ($175 – $55 = $120). Then, you start a new AT&T contract with a new iPhone 3GS.
With this method, after adding the $120 and the $18 account setup fee, the total for the 16GB iPhone 3GS comes to about $340. That’s $60 less than you’d have to pay normally. The cons: You’re committing to yet another two-year contract with AT&T; sometimes early cancellation is subject to extra fees and a new number, according to Cult of Mac.
Not ideal — and what are you going to do with an extra iPhone lying around anyway? Just sell it with one of the tips listed above.
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Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Already the 3GS is incurring fanboy wrath: For 3G owners not yet eligible for a new phone, the 32GB costs $499 and the 16GB costs $399—and even more without contract. Three tiers of official pricing below:
