How to get an iPhone for under $200

[Pryde]

This is for the people who are considering on getting an iPhone.

As most of you are aware, Apple has slashed their iPhone to $400. There's a way that you can actually get it for under $200, but it takes a little work. It's not too hard, well at least it wasn't for me.

Here's the deal. You MUST NOT be under contract with AT&T/Cingular.

It's simple, just follow these steps.

1. Goto www.Amazon.com and purchase a blackberry curve for about $75 with a 2 year deal.

2. Go buy an iPhone, but DO NOT activate it.

3. Once you blackberry comes in the mail, switch that phone # you have over to the iPhone.

4. Sell your blackberry on Ebay for a good $300 or more.


So, I originally bought my iPhone for $600 when it first came out, but I had a friend who worked at Apple, so I actually got it for $450 with no tax included, since it was tax free day. Since I got it before they slash their prices, I actually got the $100 rebate. So now my costs was actually $350. I sold my Blackberry phone which costed me $67 at that time with shipping included. and actually sold it on ebay for $350. So in the end, my iPhone actually costed me under $100!

Also, if you want to, you're able to transfer your current # over to your iPhone, but you'll have to do that after you activated the iPhone, you just have to call AT&T up.

[Wil]

Amazon has to have some sort of thing where if they don't get the commission for the activation they made, then they may be able to go after you. There is no way that they are going to be letting the phone go and not get commission off of it by giving you an already subsidized price.

I know a lot of other indirect/authorized dealers have some similar way of preventing a loss but if Amazon doesn't, then by all means abuse that loop hole until it closes.

[orochizoolander]

I was thinking of gettin an iphone but...iono this soudns kinda shady.

If i could get a blackberyy that cheap why would anyone buyt it from me online for $300?

[Pryde]

lolz, all me and my friends did it. People will buy it, because alot of people are not willing to go under contract with their phone company. or Pay $400 + for it at the store. Check ebay and look up black berry curve or black berry 8300, same phone. See it to believe it.

[Wil]

Amazon and other dealers won't know if they will get the commission from AT&T for at least a couple months so once they are informed, they may go after you.

What you can do is get a new phone like Curve at the discounted price and then buy an iPhone. But what you don't do is go through the activation process and just skip it. How to skip it? Well check HoFo for more information. After you're done with skipping the activation process, you should be able to put in your SIM card from the Curve into the iPhone without fiddling around with your contract and not forcing to get the iPhone data plan.

This loophole however may be watched over by AT&T was they may just switch the customer over to the iPhone data plan or even make the customer pay for the pay per use for data should the customer have an iPhone but not the data plan.

[Pryde]

Wil: You lost me here. An activation is an activation. They're setting up a new account. So Amazon.com will get the activation fee. The iPhone you buy will obviously have NO service. So who loses out? You're just transferring over the service from the black berry to the iPhone, there's nothing wrong with that. They already created a new account. So....I'm confused by what you're saying.

[Wil]

It's because Amazon will get a bounty for the activation only after a certain number of months after the customer has activated with the desired provider. The bounty is based on the contract signed at the time of activation.

Now if you go out and buy an iPhone and activate it, you will be required to get the iPhone data plan and sign another 2-year contract voiding the contract signed with Amazon. Therefore, Amazon will not get the bounty and Amazon loses out. That is why Amazon may end up going for you because they didn't get the bounty. It may still be a loophole that isn't closed, but I ain't going to run out and do this just to find out. :sweat:

[Wil]

I was thinking of gettin an iphone but...iono this soudns kinda shady.

If i could get a blackberyy that cheap why would anyone buyt it from me online for $300?

It's because the $75 for the BB is for activating and signing a contract. Dealers give customers a discount if the customer goes through them for an activation.

The $300 for a BB Curve WITHOUT a contract is a deal, IMHO.

[Wil]

Anyways, if you were able to get past this loophole, more power to you. Heh the interesting part is if this does work, I realize that you would have to pay an activation fee twice with one going to Amazon and the other through iTunes.

Pryde: Did you jailbreak your phone yet? I just did. AIM on iPhone = w00t. :p There's also a IRC chat client for it too that you can install. Hehe #capcom here I come. :D I haven't been on there for years now.

[Wil]

According to some information that I have gathered on other message boards, Amazon will definitely go for you if you activated with them and changed your smartphone data plan to something like the iPhone data plan.

You could go to a indirect however and get a phone from there as long as there is no secondary clause that requires you to stay on that specific voice/data plan for a certain amount of months.