Date: Sat, 5 Apr 2003 12:07:54 -0800 (PST) From: David Chien <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] US cellphones
> one can gather by browsing the major carriers' websites for about 2 hours > and getting lost in the fineprint) ... generally, is it better value for > money (on the low-end plans) to have your own cellphone then just pay the > carrier for service or is it better value buying a subsidized cellphone > with the carrier? Ohmegosh! Welcome to the Land Of Huge Cell Phone Rebates!!!!!! www.amazon.com is one great place to scope out the ideas. Here in the USA, the cell phone companies are practically begging you with hundreds of dollars in free money to buy a phone and sign up for service. It is almost impossible to pay for a cell phone after all of these rebates if you look for the good deals, and you can easily get yourself high-end phones free. Also, wwww.fatwallet.com/forums/ -> Hot Deals for the many ways and plans you can call and abuse your cell phone company about and get. YOu can easily get more minutes, cheaper monthlies, and other perks just by calling them up and threatening you'll cancel/switch/etc. God, is good! Anyways, for example, last month, you could have bought the Motorola C332 (GSM, Europe compatible) cell phone for $0.01 with $170 cash back rebate! This month, it's down to $150 rebate, but that still means they're paying for the first 5 months or so of service. Heck, you only have to pay for 7 months of service when you stay here the full year! And, get this! Even if you decide not to take this C332 (GSM compatible) phone back to Australia, you can sell it on www.ebay.com at the end of the year for some more $$ back, thus paying for another new phone! -- Similarly, amazon.com had the TREO 300 cell phone selling for $0.01! this past Christmas, and that was an awesome deal beyond belief on this $400 phone (web + Palm + cell). Today, it's back to $150 after rebate on Amazon.com... What's even nicer is that if you've spotted an ebay.com phone that's going cheap, you can easily pick up an older high-end phone for cheap. Eg. recently, I was able to buy a Sanyo SCP-6000 for $20 + $10 battery, and if I decide to, I can sell it for $100! (otherwise, keep the nice phone that used to sell for $299 new) Unfortunately here, unless you're able to beat an amazing amazon.com deal, it's almost always better to buy a new phone free after rebate. eg. Rather than keep the SCP-6000, I can go for the C332 for -$150 after rebate, or even get a new color model for $0.01 after rebates. Quite awesome. There are a lot of phones free/money back after rebate on Amazon.com, and many of the sales really heat up around major holidays. (eg. the C332 dipped to -$170 during Valentines Day; Treo 300 down to $0.01 during Xmas) > > I ask as my cellphone contract in Australia is up for renewal ... I'm sorta > torn between buying new carrier-subsidized US compatible cellphone > (SonyEricsson T68i) here or sticking with my current (non-US compatible) > cellphone for a year then buying one from a carrier in the US in a years Buy the T68i in the USA!!! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00006IZB0/qid=1049572793/sr=8-4/ref=sr_8_4/103-3921833-2775033?v=glance&s=wireless&n=507846 -$30 after rebate! Yep, they're paying you $30 or the first month free to buy the T68i in the USA. Far better than the plans I know of in Australia. ------ Anyways, with Sprint and most of the other cell companies ready to roll out their latest summer cell phone models, brand-new, you can expect to see some more of last years phones clearing out soon on awesome rebates. Finally, when you do get here, remember to call up customer service and simply ask for more perks! It's amazing what you can get for free just calling them, and nothing like squeezing them out of a couple hundred minutes, free money, etc. like many others have already done on www.fatwallet.com. Keep in mind that there's no reason cell service should still be this expensive given the old technology and coverage! They're just charging all of us more than it costs by far because they can, not because the service is that expensive! Take back what they're trying to rip you off with. ===== adorable toshiba libretto The latest news and information for the Toshiba Libretto owner. http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - File online, calculators, forms, and more http://tax.yahoo.com ************************************************************** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives -------TO UNSUBSCRIBE------- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe --------TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST------ Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **************************************************************
