topic Re: New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days. in Personal Finance

New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days.

AndrewF — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 18:17:39 GMT

https://www.phonearena.com/news/apple-iphone-17-pro-max-most-traded-in-phone-slow-depreciation_id178313

According to this article, a new flagship iPhone is expected to lose 25-35% of its original value 145 days after launch.

Strong case to just wait a while and buy one used or even the previous model.

The article makes the common mistake that iPhones hold more of their value than Android phones.

I bought my Pixel 8 on a Black Friday sale. It only cost me $500, they're on the Pixel 10 now and Google still routinely offers me $300 to trade it in two models later, and nearly three.

If you go by what Google will give me vs. what I paid for it, it has only lost 40% of its value over nearly three years.

The reason used iPhones tend to sell for more is because they cost more to begin with. Trying to say they hold more value is like saying that a $80,000 luxury car that lost 70% of its value over two years sells for more than a Kia Soul that lost 35% because the first number is bigger.

It's a misunderstanding of how percentages work.

As to why the iPhone 17 Pro Max is the most traded in model, despite not having a replacement yet, people paid a lot for the phone in a bad economy, and now they realize that just about every phone is too much phone and they need money because you can't eat a phone.

I tend to view things I own as a sunk cost.

Unless they're costing me an outrageous amount to fix or they just don't work anymore, why get rid of something I already paid for so that I can buy a new model at full price, when the longer I wait the more value I get and the nicer the replacement will be no matter what I buy?

A smartphone is not an investment. Most of my investments make money.

Re: New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days.

crystal626 — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 18:42:50 GMT

Any new product depreciates quickly. Google and Samsung phones depreciate faster than Apple though because they both can't move enough product to avoid having to put them on sale early in the cycle. Google sends out targeted offers to get people to upgrade but the regular offer on the website is only $130 towards a 10.

Meanwhile, Apple is offering $300 for an iPhone 15 towards the iPhone 17.

Both the Pixel 10 and the iPhone 17 have the same $799 MSRP but Apple is offering a whopping $170 more for the 15 towards a 17 than Google does for the 8 towards a 10.

So yeah, if you're patient, you can get a targeted upgrade offer that has a decent trade in, but most people are upgrading Android devices when they *have* to, they're not tracking these deals waiting for the right moment. Apple wins there.

Re: New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days.

dfwxjer — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 18:51:22 GMT

Keeping up with the latest and greatest cell phones is a waste of time and money. Financing phones to stay in debt is insane.

My iPhone is over 4 years old at this point and I only replaced it years ago because my even older iPhone flew out of my Wrangler at 50mph and was run over by an 18 wheeler. Used my Amex platinum cell insurance to cover the entire thing.

Re: New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days.

AndrewF — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 19:29:04 GMT

@dfwxjer wrote:
Keeping up with the latest and greatest cell phones is a waste of time and money. Financing phones to stay in debt is insane.

My iPhone is over 4 years old at this point and I only replaced it years ago because my even older iPhone flew out of my Wrangler at 50mph and was run over by an 18 wheeler. Used my Amex platinum cell insurance to cover the entire thing.

Yes, a friend of mine just got a 17 Pro Max and it was because the last one had more or less completely stopped working. It was slow, it was telling him the apps couldn't be updated anymore.

Not sure what model it was but it was old.

My main complaint with the Pixel is that while you avoid bloatware like Microsoft apps and all sorts of Samsung garbage that slows the phone down, consumes storage, and wastes the battery, and your time removing it if it can be removed, Google has been busy plastering their own junk everywhere like "Gemini" which is their "AI" that I don't want to use.

They kept pulling that switch now or "remind me later" crap.

I later found out that if you switch to the Gemini one and back to Google Assistant immediately, it does stop asking.

Then there's the email summaries, where it summarizes them wrong and panics you. Like it'll say you owe thousands to the credit card and then it's actually talking about last month's statement.

😁

I almost do want to go back to a Nokia with the Snake game.

Re: New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days.

FicoMike0 — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 01:42:37 GMT

Im pretty happy with my moto g that I paid under $200 for. I never even thought of trading a phone in. The last time I bought a new one, I gave the old one to my grandson, whose phones always have a crack in them, lol. Yes, I gave him a new speck case too, but he'll probably still break it anyway. I charge the $30/month Bill to my commerce card, which has phone ins, but I've never used it.I

I have a tablet with Gemini and I like it ok. I use grok on my phone.

I did pay another $35 for a 256 gb sd card. It does help to delete bloatware and cache once in a while.

Re: New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days.

AndrewF — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 03:15:57 GMT

@FicoMike0 wrote:
Im pretty happy with my moto g that I paid under $200 for. I never even thought of trading a phone in. The last time I bought a new one, I gave the old one to my grandson, whose phones always have a crack in them, lol. Yes, I gave him a new speck case too, but he'll probably still break it anyway. I charge the $30/month Bill to my commerce card, which has phone ins, but I've never used it.I
I have a tablet with Gemini and I like it ok. I use grok on my phone.

I did pay another $35 for a 256 gb sd card. It does help to delete bloatware and cache once in a while.

Google got rid of SD cards a while back. I have all my music in Opus format though, so that only needs a tiny amount of space compared with MP3s or such.

As part of my "no streaming" policy, I don't pay a monthly fee to listen to the same music I always listen to. Most of my music is so old, it was on cassette at one point.

I only pay $20 a month for my phone plan with Mint. If they ever raise the price I might look at other carriers, but so far they haven't.

I don't think it's reasonable to pay a large amount for a cell phone plan. The local court showed Verizon suing my next door neighbor for a $1300 shut off bill. Amazingly, only $350 of that was the device and the rest was "service". How do you rack up $950 in unpaid service before they shut you off? What's his credit score? 350? Signs up for an expensive postpaid plan, then doesn't pay them.

These things not only wreck your finances, then if you don't pay they wreck your FICO score too. Postpaid carriers are horrible.

Re: New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days.

ptatohed — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 07:13:58 GMT

I've never paid more than $200 for a phone. If my phone depreciated 100%, I'm still doing better than the fruit phone that depreciated 35%.

3 lines for $50/mo out the door. Me, mrs. ptatohed, 15 yo. Metro. Two 2021 Moto G Stylus and a 2025 Moto G (15yo).

I'm loving the T-Mo Tuesday deals too. Just today, I got the kids a free 7-11 Slurpee and a free 7-Select snack. Tomorrow, we'll get two Crazy Breads and two large pizzas for $10 total with the buy a Crazy Bread, get a free pizza deal.

When my 12yo turned 13 last month, it was his turn to get his first phone. I just gave him his brother's 2022 Moto G and I have a free year of service with Spectrum, then $30/mo so I need to think of how to reduce that monthly cost by the end of 2026.

Re: New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days.

AndrewF — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 21:08:21 GMT

@ptatohed wrote:
I've never paid more than $200 for a phone. If my phone depreciated 100%, I'm still doing better than the fruit phone that depreciated 35%.

3 lines for $50/mo out the door. Me, mrs. ptatohed, 15 yo. Metro. Two 2021 Moto G Stylus and a 2025 Moto G (15yo).
I'm loving the T-Mo Tuesday deals too. Just today, I got the kids a free 7-11 Slurpee and a free 7-Select snack. Tomorrow, we'll get two Crazy Breads and two large pizzas for $10 total with the buy a Crazy Bread, get a free pizza deal.

When my 12yo turned 13 last month, it was his turn to get his first phone. I just gave him his brother's 2022 Moto G and I have a free year of service with Spectrum, then $30/mo so I need to think of how to reduce that monthly cost by the end of 2026.

I could get by with a Moto G I suppose. I got bored one day and backported the Opus decoder to Windows 95 by using the Winamp 2.x plug-in API.

I measured how many CPU cycles it took to decode an Opus music file in real time, you could do it with a Pentium MMX if you needed to. The requirement was only about 20% higher than MP3, which decoded in real time on some 486 processors.

The MMX instructions would help a lot. You get MMX with most Intel PCs from 1997 or later.

When you stream Spotify, it will run down your battery because the requirements to decode the DRM encryption alone are over 50 times higher than what the Ogg Vorbis stream needs. Then you also have to keep your cell phone modem on and receiving data from the network. Every time you play a song, the entire 8-9 MB will have to be downloaded. One file is a trivial amount of data, but if you listen to music frequently, you're going to need to pay for a plan with more data, which makes streaming the cause of an out-of-control cell phone bill. Especially if you stream Netflix or something.

My friend that I switched from T-Mobile Prepaid went from paying $57 a month to T-Mobile, to paying Mint Mobile $15 a month for the first year on an unlimited data promo. Even if he keeps the unlimited, he will pay $30 a month on the second year, which is still only half, even though Mint is also owned by T-Mobile.

I do think what they charge for flagship cell phones is exorbitant. The devices are not built to last, so they don't "hold value". Most people get rid of them every year or two and start over and never actually pay one off, but they're also designed to be expensive to own in other ways. If you drop it and break it, you'll need an "Apple Care" plan which costs even more money. If it needs a new battery, Apple charges like $89 just for that, and if you don't live near an Apple store that can be a problem.

There's only one Apple store in the entire State of Indiana and it's in Indianapolis. Happy excursion to Indianapolis. So there went a day and a tank of gas and $89 to try to keep the phone working.

Basically, iPhones are designed to be so annoying to own long term that most people don't even attempt it.

They just start over with another large expense every couple years.

Re: New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days.

FicoMike0 — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 21:42:28 GMT

I find the sd card helpful. I don't have to worry about music or pics since they're all on the sd. For me, 256 gb is unlimited. When I upgraded I just moved the sd.

I've considered mint, but the cost savings isn't a lot and I like metro, no complaints with them. I use the tmobile tues deals sometimes to.th

I know folks who have gotten underwater on cell plans. Back in the day, I had those plans, that's all there was.

Anyone else remember bag phones? They were big, but they worked great! That was back when you could avoid long distance charges with a cell phone, pretty much paid for itself.

Re: New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days.

AndrewF — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 22:10:10 GMT

@FicoMike0 wrote:
I find the sd card helpful. I don't have to worry about music or pics since they're all on the sd. For me, 256 gb is unlimited. When I upgraded I just moved the sd.
I've considered mint, but the cost savings isn't a lot and I like metro, no complaints with them. I use the tmobile tues deals sometimes to.th
I know folks who have gotten underwater on cell plans. Back in the day, I had those plans, that's all there was.
Anyone else remember bag phones? They were big, but they worked great! That was back when you could avoid long distance charges with a cell phone, pretty much paid for itself.

Mom had some teenagers break into her car and steal one of those car phones. She had detailed billing from GTE, and so she got a printout about every single call that was made, and she gave it to the police and that's how they found them and she got her phone back.

Those were too big to carry with you. They had a battery, but it was so big it looked like something out of a war movie where they're calling in a napalm strike.

The battery lasted about 20 minutes and was nickel cadmium.

If you got too close to another user, you'd hear their phone call on your call.

Anyway, yeah, the postpaid carriers just seem really pointless to me. Let me sign a contract that goes on for three years, and I would love for you to destroy my FICO score if I can't pay your bill, that's 5x more expensive than Mint. I'd like to say "Said nobody, ever." but it happens all the time.

Re: New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days.

E36 — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 22:22:10 GMT

I was in the cell phone industry from 2001-2012. A lot has changed, but phones are subsidized.

I was in the "indirect channel" Authorized Dealer stores. In the 2000s, the commisions were about $200 for a $39 plan. That was the sweet spot. I was a sub dealer. The master dealer also gets the cut, the number of total phones they give, plus co-op bonus if they do advertising. Different carriers give more (Nextel was one of them).

Anyways when the Nokia 5190/5160 came out, dealers started subsidizing the phones with their commissions. Our cost was ~$100 for that phone. Our net is $100 per phone. Leter on fancier phones came out, 3390. which I don't remember I'm thinking it was between $100-200. But what really changed things up was the Motorola Razr. This phone cost should've been around $230-299, back then.

So it wouldn't make sense to give it for free, right? Fierce competion. Loss leaders, leveraging co-op dollars.

The worst part was the chargebacks, if the customer defaults or cancels the plan, the dealer get's the clawback of the commission, while the customer has the phone. You could go after the customer, but most dealers didn't. The company like T-Mobile, Nextel, Sprint etc. basically loses nothing. You as a dealer paid for the phone. The company didn't pay you a commission. And they collected whatever months they had, and they can send a customer to collections, add a deposit next time they want to deal with them.

Fast forward to the age of Smart Phones. HTC Droid, Samsung Galaxy, Motorola Droid, iPhone. My memory is fuzzy, but I think these ran for $299 at cost. Seems like a lot, but when you compare it to the features of a $299 Motorola Razr, it's a lot.

Now we are at the $1,000+ Phone phase. It's a camera, it's a video editor, it's a global phone, etc. Prior to this, I think I spent $400-500 on a Pocket PC Phone once.

All this to say, if the phone company subsidizes the phone, for locking you in for another two years, why not? It's basically like a SUB.

As for preowed, refurbished, new when it comes to phones. It's all personal preference. In 2007-2012, in the midst of the recession, I made a ton of money refurbishing, buying and selling refurbished and used phones and smart phones. I used preowned phones and refurbished a new phones. I've bought new, refurb, and pre-owned laptops. I've bought new and preowned cars.

For a car, I will buy preowned.

For a computer, I will buy new depending on the sale. What matters for me is value per dollar.

For phones, I think it's a matter of preference. I buy new but I also use it for 5+ Years. That all depends on trade in value and promo as well
I went from 6S to 12 to 15.

It really is a slick deals discussion of your cost and trade in values, and phone contracts. That is to say, sometimes what you are buying with new with electronics is peace of mind. Warranty. And if you have personal property or mobile phone insurance, how that works.

Re: New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days.

E36 — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 22:28:55 GMT

@AndrewF wrote:

Anyway, yeah, the postpaid carriers just seem really pointless to me. Let me sign a contract that goes on for three years, and I would love for you to destroy my FICO score if I can't pay your bill, that's 5x more expensive than Mint. I'd like to say "Said nobody, ever." but it happens all the time.

I've sold my share of MVNOs when I had my cell phone store 2007-2012. What makes Mint special is that it's actually owned by T-Mobile, not someone just leasing minutes/data from a carrier or carriers and reselling.

People are paying for Quality of Life features.
Free international roaming and data with the number, in person customer support/stores, spam block, higher priority on the network?
Is it worth paying 3-5X a month? That's up to a person.

Re: New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days.

AndrewF — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 02:06:00 GMT

@E36 wrote:
@AndrewF wrote:

Anyway, yeah, the postpaid carriers just seem really pointless to me. Let me sign a contract that goes on for three years, and I would love for you to destroy my FICO score if I can't pay your bill, that's 5x more expensive than Mint. I'd like to say "Said nobody, ever." but it happens all the time.
I've sold my share of MVNOs when I had my cell phone store 2007-2012. What makes Mint special is that it's actually owned by T-Mobile, not someone just leasing minutes/data from a carrier or carriers and reselling.

People are paying for Quality of Life features.
Free international roaming and data with the number, in person customer support/stores, spam block, higher priority on the network?
Is it worth paying 3-5X a month? That's up to a person.

I've never been outside the US and if I go international, I can purchase a Mint International plan for only the time I'm actually out of the country.

The in-person support from Sprint and later T-Mobile was "Are you here to buy another phone? No. Okay, I don't care, call the 800 number."

My Google Pixel automatically warns me and gets rid of people I don't want to talk to. It will say Scam, Spam, or Collection Agency and mutes the ringer, or I can additionally have it screen the call by saying it's the Google Assistant taking my call, please say who they are and what they are calling about. Usually they just hang up if they're a scammer, they don't try to trick me into picking up.

The phone itself gets rid of these people. I don't know if iPhones can do that but I doubt it.

Higher priority? I've never noticed if I am being deprioritized, but having 15 GB a month high speed to save money prompts me to use WiFi when I can anyway, which is free. Mobile networks should be used sparingly to avoid paying for extra data.

Unlimited data is not actually free, they just don't give you a choice at postpaid carriers. You're paying so someone else can stream Netflix whether you do or not.

Choosing to not have unlimited on Mint Mobile saves me $120 every year, which I value more than having lots of data that I don't use so that another customer can binge on streaming apps.

The expensive postpaid plans are sort of like an all you can eat buffet where they depend on it averaging out. For every football player that comes into a buffet and just keeps eating, there's some 90 year old women that have half a plate of food and a roll and pay the same amount.

Device financing exists largely because the devices they want you to get are too expensive and you will pay the full amount or more, but your attention is supposed to be drawn away from that.

If you need to cram a $1700 phone into 36 installments on Verizon, you should ask is affordability the issue with the phone, not how to barely cram it into your monthly bills. That's not just a phone thing, financing works like that in general. It's misdirection. It draws people away from what they can afford and towards something they would rather have instead.

Re: New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days.

crystal626 — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 03:52:19 GMT

@AndrewF wrote:
@ptatohed wrote:
I've never paid more than $200 for a phone. If my phone depreciated 100%, I'm still doing better than the fruit phone that depreciated 35%.

3 lines for $50/mo out the door. Me, mrs. ptatohed, 15 yo. Metro. Two 2021 Moto G Stylus and a 2025 Moto G (15yo).
I'm loving the T-Mo Tuesday deals too. Just today, I got the kids a free 7-11 Slurpee and a free 7-Select snack. Tomorrow, we'll get two Crazy Breads and two large pizzas for $10 total with the buy a Crazy Bread, get a free pizza deal.

When my 12yo turned 13 last month, it was his turn to get his first phone. I just gave him his brother's 2022 Moto G and I have a free year of service with Spectrum, then $30/mo so I need to think of how to reduce that monthly cost by the end of 2026.
I could get by with a Moto G I suppose. I got bored one day and backported the Opus decoder to Windows 95 by using the Winamp 2.x plug-in API.

I measured how many CPU cycles it took to decode an Opus music file in real time, you could do it with a Pentium MMX if you needed to. The requirement was only about 20% higher than MP3, which decoded in real time on some 486 processors.

The MMX instructions would help a lot. You get MMX with most Intel PCs from 1997 or later.

When you stream Spotify, it will run down your battery because the requirements to decode the DRM encryption alone are over 50 times higher than what the Ogg Vorbis stream needs. Then you also have to keep your cell phone modem on and receiving data from the network. Every time you play a song, the entire 8-9 MB will have to be downloaded. One file is a trivial amount of data, but if you listen to music frequently, you're going to need to pay for a plan with more data, which makes streaming the cause of an out-of-control cell phone bill. Especially if you stream Netflix or something.

My friend that I switched from T-Mobile Prepaid went from paying $57 a month to T-Mobile, to paying Mint Mobile $15 a month for the first year on an unlimited data promo. Even if he keeps the unlimited, he will pay $30 a month on the second year, which is still only half, even though Mint is also owned by T-Mobile.

I do think what they charge for flagship cell phones is exorbitant. The devices are not built to last, so they don't "hold value". Most people get rid of them every year or two and start over and never actually pay one off, but they're also designed to be expensive to own in other ways. If you drop it and break it, you'll need an "Apple Care" plan which costs even more money. If it needs a new battery, Apple charges like $89 just for that, and if you don't live near an Apple store that can be a problem.

There's only one Apple store in the entire State of Indiana and it's in Indianapolis. Happy excursion to Indianapolis. So there went a day and a tank of gas and $89 to try to keep the phone working.

Basically, iPhones are designed to be so annoying to own long term that most people don't even attempt it.

They just start over with another large expense every couple years.

There are people who keep using the same iPhone for 5+ years. I've seen people who are still using a 6S even. They are built to last if you don't abuse them.

Re: New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days.

crystal626 — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 03:57:43 GMT

@AndrewF wrote:
@E36 wrote:
@AndrewF wrote:

Anyway, yeah, the postpaid carriers just seem really pointless to me. Let me sign a contract that goes on for three years, and I would love for you to destroy my FICO score if I can't pay your bill, that's 5x more expensive than Mint. I'd like to say "Said nobody, ever." but it happens all the time.
I've sold my share of MVNOs when I had my cell phone store 2007-2012. What makes Mint special is that it's actually owned by T-Mobile, not someone just leasing minutes/data from a carrier or carriers and reselling.

People are paying for Quality of Life features.
Free international roaming and data with the number, in person customer support/stores, spam block, higher priority on the network?
Is it worth paying 3-5X a month? That's up to a person.
My Google Pixel automatically warns me and gets rid of people I don't want to talk to. It will say Scam, Spam, or Collection Agency and mutes the ringer, or I can additionally have it screen the call by saying it's the Google Assistant taking my call, please say who they are and what they are calling about. Usually they just hang up if they're a scammer, they don't try to trick me into picking up.

The phone itself gets rid of these people. I don't know if iPhones can do that but I doubt it.

Higher priority? I've never noticed if I am being deprioritized, but having 15 GB a month high speed to save money prompts me to use WiFi when I can anyway, which is free. Mobile networks should be used sparingly to avoid paying for extra data.

Unlimited data is not actually free, they just don't give you a choice at postpaid carriers. You're paying so someone else can stream Netflix whether you do or not.

Choosing to not have unlimited on Mint Mobile saves me $120 every year, which I value more than having lots of data that I don't use so that another customer can binge on streaming apps.

The expensive postpaid plans are sort of like an all you can eat buffet where they depend on it averaging out. For every football player that comes into a buffet and just keeps eating, there's some 90 year old women that have half a plate of food and a roll and pay the same amount.

Device financing exists largely because the devices they want you to get are too expensive and you will pay the full amount or more, but your attention is supposed to be drawn away from that.

If you need to cram a $1700 phone into 36 installments on Verizon, you should ask is affordability the issue with the phone, not how to barely cram it into your monthly bills. That's not just a phone thing, financing works like that in general. It's misdirection. It draws people away from what they can afford and towards something they would rather have instead.

iPhones got call screening with iOS 26. Works the same as it does with Pixels.

Also, postpaid plans get extremely cheap when you have a family plan. Can get as low as $25 a line with a free flagship which is something that prepaid can't touch. It's single and two line customers that get screwed paying way more.

We have US Mobile and we are happy.

Re: New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days.

AndrewF — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 19:04:59 GMT

Yes, I do see four lines for $100 sometimes, things like that, but the problem is you need to have four people who need lines.

And then there's the catch. They "give you phones" but you have to make installment payments on them, and quite often I've done the math and found that each phone is going to cost you $300 more with "zero interest installments" than just buying the same phone as an unlocked phone on Google or Amazon or Best Buy.

You also lose out on things like my Amazon card which gives you a 5% rebate on the phone, or Capital One Shopping which says "Hey, I noticed you're buying this phone and this other place has it for the same price but we'll give you $100 in Capital One Shopping Rewards if you buy it over there!"

So it may cost you much more than you think for "zero interest financing", because to get it, you lose out on the opportunity to comparison shop and get a better price, credit card rebates, and C1 gift card offers.

I've never, ever, seen T-Mobile's price for a phone on an installment plan beat retail unless you move to a more expensive plan, in which case they give you "bill credits" which are about as much as you're paying extra for that plan.

I bought the Pixel 8 on a Black Friday sale the year it came out. It had dropped hundreds of dollars from its launch price in only a few months, and cost me $449. I also got a Capital One Shopping rebate that gave me $50 towards a gift card of my choice.

Had I financed the same phone through T-Mobile, I not only would have paid $799 for the phone (as opposed to $449 and get a $50 gift card) plus I would have been on the cheapest plan, Essentials Saver, for $50 (with autopay discount, which requires a checking account draft, you can still pay with a rewards credit card but you have to remember to log in and make a manual payment every month), which would be $30 a month more expensive than Mint Mobile, and the extra $30 would also be subject to additional Illinois cell phone taxes and sales tax, which are one of the highest combined taxes on cell phones in the nation.

Over the 24 months of financing that phone, I would have paid $1120 more than just buying the phone and sticking it on Mint Mobile, an extra tax on $720 of additional service fees that gained me nothing, and I just think that's ridiculous.

I had been sticking it out with Sprint because they put me on a senior citizen plan because I had an AARP card. You can join AARP whenever you want, even if you're 18 years old. The Sprint plan I had was grandfathered, and included two lines for $50, and I got a $5 autopay discount, and under that plan I had the option to finance phones, and even get bill credits for part of the cost of the phone, so there was no reason to go prepaid until T-Mobile had owned them for a while and texted me and said "Come in by April and show us your driver's license or you lose the discount and we double your bill."

At that point I pulled the switch and ported out both of our numbers 2 days before the deadline.

T-Mobile testified to the government that their merger with Sprint would mean more jobs and lower prices for service. They then proceeded to fire over 20,000 people and raise prices a lot.

I'm all about Operational Efficiency in household budgeting. There's really almost no better investment than saving money on recurring bills, except finding ways to (legally) lower your taxes or finding income that's exempt from tax, or not living in debt.

Once you accomplish all of that, then you should invest, but those are the best investments before you actually begin investing.

You go out and work and bring in $1,000. The IRS and State run off with $250-300? If you cut out $1,000 worth of fluff in your budget that's not helping you, they don't get anything. Saving money is tax free income.

Re: New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days.

Follower — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 19:14:56 GMT

@crystal626 wrote:

There are people who keep using the same iPhone for 5+ years. I've seen people who are still using a 6S even. They are built to last if you don't abuse them.

My iPhone XS lasted 6-1/2 years, until it finally stopped being updateable with iOS 26. I also just replaced an iPad Pro from 2016, so easy math on how long it kept going.

But, right, not built to last.

Re: New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days.

Varsity_Lu — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 20:01:56 GMT

Moto G Power is the best value out there. I paid 100 bucks for mine and it's 3 years old. Probably get another year out of it before buying another one. It's insane how much people waste money on phones.

Re: New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days.

AndrewF — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 21:49:24 GMT

I just looked and it seems T-Mobile has gotten even worse somehow since I left.

In addition to my math in my last post showing how much more they'd cost me than Mint, they also added a $35 "device connection charge" that applies every time you upgrade your phone.

The new people at the FTC scrapped the Junk Fee Ban, so enjoy paying a $35 junk fee each time to upgrade your phone I guess.

Re: New iPhones lose ~35% in 145 days.

AndrewF — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 22:31:09 GMT

@Varsity_Lu wrote:
Moto G Power is the best value out there. I paid 100 bucks for mine and it's 3 years old. Probably get another year out of it before buying another one. It's insane how much people waste money on phones.

I decided to skip the Google Pixel 10 because my 8 still works fine and this is the first model year where Google has been in charge of the CPU specifications. Prior to that, they were basing them off the Exynos, which was not the best design, but they had been in production for many years getting iterative improvements.

I'm always hesitant to buy the first model year of something because they don't know what they did wrong, those people get most of the bugs, and sometimes software can work around them, sometimes not.