Earlier this year when T-Mobile announced Jump!, they started a revolution. They got AT&T and Verizon to begin their early upgrade plans as well. Next and Edge respectively. While none of these really look all that appealing. We are going to see which one is the best for the customer. As expected, AT&T and Verizon’s cost the most money. $2928 and $3051 over 2-years respectively.
For the most part, Sprint, AT&T and Verizon’s are all the same. You pay nothing up front (except Verizon, you pay your first month’s payment when you purchase your phone). Then pay a monthly payment each month to pay off your phone, that is in addition to your service fees. You know for data, texting and your minutes. T-Mobile actually charges you the least. While the other three are over $300, T-Mobile is around $240 for 12 months. Which isn’t bad. Although, T-Mobile does charge you monthly to use JUMP, they also provide full insurance for your phone with JUMP. So the insurance you’re paying between $8-12 a month for now, is included in JUMP which allows you to upgrade twice a year for just $10 per month. Sounds good right?
AT&T, Sprint and Verizon will not let you upgrade until you’ve paid off half of your phone. So about once a year you get to upgrade, unless you decide to pay off 50% of your phone before a year is up. Now that is better than once every two years, but T-Mobile still has them beat as you can upgrade anytime, but only twice within 365 days. And you don’t have to pay 50% of your phone off before JUMPing. So for instance you got the Galaxy S4 today, you could Jump to the Galaxy Note 3 next month when it comes out, but you can’t jump again until next September. Of course you can only JUMP after you’ve been in the program for 6 months.
These plans don’t mean much to you, unless you get good coverage from all four carriers. Then I’d say T-Mobile is the best plan, followed by Sprint, AT&T and Verizon coming in last. But if it depends on the coverage you get in an area, then the table below probably doesn’t matter as much. But it is good to see carriers making ways for us to upgrade more than just once a year.