Holiday Phone Deals: Too Good to Be True?
Posted on December 21, 2016 by Janice Thompson
Tags, Telecommunications
Thinking about buying a new phone service?
Seeing deals that sound great online or are showing up in your mailbox?
CUB says to check all the details! Here is our examination of a Sprint direct mail ad.
The ad promises a price of $20 per line – sounds great but the next line (in smaller print) says this price only applies when five lines are activated with Auto Pay. OK, that sounds like five lines for $100 which looks like a good deal.
But continue reading the fine print and it turns out that lines 3, 4, and 5 are free until the end of January 2018 and then they cost $30 per month.
Even before 2018, though, it isn’t completely clear what is going on. Twenty dollars per line for five lines works out to $100 a month. But if lines 3, 4, and 5 are free for a year it sounds like lines 1 and 2 might really be $50 per line for $100 per month for that first year. If that is the case, then when the $30 monthly charge per lines 3, 4, and 5 ($90 a month) begins in 2018 it looks like you could be paying $190 each month. At the very least CUB suggests double checking on this possible interpretation.
Another part of this deal is that Auto Pay is required. That means that changes will appear on your bill without any chance for your approval. One advantage of Auto Pay, though, is it evidently comes with a $5 monthly discount per line. Another good question to ask is whether the per-line charges in the ad already include this $5 discount.
Whether or not there is an “opt out” option is something else to check, especially in a deal like this that involves five lines. After all what happens if in a year or two you only need three lines?
In general, read all the fine print, ask lots of questions, and Happy New Year!
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03/15/17 | 0 Comments | Holiday Phone Deals: Too Good to Be True?