Carrier Holiday Deals: Beware of the Fine Print on Free Tablet or Smartwatch Bundles
As the holidays approach, retailers are starting to roll out their latest device deals and promote them as the perfect gift. Operator Especially if it’s already free or heavily discounted apple watchiPad, Galaxy Watch, and Galaxy Tab (if you upgrade your phone).
Well, as you may have guessed, there are a lot of fine print to be aware of with these particular “deals.”
take AT&T. The operator advertises on its website how to “learn how to get” iPhone 16 Pro or Galaxy S24 Plus “On Us” by trade-in. Not only can you upgrade your phone, but you can also add an Apple or Samsung smartwatch and tablet for just 99 cents per month per device.
On the surface, this seems very tempting, but a closer look at the fine print reveals that you’ll need to purchase the device on a 36-month installment plan, pay taxes (at full retail price) and a $35 activation/upgrade fee, and add Watch service ($11 per month) and tablet service ($21 per month).
AT&T is also offering free watches and tablets, as well as some cool prints.
As with phone upgrades, carriers are willing to offer discounts on devices to keep you on their plans. That’s why the savings come as a bill credit each month rather than a deep discount upfront.
So while you might get an upfront discount on the watch and tablet, you’ll soon be paying an extra $32 per month for the next three years (or $1,152 over 36 months). As with phone installment plans, if you decide to cancel your watch/tablet line after a few months, you’ll risk losing your points and need to pay the balance owed on the device.
Read more: Our picks for the best mobile phone plans
Verizon Not much better. Its website also advertises a very similar deal. While it will offer users an Apple Watch Series 10 (AT&T offers the Apple Watch SE) or a Galaxy Watch 7 (AT&T offers the Watch FE), there are similar issues to be aware of here.
You’ll again be responsible for taxes and activation fees (the latter is a one-time $35 fee that you can waive through Verizon’s live chat and customer support), and will require a 36-month commitment to the carrier. Likewise, you’ll need to add a line for the watch ($15 per month) and the tablet (Verizon’s tablet starts at $20 per month for 15GB of data and $30 per month for 30GB of data and access to its fastest 5G network).
Oh, and you’ll also need to join the carrier’s most expensive Unlimited Ultimate plan to get full discounts on phones, watches, and tablets. Unlimited Ultimate is the most expensive plan Verizon offers, although the plan also includes 50% off two connected devices ($7.50 per month for the watch series and $10 or $15 per month for the tablet series).
For most people looking for Verizon plans, I Actually recommends the company’s cheapest product It’s called “Infinite Welcome.”
Similar to AT&T’s deal, if you decide to change any plans, you risk losing the discount and having to pay off the balance owed on the device.
T-Mobile have Recently started selling Adding a watch, tablet, or even a range of laptops to your account costs as little as $5 per device per month. But this is the carrier’s most expensive Go5G Next plan, and we also wouldn’t recommend it for most people. T-Mobile also still requires that all phone lines on an account be on the same plan, which means if you want to move a line and have multiple lines, you’ll need to move them all.
Like Verizon, for most people, In fact, I recommend T-Mobile’s cheapest plan, called “Essentials.”
Adding a wearable to other T-Mobile plans starts at about $12 per month, while adding a tablet starts at $20 per month with 50GB of data ($40 per month for 100GB of data). These options include automatic payment discounts and T-Mobile voice line discounts.
Unless you really like or need to connect your tablet or phone to a cellular network, you’re better off buying a cellular smartwatch or tablet yourself and then adding or removing it from your phone plan as needed.
