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T-Mobile will give you $200 off a new iPhone, but there’s a catch

Published Feb 21st, 2018 6:47PM EST
BGR

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T-Mobile is rolling out a limited-time offer on the most expensive iPhone models, and this one doesn’t even require you to buy-one-get-one-free. Starting February 23rd, you’ll get $200 off the purchase of an iPhone X, iPhone 8, 8 Plus, 7 or 7 Plus via a prepaid Mastercard, which is nothing to turn your nose up at.

However, you’ll need to read the fine print quite carefully, because this offer requires a trade-in of a relatively recent flagship iPhone or Android device to qualify.

In order to get the $200 Mastercard, you have to trade in one of the following:

  • Samsung GS8 / Samsung GS8+ / Samsung GS8 Active / Samsung GS7 / Samsung GS7 Edge / Samsung GS7 Active
  • Apple iPhone 7 / Apple iPhone 7 Plus / Apple iPhone 6s / Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  • LG V30 / LG V30+

To be clear, you get the $200 on top of the value of your trade-in — this isn’t T-Mobile trying to buy a working iPhone from you for $200. But the trade-in requirement still means you’re going to have to evaluate this deal carefully, because carrier trade-in pricing tends to undervalue new phones particularly badly. For example, a 32GB iPhone 7 will get you an estimated $122 from T-Mobile, whereas they’re going on eBay for around $350. Things are even worse for old Android phones, which hold value less well than iPhones.

Still, if you have one of the older devices on the list (since the trade-in value for older devices is closer to the true resale value) and you can’t be bothered with dealing with Craigslist strangers, this is a good deal, especially on a premium device like the iPhone X, which doesn’t see many discounts.

Chris Mills
Chris Mills News Editor

Chris Mills has been a news editor and writer for over 15 years, starting at Future Publishing, Gawker Media, and then BGR. He studied at McGill University in Quebec, Canada.