The Galaxy Note 9 is now available for everyone to buy and as per tradition, there’s already a boatload of carrier promotions available. The benchmark is Samsung’s own deal, which gets you a free Duo charger and case; AT&T and Verizon are both offering buy-one-get-one free deals, Sprint is offering a 50%-off 18-month lease, and T-Mobile is doing 50% off with an eligible trade-in.
All of those deals require one thing, however: signing up two years of your wireless service to one provider. Oftentimes, they also require opening a new line of service, and you have to keep that new line of service open for the full two years if you want to get all your money back in bill credits.
Costco’s new deal, which gets you up to $500 off the retail price with a qualifying trade-in, isn’t necessarily better in monetary value than some of those other deals. But it does have one thing going for it: instant gratification.
Buy a Galaxy Note 9 on T-Mobile through Costco (which obviously requires a Costco membership), trade in a qualifying device, and you’ll get up to $500 back in a one-time bill credit and a prepaid Mastercard. Both of those should be in your hands within 2-3 months of buying the phone, which means that unlike other deals, you’re not tied into T-Mobile for the next two years.
Depending on what device you trade in, you’ll get either $250 or $500 back, split between a one-time bill credit and a prepaid Mastercard. The trade-in devices are:
- $500: Samsung Galaxy S8, S8+, S8 active Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 edge, S7 Duos, S7 edge Duos, S7 active Samsung Galaxy Note8 Samsung Galaxy Note 5
- $250: Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 edge, S6 active, S6 edge plus, Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Samsung Galaxy S5, S5 Neo, S5 Prime, S5 active, S5 Duos, S5 Sport
Especially for the older devices, that trade-in credit is higher than what you’re going to get on the open market. If you’re trading in a Galaxy Note 8, you could probably get better value somewhere else, but trade-ins are normally fairly painless.
