Recent changes to Apple Card installments are unfriendly to the consumer, and drastically diminish the value of the card to me by fully eliminating my primary purpose.

Hi, I can tell you’re frustrated by changes Apple has introduced into their policies and terms and conditions.

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I did this back in October. If you buy from Apple specifying ATT as the carrier, the phone is NOT locked.

If you choose AT&T's deal, the phone is locked.

I purchased using ACMI and ATT as the carrier and the phone was unlocked. I had an AT&T and a Mint Mobile line and put the eSIM for each of them on the phone without issue.

I've since ported the ATT line to RedPocket on ATT towers without drama.

I would suggest filing a complaint with Apple Card Support from your Messages option in your wallet app. They need to know that we are not going to be purchasing phones now without the truly cost saving and network agnostic system they removed. We need SIM free Financing on for our iPhones for users who don’t have these AT&T, Verizon, Or T-Mobile. These Cell companies are rich enough off us, let us choose how we purchase and use our phones!

You only need to designate a carrier. The iPhone you receive will be unlocked, no eSIM lock and inactivated. You just bypass the carrier’s activation screen request and activate on any carrier that supports iPhone and eSIM. This is well documented across the web. Reddit, Facebook, Instagram etc have numerous posts confirming.

Hats off for a careful “read” of the fine print. 👍

While I don’t necessarily understand the business case for this policy …

… and I’ve always purchased “non-affiliated” phones directly from Apple …

… just because you “select” a carrier doesn’t appear to lock you in to anything.

And I’m assuming that the eSIM provisioning STILL requires overt action by the owner during setup.

“ You’ll need to select AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon as your carrier when you check out. An iPhone purchased with ACMI is always unlocked, so you can switch carriers at any time.”

Hey there Jeff

Sorry for necro-ing this thread. But I'd lost my job back in September and thankfully am starting a new one next week, but during the time of unemployment, (Nothing humbles you faster than losing your job, am I right?) I made several cost-cutting measures that I'd actually like to just keep. One of those was going BACK to prepaid after years of being on postpaid with a hefty discount that I had through my former company. I will have the same discount with my new job--but why bother? I'm on Visible and the price is amazing and my service is actually BETTER than it was with regular old postpaid. For whatever reason, I only just now realized that when I go to upgrade this fall, I'm going to run into this issue and frankly, it's just garbage. I'm even more frustrated that Apple (AS USUAL) never feels the need to say WHY they make changes like this--esp. when the decisions are incredibly consumer un-friendly. As far as I'm concerned, Apple should (once their deal with AT&T ended three thousand years ago) always be willing to sell unlocked iPhones on day 1 of launch in the US market. I'd go further and say they need to enforce "one-per-customer" rules to keep any scalping shenanigans from happening. But ending Apple Card financing when that is really the only actual perk of the otherwise lower-than-average credit card? This just seems completely stupid.

My backup plan right now is to just buy the phone outright going forward on the AppleCard, pocket the 3% cash back, then cash out some credit card points from one of my other card ecosystems to wipe the purchase. I am a consultant who travels a LOT for work; so I'm always flush with so many more points than I'd ever realistically use.

I’m sorry to hear about the circumstances, but this post if 6 months old and a lot has changed. Again, you can set this up several ways, but in order to provide more details, I need to know few things.

1. who is the carrier you want to use?
2. does the carrier use/accept eSIMs?
3. are you trying to trade in a device and if so, which one?
4. Where are you trying to purchase the iPhone, online from Apple, in an Apple Retail Store, where?

Pay full price and it’s unlocked. This only applies to use of the Apple Card Monthly Installment plan available to Apple Card Mastercard holders.

It would be helpful getting the carrier's terms on their side of the transaction. PostPay only, early disconnect fee, etc. I'd sign up for a week and then port the number to my MVNO carrier if that would satisfy the terms of the transaction.

yelsin193 wrote:

I totally agree. I want to cancel my apple credit card.

You are not required to have one and are free to cancel it. Information about the card is readily available and nothing is being hidden. Here is the information you will find helpful for cancelling:

How to close your Apple Card account - Apple Support

Not sure who you are with, but I just found out consumer cellular which I am currently with is doing 24 month same as cash on the iPhone 15’s.

Yes you can switch to any carrier when starting activation but on checkout it checks if you have an account with selected carrier, so you cant “switch” the way your stating. Part of the benefit of signing up for the Apple Card was a no charge installment plan no mention that it needed to be tied to the Big 3 It no longer applies if you do not have one the 3 major services, I unfortunately do not.

Still current, I found out about this 2 days ago (yep, very late), when I wanted to get an unlocked iphone using my Apple Card with ACMI and I could no longer do it. Apple offers ACMI purchase for iPhone + carrier only. I dont need a new carrier.

Yet this thread is specifically about ACMI. The requirement that the buyer provide account details with ATT, TMO or VZN is anti-consumer.

That part is a legitimate complaint.

Apple card holders want BOTH the benefits of the ACMI and the rebates associated with using their Apple Card AND the freedom to not be required to provide account details for one of the three major carriers.

Yes, there is a lot of FUD surrounding the phone being locked to a carrier. If one buys the phone through Apple, the phone isn't locked.

If you take an ATT, TMO or VZN deal, the phone will be locked.

As one who has an Apple Card, I would like to see the requirement for ATT, TMO or VZN to use the 24 month ACMI dropped.

I'm fortunate that I DO have an ATT account and that I can get ATT to waive the $35 "new device activation" when you move the eSIM to the device.

However, if someone has gone to the trouble to get an Apple Card and are buying directly from Apple, they probably don't want requirements related to a specific carrier. They want to buy a phone and not have the carrier as part of the transaction.

So what you are saying is you were able to finance your iPhone 15 PM on ACMI without specifying ATT, TMO or VZN in the past 6 months getting the 3% rebate on the card and ZERO percent APR over the 24 month period?

Because that is the complaint.

Carrier zero percent or third party zero percent is a "less than" solution.

Are there solutions that get you zero percent?

Sure.

They either tie you to a carrier and/or you don't get the 3% cash back.

The whole point of having an Apple Card is the perks.

Putting a curb on a benefit, such as the requirement to have an account with one of the specified carriers is a legitimate complaint.

I'm not arguing that there are "other ways to get most of the way there."

What I've not seen is how you get it all without being a customer of ATT, TMO or VZN.

How do you get?

1 - zero percent financing for 24 months

2 - 3% cash back

3 - an unlocked phone.

You can just link to your answer that tells us how to get all three.