Can someone confirm: It looks like to be eligible for the new iPhone Upgrade Program you either already have to already be a customer of the 4 carriers listed or become a customer of one of them. Is that true?
What about an MVNO customer? Are they eligible?
I hope so because I would join this in a second but I am not giving up m current service (Straight Talk).
Sorry this isn't a support question but I have struggled trying to find the right channel to ask.
iPhone 6 Plus
If you ever find out (elsewhere than on this forum), please post back here, as I would like to know this too.
If you ever find out (elsewhere than on this forum), please post back here, as I would like to know this too.
Went to an Apple Store and they told me that there is no way to pre-order and select just the upgrade program. You have to select a carrier during the process.
I pre-ordered and selected AT&T. The person at the store said that this should be OK, the phone will be unlocked and as long as they don't turn it on with an AT&T Sim installed it won't lock to that provider.
I'm a bit skeptical but I have an appointment to pick up the phone next Friday and I'll report back on my result.
How was your experience? Were you able to use the iPhone Upgrade Program with Straight Talk?
You can NOT use the upgrade program unless you are already either a costumer of AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile or Versizon or you signup with service from them.
During the Pre-Order process I selected an AT&T phone and when I went to pick it up I was told I could buy it out right but not use the upgrade program. Since I wanted to be in the program here is what I did: I ordered AT&T service for the phone which allowed me to proceed with the iPhone upgrade program. Once I got back home I immediately cancelled the AT&T service (you have 14 days). Since the phone is unlocked I popped in my Straight Talk SIM and was off and running.
I wonder what will happen in a year's time when you want to get the newest iPhone on this upgrade program? Just buy AT&T service and then cancel again?
I know none of this makes a lot of sense but the Upgrade Program is not linked to the cellular account in anyway. Why they have the requirement to use one of the 4 providers to be eligible I don't know.
Its my feeling that now that I am in the program I should be able to upgrade without jumping through any more hoops. If they require me to have service with one of those 4 providers then I will do the same thing and sign up and immediately cancel service.
It wouldn't surprise me if within a year or so that Apple starts offering cellular service.
Do NOT bother applying for the Apple Upgrade Program if you have excellent credit! (Specifically, a credit limit on a personal credit card of over $ 10,000.)
After several attempts to be approved for the Apple Upgrade Program in purchasing the 6S, I have learned as of yesterday Citizen's One bank is rejecting anyone outright whose personal credit card has a credit line higher than $ 10,000. (Their system will consider it a business card because the credit limit is so high, even though it is not.) There is no known fix for this, nor can they override the denial. SO....if you have a personal credit card with a credit limit above $ 10,000, don't bother applying for the Apple Upgrade Program because you will be denied!!!!
Citizen’s One told me Apple is aware of this. It would have been nice if Apple had alerted its customers of this issue!
I was just rejected today for the upgrade program and I also have excellent credit. One of my cards has over a $10,000 limit. I was wondering what was going on. It is truly weird if they are rejecting people for having good credit.
Mark, this is extremely infuriating! How in the world is it possible that the best of the best customers of Apple (and, presumably Citizen's 1) can be turned away simply because Citizen's 1 has a glitch in their system they are unable to override which causes their system to kick out an application for the Upgrade Program because it knowingly mistakenly interprets a personal credit card as a business card simply because it has a credit limit above 10K? That's just beyond crazy to me! And Apple seems to be in no big rush to do anything about this for their customers! Nor the bank! I call weekly and there is no known fit and no anticipated fix date for this bug that is causing all the rejections. Even the bank recognizes it's an error on their end. Still...SOL! Financing the phone through any other carrier would not at all be as good a deal because the Apple Care is built in to the Upgrade Program and if you have to buy the phone outright (as I did), then you have to purchase the Apple Card on top of that (so now you just under 1K out of your pocket instead of only a few dollars per month) and then you have to get into selling it in a year if you want to upgrade which is also a nice benefit of that Upgrade Program so you very well may end up having spent more money for that phone when you go to sell it in a year than what you would have spent had you been able to get on the Upgrade Program...but you couldn't because YOUR CREDIT IS TOO GOOD!!! How in the world more people aren't complaining loudly about this forcing Apple and Citizen's 1 to fix this is just beyond me...
I am with you on that.
I will update this post when I find out why I was rejected.
I'm going to make it real easy for you Mark!
Citizen's 1: Suzanna who is a manager in the Priority Assistance Team: (877) 545-5694. She told me anyone with a credit limit higher than 10K on their personal credit card will be automatically denied for the Apple Upgrade Program because their system will recognize a personal card with such a high credit limit as a business card, despite the fact it is not. They are aware of this. It is one of many glitches in their system. No known fix date. Didn't sound to me as though this was one bit a priority to them. (And, again, Apple hasn't even chosen to inform its customers of this glitch, causing many of its BEST customers with the BEST credit to continually knock their heads against the wall trying to figure out why they were rejected when all along it has nothing to do with them! And Apple knows this!)
Equifax: (800) 203-7843. This is who Citizen's 1 goes through for the credit checks. They can verify if there is an inquiry on your credit from Apple. I called and verified they had my correct identifying information. They also told me Apple never inquired on my credit. You know why? Because Citizen's 1 immediately denies you as soon as the credit card hits their system due to the high credit limit. It doesn't even get as far as Equifax! Suzanna told me this as well when I asked her why there were no inquiries from Apple on my credit according to Equifax.
Iphone Upgrade Program
