Unlocked iPhone Apple Card Financing

Little bit rude reply but okay, I’ll go the extra mile to answer you.

1. You are wrong assuming I’m assuming because this morning I spent several minutes over the phone with Goldman Sachs person who told me you cannot buy installments and unlocked, and with Apple sales guy that told me same thing. Neither of them mentioned I could do something to make it work, specially the Apple guy, considering we had an extended conversation about it and he fully understood what I wanted. Just, “sorry, not possible”.
2. I don’t have the time to read all the replies here. Maybe, instead of doing all the replies you do, you could post something useful explaining how to make it work, that way the best reply here wouldn’t be KACKIE’s saying the same thing as me.

Before you replied I was checking apple store to investigate a little bit more, see if maybe there was a way and read the term unlocked when selecting a carrier, so possibly there is a way, but not the way majority of people would expect, specially if Apple, through their trained staff, tells you otherwise. Have a nice day.

I suspect it was not a money making opportunity for either Apple or Goldman Sachs and it was simply a business decision to discontinue the financing. The 3% Daily Cash back is still available.

The >problem< with being a time traveler is what was true (or believed to be true) may not be the actual state of affairs today.

Let’s look at this and see what we can maybe accomplish. So, Apple Card is a co-branded card. Apple isn’t really a bank and your Apple Card Mastercard was issued by Goldman Sachs Bank. They also are the ones financing all the ACMI plans. Did it occur to you to call their support team and talk to them about your frustrations?

Now, we’ve got a plan. How about you call (no chatting) and ask if you purchased an iPhone in full, could they set it up on interest free installments after the transaction is no longer pending? What have you got to lose? The worst thing they can do is say no. Well that was door number 1 to begin with. Next worst thing is you and support team member become friends (door number 2) and the least worst thing is they say sure, no problem (door number 3). At that point, ask for a name and implement your plan.

What happens if they can’t after I purchased the item? You have 14 days to return the item for a full refund.

Questions? OK, what’ll it be, door number 1, 2 or 3?

Abuelmousa wrote:

It’s the only reason to apply for Apple Card for me. With it gone! they just lost another yearly customer.

also I think Apple did this because big three pushed them into this!! The big three lost a lot of business because of this card and now Apple caved!!!

The option is not gone. Its still possible to get Monthly Installments and not use the one of the main 3 carriers. The iPhone´s themselves are not locked to any specific carrier.

I was going to upgrade, but since I have to choose between the three carriers I won’t since I have Visible and it’s great service. Really a disappointment for Apple Card customers and this was a nice benefit to have in the past. I hope they bring it back, I think I will just get a new battery and keep my 12 going strong since the deals aren’t that great.

It's so bad. It should not be this difficult to use an Apple card to buy an Apple product from Apple. Even when select the carrier, you may get a "this plan is ineligible". At this point, the OSs are markedly worse with every update, they charge premium prices, and make it impossible to use their card to buy their product in their store. There is nothing about this that 'just works'. I am so frustrated with Apple that I have no other choice but to purge myself of the ecosystem entirely. Way to entirely disenfranchise a 30 year Apple user.

Apple is more secretive about many business decisions and that’s just how they operate. If that runs counter to your needs and goals, find another manufacturer that better telegraphs their business decisions.

The workaround, since you want to call it that, really opens iPhone up to more merchants. Now you can easily get Apple Card financing from literally any merchant and not just Apple.com/store and Apple Retail stores. This can easily be interpreted as making it easier to use Apple Card for iPhone purchases and thousands of more merchants.

Some Apple Card holders would need to drive 100’s of miles to an Apple Store if they wanted to see the phones first. Now, they can make a purchase at local retailers/carriers that carry iPhones, including Best Buy,

Target, WalMart etc.

The date of the post you’re replying to is literally 6 months old. Things change in retail and the credit card industry and many times overnight. The whole credit card industry is undergoing major changes with reward programs changing, redemption procedures changing and loss of benefits. The fact that an installment plan now requires a few minutes on the phone or a short conversation via chat seems insignificant to the number of Apple Card users that now have benefit of ACMI, when they didn’t before.

In regard to the number of posts. People learned how it works and slightly changed buying patterns. The few that post currently are dredging up old posts and rehashing the same issue, unaware of the opportunities it has opened for so many more cardholders and retailers.

This statement reflects exactly why this was a poor business decision. It’s never a good strategy to disenfranchise customers and potential customers at point of purchase, let alone to adopt the notion, ‘if you don’t like it, move on.’ It tends to negatively impact sales, stock price, and market cap evaluation.

Coincidentally, Apple’s stock is down YTD and Apple has also lost its top spot in market cap eval.

Apple can place restraints on what their representatives can say, as do every employer I’ve ever worked for. When I was an Apple Store Manager the phrase we taught Mac Specialist to use was >Google is your friend.< Meaning, go home and Google your question(s) and the answer is out there. The issue is filtering the real answer from the ads, spam, scams and misinformation. But in my experience come into this community with an open mind and just ask basic questions rather than venting your frustrations.

PS: The Apple Representative you spoke to valued his job. Just Sayn’

I missed this change and just found out in store. Was going to update phone. No thank you Apple. I can spend in Apple Store and get free Apple Card financing on most all other Apple products but, only on iPhone if you use select carrier?? I call BS. That is ridiculous. We use those carriers also when you are consumer cellular or some of the other 3rd parties. I will stop using that card at all unless they change that if that’s the case. One of their biggest selling points for Apple Card was that option on EVERYTHING Apple. Forcing people to select primary carriers when all of them resale and people are still on them.

So Apple doesn't let you finance an unlocked New iPhone and Samsung does. This is not a good financial move for apple, they should fix this ASAP or they will have people switching over to Samsung at no time...

Just got the apple card approved for $3k and was about to buy iPhone and iPad until I realized you can only get the free interest benefit if you go ATT TMobile or Verizon. No thank you. Bye $2.6k sale.

There are multiple benefits to the card. Interest free installment payments is just one of the many benefits.

One of the nice thing about discussion forums is that community members can post comments with solutions and workarounds that mitigate the issue. This thread contains multiple solutions. You’ll just need to take the time and make the effort to learn how to do it. 😀😀

Well looks like during checkout there is a page that asks for T-Mobile number and T-Mobile pin else you cannot proceed with the next steps of buying the phone by selecting T-Mobile as the carrier. This is about the method Donald had recommended. Any way out of this?