Recently the mobile phone carriers have been finding ways to take more of your money, this time in the guise of saving you money. They call it an upgrade plan and its aimed at people who like to upgrade their phones every year that a new version comes out. The guise is that by getting on one of these plans you are supposed to somehow save money, but when the Verge dove into the specifics they found that no money was saved and you are more likely to spend more money over traditional plans:
Ultimately, most everyone is better served by sticking with their traditional cell phone plan and buying a phone at full cost when you can’t take that old smartphone any longer. It’s best, then, to think of these “upgrade plans” as extended payment plans that take advantage of customers who want the newest phones and want to pay little up-front by charging them massive fees as the months roll by. No deal.
You gotta give it to the phone companies though, they sure are clever.