Why I paid off my IPhone Up
While Laurie and I didn’t update our phones as soon as they were announced, we both did decide to upgrade. I went from the iPhone 12 Pro Max to the iPhone 13 Pro. If you had asked me a month ago about whether I minded the size of the Pro Max, I would have told you no, but I would have been lying. As soon as the 13 Pro arrived and I started using it, i realized just how much more I prefer this smaller size. I’ve toyed with the macro mode a bit but haven’t really dived into it, but I’m looking forward to. Otherwise, it’s a nice phone, just like the iPhone 12 was for me.
Laurie and I have been on Apple’s upgrade program for a few years, which is nice and convenience, but this year, once I finished this upgrade cycle and the phones were here and in use, I went in and paid off both loans. I thought I’d explain why:
The upgrade program is nice and convenient, and I thought it worked well for us, but this year, while trying to decide if we wanted to upgrade or not, I came to an interesting realization: it made upgrading maybe too convenient. I found the decision point wasn’t “should we upgrade?” but “Why shouldn’t we?” — so the default became “yes, upgrade”, not “we can wait a year”.
I’m going to give Apple credit for this, it’s a smart way to quietly encourage folks to keep their phones current; there’s very little reason NOT to upgrade if you are in that program. For me, though, I think the phones have matured enough that skipping a year here or there makes sense. Now that I have to choose to pay money to upgrade, vs upgrade and see the monthly payment go up a couple of bucks when the loan rolls over, that puts the choice back into “worth it?” instead of “why not?”
If the upgrade program works for you, great. it worked for us for a number of years. I’m now ready to get off the upgrade train for phones the way I have with Macs and iPads, and it’s one less set of monthly payments to have to keep track of. And if the iPhone 14 has some great new features — I can always upgrade, but now it’s a bit easier to choose not to, too.
