Quick Best Buy Trade-In Values (With $200 T-Mobile Promotion):
| Model | before Feb. 7 | since Feb. 07 |
| iPhone SE (2nd generation) | $340 | $330 |
| iPhone 12 | $650 | $575 |
| iPhone 12 mini | $525 | $450 |
| iPhone 11 Pro Max | $650 | $585 |
| iPhone 11 Pro | $590 | $510 |
| iPhone 11 | $500 | $445 |
| iPhone XS Max | $275 | $425 |
| iPhone XS | $410 | |
| iPhone XR | $390 | $365 |
| iPhone X | $380 | $360 |
| iPhone 8 Plus | $340 | |
| iPhone 8 | $230 | |
| iPhone 7 Plus | $240 | |
| iPhone 7 | $190 | |
| iPhone 6s Plus | $200 | |
| iPhone 6s | $180 | |
| iPhone SE (1st generation) | $165 | $165 |
| Samsung S21 Ultra | $770 | |
| Samsung S21+ | $650 | |
| Samsung S21 | $550 | $550 |
| Pixel 6 Pro | $0 | $500 |
| Pixel 4a 5G | $325 | $325 |
This is not the full list of accepted phones (i.e. missing Google and most Samsung phones)
Looking for trade-in phones to buy? Here are your options.
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Q: Who can take advantage of this T-Mobile & Best Buy promotion?
Ans: T-mobile post-paid subscribers only. No prepaid, business, Metro, Mint, etc. accounts. Some business and government T-Mobile discounts will prevent Best Buy from accessing the plan from T-Mobile, and will result in an error (this promotion is not for you unless you remove your discount). T-Mobile insider discount is okay and does not interfere with Best Buy from accessing your plan.
Q: Do we have to pick a plan from Best Buy for T-Mobile if we are not a current customer?
Ans: You don't have to signup for a post paid T-Mobile plan from Best Buy to get this deal. You can sign up for the plan anywhere and have it active before trading in your device at Best Buy. In fact, other retailers like Costco have promotions
they run for new T-Mobile customers / lines, which you can stack with this promotion for extra cash. Also, the cheapest postpaid plan that works for this Best Buy promotion ($20 Talk and Text) is not available to signup at Best Buy, so if you want that plan you will have to signup elsewhere.
Q: What is the cheapest T-Mobile plan that works for this promotion?
Ans: The cheapest T-mobile postpaid plan that works for this promotion is $20/month per line. Plan name is "Unlimited Talk & Text Only". You cannot sign up for it online, you have to call in, chat, or visit a store / reseller. https://www.t-mobile.com/offers/u...hone-deals
Q: What are the acceptable methods of purchasing?
Ans: Order online for in-store trade-in and pickup (same time), or purchase directly in store. Your store must have stock of the phone model you want to purchase.
Q: Can we cancel the plan immediately out of the store?
Ans: If you cancel the plan immediately out of the store then you won't be able to unlock the phone because you are no longer with T-Mobile.
Q: Do they accept trade-in phones with a lightly cracked front / back / any other damage?
Ans: Depends on the rep helping you. We can't tell you what a best buy rep considers as acceptable wear and tear. Typically, the agent does a quick examination of the exterior of the phone and powers on the phone to grab IMEI and other information. Therefore, make it easy for the agent by removing the case, screen protector, resetting the phone, etc.
Q. Can I insert a SIM card from a different carrier other than Tmobile?
Ans: Due to Flex Policy, the iPhone is locked to the first USA sim card inserted. If you don't mind getting the phone unlocked in the future by your carrier, you can insert a USA sim card of your choice. Flex Policy blocks international sims from being used UNTIL the iPhone is fully unlocked (No SIM Restrictions).
Q. Can I trade-in multiple phones for a single purchased iPhone?
Ans: Only 1 trade-in will receive the T-mobile $200 bonus per purchased phone. You can trade-in as many phones as you want for Best Buy gift cards, but that will not include the $200 T-mobile bonus.
Q. Can I trade-in multiple phones for using the same T-mobile phone number?
Ans: Only 1 active trade-in & pickup order per phone number. Once your trade-in and pickup is completed, you can reuse the same number to order another trade-in and pickup. There is a cap on this, but it's unknown / differs by person. Best Buy may block your account by automatically cancelling orders if they suspect you are a reseller or abusing the promotion.
Q. Why does my trade-in receipt only show the value of the phone, without the $200 T-Mobile bonus?
Ans: For online order for in-store trade-in and pickup, this is normal. The receipt (titled "Best Buy Trade-In - Trade-In Receipt) will only show the trade-in value of the phone, not the $200 T-Mobile bonus. The charge to your credit card should be right. Do not hassle the agent about this.
For in-store purchase. your receipt will contain 3 sections:
Was Price: Current Price of the purchased phone
TRADE IN ALLOW 1: Value of trade-in (negative)
T-MOB TRADEIN 2: 200 T-Mobile bonus (negative)
Q. If I fully paid for the iPhone from Best Buy, how do I unlock?
Ans: If you fully paid for the iPhone from Best Buy (no monthly charges), you may be eligible for unlocking from the carrier of your choice. Select your carrier carefully since the Best Buy iPhone will lock to the first carrier sim that is insert in the phone.
T-Mobile
Call, Facebook Message, or Twitter T-Mobile to ask for the unlock. The official unlocking policy is 40 days on an active T-Mobile line, but SDers have reported successful unlocking anywhere between 1 to 40 days. What they need is a screenshot or photo of the Best Buy receipt showing the IMEI of the phone.
AT&T
AT&T Unlock portal works for some Best Buy iPhones for automated unlocks between 1 to 24 hours. You can check to see if the AT&T Unlock Portal supports your iPhone's IMEI without locking it to AT&T. The full instructions is in post #1534
Verizon
Verizon's official policy is automatic unlock after 60 days. YMMV, there is a paid Verizon unlock service.
Other Carriers
Other carriers are not recommended because they may not be able to unlock phones that weren't purchased directly from them. Use at your own risk.
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Tips for the first timers, keep your trade-in simple and ordinary to avoid questions and minimize time needed.
1) Trade-in a phone that looks used. Take your trade-in out of the box. Remove factory plastic wrap. Jingle it in your pockets to get some dirt and lint on it. Get some fingerprints and oil on it. You don't have to actually use or activate the phone, just make it look used. Trading in a perfect, spotless phone invites questions because it is out of the ordinary.
2) Trade-in the phone only. Remove the box, accessories, and case / screen protector. BB doesn't want them.
3) Factory reset the trade-in phone at home. Per the terms that you agreed to when you signed up for the trade-in, you must sign out of all your accounts (apple, google, etc.) and factory reset the phone. Do this at home to minimize the time at BB. Your trade-in should be at the "hello" screen when you hand it over to the BB agent.
4) Remove the sim card from the trade-in at home. You don't want to accidentally give away your sim card (some agents don't check). Also, you don't want to raise suspicion if the agent does check and finds a tracfone sim card on a "verizon" phone. Remove your sim card at home.
5) Charge your trade-in. Your trade-in just needs to be charged enough for the BB agent to get the necessary information off of it. Don't bring a dead phone and expect them to charge it.
Doing this keeps your trade-in time to under 5 mins at BB.
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Everything below is a copy from the very helpful wiki of the previous BB Tmobile iPhone thread https://slickdeals.net/f/15340573-for-t-mobile-plans-trade-in-apple-iphone-and-save-up-to-975-on-iphone-13s-or-other-brands?v=1
Slickdeals Rule 1 | You don't talk about Slickdeals.
Note for NYS: Apparently all Long Island stores are not eligible for this offer as they don't have the appropriate licensing with T-Mobile. Must go to an NYC store.
Folks not receiving verification text from BestBuy - Opt for text messages from BestBuy by sending 'HELP' to numbers - 332211 and 22891 (do both). You should receive verification text on the next try
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If you get the message "We're sorry, there was an issue processing your request. Please try again later." when trying to validate your T-Mobile account, try the follow procedure below. It seems to help some users but not all YMMV!.
Go to your T-Mobile account and turn OFF every block for "chargeable" things including sms, downloads, etc. If they are already OFF toggle them ON and OFF just to clear the system of residual blocks. You CAN leave scam block ON. Then send "HELP" (without quotes) text message from each of your mobile no. that you are trying to upgrade to 22891, 332211 and 66803. Wait 30 minutes after completing everything above and try again. If it does not work, you might an account that has employee discounts or something else.
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I got the message that the "Package could not be added to cart". I went to the BB store to get the line added and found that i had the "International Long distance Barrring Call feature turned on which is causing the issue. We spoke to a T-Mobile Rep who removed the feature and then the order went smoothly.
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T-Mo is still the best in value overall.
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One fee is to answer those credit questions, which of houses have you lived in? etc
Verify the AT&T Unlock Portal supports your phone
(Thanks to all the SDers who helped me test)
1) Your Best Buy iPhone needs to be in a Flex Policy state. Use sickw.com to check, run the FREE - iPhone Carrier Check - Simple. Use your IMEI from the label on the box. IMEI, not IMEI2. The status that you are looking for is:
SICKW.COM IMEI Check
Locked Carrier: US Reseller Flex Policy
Country: United States
SIM-Lock: Locked
If SIM-Lock is UNLOCKED, then congrats, your phone is unlocked and there is no need to proceed. If SIM-Lock is any other carrier besides AT&T, you will have to unlock through the other carrier. This guide is only for AT&T.
2) Leave your phone alone. Do not insert any SIMs. Do not turn on. Do not activate.
3) Access the portal att.com/deviceunlock/ Manually copy the link or search engine the link to avoid warning AT&T of lots of SD visitors.
4) Click on "Unlock your device". The following pages will timeout in a few minutes, so have your IMEI ready. If the page time out or you change the IMEI, you will need close the tab / browser and restart from step 3. Otherwise, you might get looped into a "looks like you stepped away" error.
5) From the Step 1 of 3 page, Do you have a mobile number from AT&T? Select "No".
6) For the IMEI number, enter the IMEI from your phone box.
7) Once you typed in your IMEI, one of two things will happen:
7a) The page will give you an error "Looks like the IMEI number you entered doesn't match an AT&T device." The AT&T Unlock portal does not have your iPhone IMEI, so you can't use the portal to request an unlock. Do not proceed further, you can follow the other unlock methods from the other carriers. Since you did not insert any SIMs into your phone, your phone is still on Flex Policy state. You can use sickw.com to check again.
7b) Or, no error. The page will automatically update with the Make and Model of the iPhone from your IMEI. Complete the CAPTCHA test to prove you are not a robot, agree to the terms, and hit NEXT.
8) You should be on Step 2 of 3 page, where you can enter your name and email. Do not enter anything yet. Congrats, the AT&T Unlock portal will allow you to request an unlock for your phone.
Decision Time
Now that you confirmed the AT&T Unlock portal supports you making a unlocking request, time to decide if you want to get a quick unlock through AT&T. If the risk of being locked to AT&T is not worth it to you, follow any of other unlock methods. If you are okay with the risk, proceed (old wiki instructions revised).
9) Get an ATT sim card (inactive). You can go to a local Apple store and ask for a new ATT sim card. You can also order one for $2 plus tax from the Microsoft store microsoft.com/en-us/d/at-t-sim-card/8n0scjxn845k . You can buy it from Best Buy, amazon, or ebay.
10) Put the SIM card into your new Best Buy iPhone and go through the activation process and connect to WIFI. Your iPhone should be on the home screen.
11) Use sickw.com to check that your phone is locked to AT&T, run the FREE - iPhone Carrier Check - Simple.
12) Use a new browser window. go to the AT&T unlock page: att.com/deviceunlock
13) Click on "Unlock your device". The following pages will timeout in a few minutes, so have your IMEI ready. If the page time out or you change the IMEI, you will need close the tab / browser and restart from step 12. Otherwise, you might get looped into a "looks like you stepped away" error.
14) From the Step 1 of 3 page, Do you have a mobile number from AT&T? Select "No".
15) For the IMEI number, enter the IMEI from your phone box or phone itself.
16) The page will automatically update with the Make and Model of the iPhone from your IMEI. Complete the CAPTCHA test to prove you are not a robot, agree to the terms, and hit NEXT.
17) You should be on Step 2 of 3 page, where you can enter your name and email. Ignore mobile number (not required). Hit submit. Don't pause on this page, the timeout is only a couple of minutes.
18) Check your email for "24 hours to confirm your unlock request" email from AT&T. It should arrive quickly. You must click on the link inside the email to confirm your request, and then AT&T will start the unlock request.
19) AT&T will update you on the unlock through email. The email comes anywhere between a few minutes to a day.
19a) If you get "We approved your unlock request", congrats, your phone is unlocked. Use sickw.com to check, run the FREE - iPhone Carrier Check - Simple.
19b) If it gets declined, you will have to fix the issue or contact AT&T support to manually submit an unlock request.
Observations about the AT&T Unlock Portal:
a) AT&T Unlock Portal is only used to submit unlocking request, not processing the unlock. Therefore, when it errors out, it's not a problem with the unlock, just that you can't submit the unlock request through the online portal. You can always manually request an unlock through an AT&T CSR.
b) AT&T Unlock Portal has IMEIs for all common phones, regardless if they are on AT&T or not. Go ahead and test yourself; I tested T-mobile and Verizon locked phones and the AT&T Unlock Portal will allow me to submit unlock requests for them (all failed unlocking in the end).
c) IMEI list in the AT&T Unlock Portal is not updated regularly, which means unlocked requests for newly released or newly manufactured phones cannot be created through the portal. This is a common complaint for the last 5 years in the AT&T forums and Reddit, and makes sense business-wise. This portal is not a revenue-generating page, nor is a heavily used page. So probably it's updated once a month or once a quarter with the new IMEIs.
d) The previous AT&T Unlock Portal instructions were to insert the AT&T sim first, then check the portal. This worked as long as the iPhone were old stock, which the portal had their IMEIs. Since Best Buy have been running this trade-in promotion for months, they probably went through their stock quickly and some regions got new stock. This new stock's IMEI isn't in AT&T Unlock Portal list yet, so SDers started getting locked to AT&T and had to go through a CSR to submit an unlock request. The revised method first checks to see if your IMEI is in AT&T Unlock Portal, and if so, then stick in the AT&T sim.
e) If the AT&T Unlock Portal doesn't currently have your IMEI, you can wait for it to be eventually added. As long as you haven't turn on your phone or activated your phone, you still have full 1 year AppleCare warranty.
Now I wonder if the phones that show up as IMEI not recognized, will they be added anytime soon and then will we be able to submit unlock at that time. I also have 1 like that and at the moment unable to submit unlock.
Anyways, thank you. Appreciate all your research and input which definitely helps in deciding to activate with AT&T or not to do the unlock.
Here is my experience. My parents have been with sprint and T-Mobile for almost 20 years. I traded in an old XR for a 13 and paid the difference. I contacted T-Mobile on Twitter and they immediately unlocked it. Again they have been customers for two decades. I suspect that helped.
Second, I took an 11 I got from the Total Wireless deal and got a mini with it. I took an old Verizon sim and inserted it to the 13 mini. It was locked to Verizon and then I paid a factory unlock service on eBay. $2 and it was unlocked in 24 hours.
My parents have always paid their bill and don't try to get deals/ upgrade phones all the time so I suspect this may have helped. The 13 will be used with their account, the other one will be used by a sibling not on their account and have AT&T.
Thank you
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