There are new data points from 9/14/23 on which seem to indicate that the BYOP SIM trick below no longer works. (i.e. Even though the deal is still available to people who have been Fi members for a while, someone who just activated a BYOP SIM won't see the instant discount and only see the 24-month credit offer). Therefore, I'm crossing out the info about the BYOP SIM trick.
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* Added on 8/1/2023 by hpham_53: It's still 3-4 months away until people doing this deal will be close to completing their promotion. But I'll go ahead and add the info below on how to verify that your promotion was Earned, and how to Cancel/Pause Fi service after that.
* How to Verify that your S23 promo was Earned:
There's a countdown in your Billing-->Fi Savings-->In Progress that shows how many more days your Fi service has to remain active. The countdown will never say zero day. On the 120th day, it will stay at "1 more day". On the morning of the 121st day, the countdown should say "Stayed (past tense) active on Fi for 120 days in a row". Then later in the day, the In Progress column disappears, and the promo discount gets moved to the Earned column. At that time or later, it's safe to Cancel or Pause your Fi service.
You can use this Date Calculator: https://www.timeanddate
Enter your activation date as the Start Date, select Add 121 days and it'll show the date when it's safe to cancel/pause your Fi service.
* How to Cancel your Fi service:
In your Fi account, click on Account-->Your Plan, scroll down until you see "Leave Google Fi". Click on that and follow the on-screen instructions. You'll have the options to Let Go your Fi phone number, or Transfer To Another Provider. (There used to be an option to port it back to Google Voice, but I think it's no longer available). If you choose to let go your Fi number, your Fi service will be cancelled IMMEDIATELY. If you choose to port out, your Fi service will remain active until your Fi number has been ported out to another provider.
* How to Pause your Fi service;
In your Fi account, click on Account-->Your Plan, scroll down until you see "Pause Service". Click on that and follow the on-screen instructions. Your Fi service will be paused and Automatically Resumed after 90 days, unless you cancel it before 90 days are up. Once it's Resumed, you can leave it Active, or Cancel it, or Pause again (I don't know how many times you can Pause). If you have a lot of remaining referral Fi credit (which is not refundable), you can choose Pause instead of Cancel to wait and see if there will be new Fi promotions in the future to use up your Fi credit.
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https://slickdeals.net/f/16418272-google-fi-512gb-samsung-galaxy-s23-ultra-smartphone-pre-order-600-more-w-activation-port-in-free-s-h?src=SiteSearc
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I did compare both Att and G Fi. G Fi is a bit more for the 2 years vs the 3 yrs plan of ATT. ATT has the similar back credit stuff with my trade. ($800 with trade in vs $700 off for Fi new user) Note: I'm targeting s23u 512gb which is $1380 everywhere it seems.
So in reality it's the same.
The only difference was like $120 more via FI for me and I get to keep my S10+ 512gb for a burner/spare. The S10 already losing battery quick but it's been my daily driver for almost 4+ years! So now I'm looking for a new fresh phone to last me another 4-5 years. I dont upgrade yearly.
I wish I could jump in to get the best best deal for new Samsung galaxy ultra but I can never catch that train. 😕
The Fi Deal is great for people who already have or prefer an inexpensive cell plan or don't want to be tied to a provider like AT&T, Verizon, T-mo for a long time. They can pay for the phone now, use it with the required Fi plan, or with their current service from Day 1, and complete the deal in 120 days.
But last time I checked, this is still locked to ATT (it's att brand) and I could never unlock it. I dont know if the original owner never bothered to unlock it. I doubt very much this phone is still being paid off by them. I mean, it should have been by now. I lost their contact and I do remember reaching out to the seller like 2yrs later but they never responded to me.
Anyways if I were to trade this phone in and the serial of the phone still shows up under a person's account (Aka the original eBay seller), will the phone be denied for a trade it or will ATT gladly take it? This is obviously with the understanding it's paid off.
Like if this phone wasn't paid off and say the original seller stopped making payments, I'm sure att would have blocked it by now. But it's been working fine all this time.
What do you guys think? If I remember reading right, att doesn't care about the phone being registered under another person's account as long as Bill payments being are paid off or IMIE(?) Isnt blacklisted.
This has always been my worry and held me back doing a trade in multiple times in the past. I kinda want to off load it to stop worrying lol. (Typing from it right now)
But last time I checked, this is still locked to ATT (it's att brand) and I could never unlock it.
Anyways if I were to trade this phone in and the serial of the phone still shows up under a person's account (Aka the original eBay seller), will the phone be denied for a trade it or will ATT gladly take it?
https://slickdeals.net/f/16418272-google-fi-512gb-samsung-galaxy-s23-ultra-smartphone-pre-order-600-more-w-activation-port-in-free-s-h?p=163146179#p
I think it was later discovered that the bit about "US unlocked S23 devices don't work with an international SIM card even if it's factory unlocked" was started in a post in a Samsung Users forum without any proof.
The Fi Deal is great for people who already have or prefer an inexpensive cell plan or don't want to be tied to a provider like AT&T, Verizon, T-mo for a long time. They can pay for the phone now, use it with the required Fi plan, or with their current service from Day 1, and complete the deal in 120 days.
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If you're new to Fi, then read the info in the Wiki on how to do the deal.
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There's a way for people who are not current or past Fi members to do this deal.
1. Buy a BYOD Fi SIM from your local Best Buy, or Amazon, or Fi. Costs $10 plus tax.
2. Activate the BYOD Fi SIM with a Fi-Compatible phone. When creating your Fi account, use a Fi referral code. I have a bunch.
3. The BYOD SIM needs to be activated with at least the Flexible Plan that costs $20/month for unlimited talk/text + taxes. Any Data used will cost extra (prorated at $10/GB). You'll get $10 Fi credit for the cost of the BYOD Fi SIM. Using a referral code will get you another $20 Fi credit after 30 days of service.
4. You can select a new phone number when activating the BYOD Fi SIM.
5. Wait 2-3 days until your 1st Billing Cycle has started (typically 2 days after activation). At that time, you're considered an Existing Fi Member.
EDITED: It's recommended that you wait 2-3 days after activating the BYOP SIM before placing your order for the S23. That is to make sure that Fi system FULLY recognizes that you have an active Fi line. Otherwise, although you can order the S23 with the discount, Fi might ship the S23 without assigning your current Fi phone number to the SIM. If that happens, when you activate the S23 it will show in the checklist that the phone was activated by a NEW member and your promotion discount is in jeopardy.
6. Log into your Fi account-->Shop-->Order the S23 phone, you should see/get the promotion for existing Fi members.
7. When you receive your S23 phone, the SIM should be already installed. Install the Fi app from Google Store and run it to activate the S23.
8. The Fi app should display a message saying your current Fi service is on another phone (the BYOD phone). It'll ask for permission to transfer service from the BYOD phone to the S23. Give it the OK. Your current Fi service, phone number, billing will be transferred to the S23. That will start your required 120 days of service for the S23 deal.
9. In your Fi account, click on Billing-->Fi Savings. It should display under the In Progress column a checklist of tasks like Buy an S23, Receive a promotion discount, Activate the S23, and there's a count down of how many more days you have to keep your Fi service active. The count down is updated every 24 hrs.
10. If you want to use the S23 with Fi service, fine. If not, remove the Fi SIM from the S23 and stash it away. DO NOT use the S23 Fi SIM in any other phone. You can now use the S23 phone with a physical or eSIM of another provider.
11. When your required 120 days of Fi service get close to the end, check back and I'll post info on how to verify that you've completed the promotion and cancel/pause your Fi service if you don't want to stay with Fi.
The process like you mentioned is exactly what needs to be done. Once the device was setup, immediately installed the Google FI app and it detected that my FI service was another phone and whether I woud like to transfer to S23 Ultra.
Only thing is , during setup it has the Mobile data activated which cannot be switched off . As a result 2 or 3 MB of data got consumed even before I could disconnect the mobile data or connect to my WIFI network . Not sure if Google FI will bill me 10 dollars for the 1GB data .
Only thing is , during setup it has the Mobile data activated which cannot be switched off . As a result 2 or 3 MB of data got consumed even before I could disconnect the mobile data or connect to my WIFI network . Not sure if Google FI will bill me 10 dollars for the 1GB data .
A tip on Data being required to be On during activation...turn on Wifi before running the Fi app then turn on Data when the Fi app requires it. Doing that, it will use WiFi even though it required Data to be turned on. But don't worry too much, Data usage is prorated and Fi will bill you only 2-3 cents for 2-3 MB used.
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A tip on Data being required to be On during activation...turn on Wifi before running the Fi app then turn on Data when the Fi app requires it. Doing that, it will use WiFi even though it required Data to be turned on. But don't worry too much, Data usage is prorated and Fi will bill you only 2-3 cents for 2-3 MB used.
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