Saving money when buying a new BlackBerry

It’s a date most of us have etched in our minds. Two years — or in some cases 22 months — after buying a cell phone, we become eligible for an upgrade. Considering the sheer volume of handsets released every year, it’s understandable that people are antsy to upgrade. There’s a newer and better one on the market just a few months after you get yours, yet you have to wait those two long years to get a new one. (Bless you if you’re stuck with a three-year contract.) Yet at the end of those two years, you get the privilege of paying hundreds of dollars to upgrade. It could be worse, of course, but that’s still a lot of money. Thankfully, there are ways to save. Most people, when upgrading, simply do so through their carrier. All carriers have websites where you can log into your account and, if you’re eligible, upgrade your handset. It’s a pretty swift process. Most carriers even offer overnight shipping, so you get your phone tout de suite. Chances are, for a new BlackBerry 7 device you probably paid around $200 or more. Maybe one of the newer Curve models cost less, and maybe you got a Torch for $100 or $150. But the Bold models are still up there in price. Thing is, you don’t need to pay even that high a price for your new BlackBerry. There are places you can get one much cheaper. Amazon has recently gotten into the wireless game, and in typical Amazon fashion they’ve gone and undercut even the carriers’ prices. Check it out: for a Verizon BlackBerry Bold 9930 you pay only $59.99 as a new customer, or $79.99 as an upgrade. On their own website you’d pay $230 for the same 9930. Is there any reason, then, to upgrade through them and not Amazon? (The only catch is that Verizon might be more receptive to an early upgrade request in the future if you buy through them. That’s all I can really think of.) There are other ways to save, such as Wirefly, which offers a similar service to Amazon Wireless. You can even sometimes find a good deal through a carrier. As CrackBerry notes, you can combine the BlackBerry Trade Up program with a T-Mobile promotion to actually get money back on an upgrade. All it takes is a little savvy and some determination. The deals are out there. The overall lesson: never pay full-price for your upgrade. There are just too many deals out there. It’s be foolish to not take advantage.

About the Author

Joe Pawlikowski is the Senior Editor at MobileMoo.com and has been covering the mobile industry full time since 2007. When he's not writing about the tech scene, he can be found discussing his personal love - baseball (and more specifically the New York Yankees) as well as writing on his personal blog.