Next Plan; I don't understand my bill

You signed-up for the "$160 - 4 line" Mobile Share Value Plan.  That means you signed up for teh $100 shared data plus $40 per phone, and then $25 per phone discount if you are not under a contract subsidy.  That comes to $100 for data plus $15 per phone for $160 total.

To get that price, you can't have a contract subsidized phone form AT&T.  You options are: Get a phone using NEXT (but you have to pay for that monthly on your phone bill), you can purchase your phones at full price from AT&T, you can purchase your new phones from somewhere else (assuming they are compatible with the AT&T network), or you can continue to use your old phones.  If you chose a contract subsidy, you will lose that $25/phone discount because you would no longer be "out of contract", and your bill would be $260/month plus taxes & fees.  If you purchase using NEXT, you pay somewhere around $20-25/month for your phone, but one your purchase agreement is paid in full, you stop making payments, so in the end NEXT does tend to work out to be about $150-200 cheaper over a full 2 year period.  If you can purchase a phone somewhere else (that is not contract subsidized) you could possibly save even more money.

AT&T no longer subsidize phone costs. The $160 per month for 4 phones is for lines out of contract. When you get a subsidized phone the cost per line under contract goes up $25. In the long run, getting the phone with the next plan is cheaper than the subsidized phone becasue of the out of contract discount of $25 (for 24 months that totals $600) plus you pay and upgrade fee ($40)  plus a one time phone charge, depending on the phone it could be from $50 - $300.

Some reps don't know how to explain or they omit the explanation hoping to get the sale. This plan has been advertised heavily and has always had the disclaimer that this was out of contract pricing. It is always important to do a little research to keep sales reps honest.

Always better to buy the phones straight out and NOT from an AT&T store.  I have never bought a phone directly from the carrier.  I get the phone I want that's compatible with the carrier I choose, then get it activated to avoid the sneaky business of "financing" the phone.  My current phone, a Moto-X I bought for $250 New, no contract, then went to Walmart got a Sim card for AT&T network and pay under $50 unlimited a month with NO contract.  I would never pay the full retail of $600+ for a phone at a B&M store that has lots of overhead.   And if you didn't know by now, most sales people will lie to get the sell and of course the commision.   I once worked for a major retailer but in the service center department that handled repairs for warranty, non-warranty and extended warranty (pushed and sold by the salesmen in the store).   You don't know how many times I'd have to call a customer and tell them that water damage or some other physical damage was not covered under any of the warranty's and the customer would say, "but the salemen told me it covered everything."  I would have to then ask them if they read the fine print in the extended warranty agreement and of course not, they just took the salemen's word.  I would occasionaly go into the retail store pretending to be a customer and listen as the salesperson  would straight out lie about what's covered just to get that sale!

Looks like the S4 is the last AT&T phone I will have.

I only pay $75 a month for cell service with 3GB data.  I bought the phone for $199 after I traded in my old phone.  Are you saying I will be playing less of a line fee.  I just can't see how 30 installments adding up to $493.00 if I went with Att Next.  

I thought the installment fee would be on top of what I need to pay for my plan per month.

I can see how by buying my phone through eBay would be a better bargain.  I have done this in the past, but not with smart phones.

Thanks for taking time to patiently educate me.  I step away for two years and everything seems to have changed.

Summest.

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@lizdance40 wrote:
@summest

You have always paid for your phones. The cost was built into your line fee, which did not reduce once your 2 year contract was complete. So if you kept a phone longer than 2 years, you were paying more than the phones retail cost. You don't anymore if you finance, or buy a phone at retail somewhere else.

I bought my last 3 phones on eBay. One new, 2 mint condition used. Each for about $200

And which carrier will you pick?
Verizon - 3 GBS of data $50, line fee $40. Plus tax. Verizon is also phasing out subsidy plans and has the same financing offer as ATT. A line discount of $15 would be applied to the above line fee, and your installment payment would be added.
Sprint leases its phones and has very poor coverage.
T-Mobile has sale or lease options which will have you paying for phones many times over, but you can have a new phone all the time. Also has poor coverage.

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thank you for a good, reasonable, honest answer without hostility

The same thing thing is happening to me the rep lied and wont responded to me and obviously they dont help us here either.  I was told the phones where free with a promotion and that my bill would be 140 and in 1 month my bill was 540 dollars 

But you don't pay off the phones in 2 years, 30 payments of that $25-$27 dollars is more than two years and is a total of over $800.00 for one phone and is actually 30 months NOT 24 months so they screw you out of your 2 year contract that way as well. You can't leave them after two years because you still owe another 6 Months of payments...  Most all the carriers are going with these same scenarios so to avoid this nonsense you have to buy your phones outright for a MUCH cheaper price and use the pay as you go plans which are MUCH cheaper with same perks.  I have been with ATT&T since 1995 and it has considerably gotten more expensive and worse service the past 4-5 years, not sure why but I am looking at other options myself!