Need to purchase a new iphone. What is going on with pricing?

that is not a sentiment I shared until now. 2 year commitments with a $49 iphone is mildly irritating, the current scenario is infuriating from my point of view.  ATT has been pretty good to us, I would hope they would take things on a case by case basis. We shall see

 @cmcnamara3 Believe me, you are screwed either way. You are still stuck with service as long as you are making payments on the phone so they still get you. Because Simon at the Florence, OR authorized retail store misrepresented while soliciting products to me, I am now $1,500 indebt to ATT without a care from them... so I'm stuck until I pay it. I've been with ATT for decades! They only care about commissions and quotas... at our expense. It's all about what they can con us out of .... I recommend Verizon, or another carrier. 

Hello @cmcnamara3, and welcome to the AT&T Community Forums!

I see you are in need of a new smartphone, and that you are like me that love  Apple iPhones!
I can definitely help you with that!

Have you heard about the iPhone SE?

Source: https://www.att.com/cellphones/iphone/iphone-se.html#sku=sku7870566

It has the same size as the iPhone 5, but it packs the heart and brains of the iPhone 6s!

Here is the compressed launch keynote presentation at Apple:
https://youtu.be/0DuTAR4OhTw?t=5m6s



Because I am budget concious as well, I waited for the perfect moment to upgrade! For me, it was last December's AT&T Holiday BoGo offer. My wife and I are enjoying of 2 iPhones (almost) for the price of one. I say almost because the offer was giving an iPhone 6S 16GB free ($650) but I got the iPhone 6S Plus 64GB ($850). I am only paying $6.66 for a device that I should have paid in any other moment a full $28.33.

As @lizdance40 said before, extinct 2-year service agreements on AT&T used to cost $40 per line.

However, once the line became an off-contract line, and if your current service plan was the Mobile Share Value (MSV), AT&T would grant a monthly credit of $25 (on MSV with 15GB of data or more), and $15 (on MSV of 10GB or less), driving the cost down to $15 or $25.

The MSV plans have already expired and are only being honored to those who haven't already changed to the better version, the Mobile Share Advantage, which produces $0 Data overage charges on your bill.

Lines on the New MSA plans have a flat rate of $20, simulating what would be the "off-contract" on credit of the Old MSV.

So, lets say you are enjoying (or soon to enjoy) your MSA with no data overages, a line rate of $20, and a brand new iPhone SE for $13.34/mo = $33.34. You end up better than paying $40 just for math sake, you did not had to pay anything else but the taxes (which I am prety sure it will be less than 10% tax = $40), you do not have a contract, do not have Early Termination Fee if you want to move carriers, you can payoff your the installment plan balance whenever you want in order to lower your bill even more, don't have to wait 2 years to upgrade bacause you can payoff your device ahead of time and become eligible, or you can trade-in your device after you have paid 24 of the 30 installments (which you can pay up as soon as you have the money to do so). 

I suggest the 30 month installment plan, because I am like you, I tend to care for my iPhone, like he's my baby, and I can go years without upgrading. I had the iPhone 4S until December, last year! I saw come and go the iPhone 5, the iPhone 5C, the iPhone 6, and the iPhone SE before upgrading.

So you see, it is not as bad as you have perceived it.

Cheer up! And if you need any further assistance, don't hessitate to ask!

No.  we are all equal.  That's fair for all.

Since all carriers are the same, they have no reason to offer different than the next guy.  

And if your on a grandfathered data plan, well, they want all older,  cheaper plans off the books anyway.  

Taking advantage of a 0.00% interest rate financing is another benefit I forgot to add.

Not too many people have the money to pay an iPhone in full.

Being able to use the Primary Account Holder's credit to buy an iPhone via a 0.00% interest rate financing, comes in handy! And as soon as the customer have saved up enough, it can be paid off.