Free? Not so Free?

When I receive something free, I assume that I can do whatever want to do with that. Give it away, spend it, use it, or throw it away if it’s not worth anything, which a lot of things aren’t even worth being free:). But when is free not really free.

Trade in your new phone for free! Everywhere you look, there is an ad for Get Your New Phone FREE on us! Just trade in your own phone and we’re good! Really? what if you don’t own your own phone? What if you do? What if as old as my own Flip Phone or my Blackberry!! Well, the young guns trying to make a buck in sales at Sams and Walmart, are spinning a great yarn. Free isn’t really free.

When is New really New

We traded in our paid off phones 18 months ago. The wifey was looking at upgrading her phone today and wanted to see. Supposedly we were given free phones so we can just trade in anytime we like. WRONG. When checking the bill, we still owed half of the cost of the phone. The phone company, which I won’t name, but was told this is how they all do it, explained the word FREE. They financed $900 for 36 months, $25 per month. They then created a credit for close to $25, which is applied towards the phone. WHAT!

OK, we won’t lose any money in the long run. Yes, we still owe money if we want to upgrade, but we will have to pay off the new phone when we upgrade. When we upgrade then this credit for the old phone will continue until we are given our money for the old phone. Quite a catchy plan that no one explains. Just our need for shiny new bobbles! There is an $6 upgrade fee on there that i don’t know who put it there and what does it do. Another mystery to track down.

For those that like finance, this is how the rich get richer. I thought I had free stuff, but they are using my $800 and loaning it, reusing it, and making interest upon interest. Quite a catchy plan. I know it’s quite a bit of work to understand the fine print. How much do you have to pay? If you have to pay anything, it’s not free. It’s just free at some point of time. And as always, this is Just One Man’s Opinion.

Sincerely and God Bless.

JOMO