Love it or hate it, the new iPhone is coming on June 24th. For a lot of people, that means it’s time to shell out a fat wad of cash to get their latest gadget fix.
Just how fat said wad of cash is, however, depends on various factors, including (but not limited to): your monthly bill total, when you bought your device, the weather, your birth stone, and whether or not you can wink your eyes without moving the rest of your face.
Fortunately, there’s a pretty easy way to determine your upgrade eligibility without having to deal with any of this.
If you’re eligible for an upgrade, you’ll be able to pick up a 16GB or 32GB iPhone 4 for $199 or $299 respectively, if you’re willing to sign up for another 2 year contract. If you’re not eligible yet, you can still get an “Early Upgrade” discount in exchange for a renewed contract, but you’ll be paying $399 or $499 respectively. If you’d pay full price and walk out the door contract-fee, it’ll set you back $599 or $699 respectively.
Now, on to how to check your eligibility. There are actually two methods: the first requires you have your iPhone (or other AT&T phone) nearby, the second does not.
Method #1:
- Grab your iPhone
- Open up the phone app, dial *639#, hit the call button
- Wait a few minutes. Within about 5 minutes, you’ll receive a text from AT&T telling you whether or not you’re good to upgrade
Method #2:
- Go to this page on AT&T’s customer support center.
- Log in.
- On the right side, there’s a link in the “Quick Links” section which reads “Check Upgrade Options”. As you could probably guess, click that.
- Ta-da!
Even if you’re not eligible today, check back in a few days. I wasn’t eligible for an upgrade last night — today, I am. It’s all sorcery, I tell you.
[Method 1 via iLounge]