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Simple Mobile is one of the few MVNOs with Truly unlimited phone plans. It also has a retail store where you can get cheap touchscreen phones for as low as $30. However, are these cheap phones for all the customers? And are there Simple Mobile upgrade phone discounts for existing customers?
If current/ existing customer, Simple Mobile hasn’t forgotten about you. It has various phone deals to choose from, with eligible upgrade discounts reaching up to $300.
In this guide, we’ll look at everything you should know about Simple Mobile upgrade phone program. The program is not like with other carriers, as the service plan you have determines your total savings and how frequently to upgrade.
Verdict: 4 Crucial Points about Simple Mobile Upgrade Phone Program
- Simple Mobile Upgrade Phone program has up to $300 discount
- Simple Mobile Upgrade discounts are eligible after 6 – 18 months
- Simple Mobile Upgrade phone program requires special upgrade plans
- Simple Mobile Upgrade plans can’t combine with regular phone plans
What’s a Simple Mobile Upgrade Phone Program?
Simple Mobile is a mobile virtual network operator (or an MVNO for short), a carrier without its own cell towers. The MVNO has always used T-Mobile towers to connect its customers.
Sadly, Simple Mobile is a cellular trademark of TracFone Wireless, which is now under the Verizon umbrella. It is sad as there are areas where T-Mobile is a better network than Verizon. But by the end of 2024, all the existing customers with T-Mobile-compatible SIMs have to transition to a Verizon-compatible SIM.
Whether connecting through T-Mobile or Verizon towers, Straight Talk remains a prepaid cellular phone service. As such, it mostly deals with upfront payments for the purchase of service plans and devices, albeit there’s also an optional financing program.
Unfortunately, the Simple Mobile device financing program isn’t in-house. The financing program is through SmartPay, an independent lease-to-own/ credit company.
Also, unlike its new parent company, Verizon, Simple Mobile doesn’t exactly have the best phone deals. However, existing customers can join the Simple Mobile upgrade phone program and enjoy lovely offers of $200 or $300.
The upgrade program here is also a little different than how to upgrade a Verizon phone. I mean, you MUST have either of the Simple Mobile phone upgrade plans to become eligible for a phone upgrade discount.
Which Simple Mobile Phone Upgrade Plan Do You Have?
As I’ve just mentioned, the phone upgrade program for Simple Mobile is very different from other carriers. One of the differences is the fact that only customers with Simple Mobile Phone Upgrade Plans qualify for these discounts.
In a nutshell, “Simple Mobile Upgrade Plans” are special Simple Mobile plans that bring you discounts on a new phone. They are more like airtime plans, slightly pricier than the regular subscriptions, but with an option of upgrade discounts.
The Simple Mobile Upgrade Phone Plans are currently available in three different tiers:
- $50 Upgrade Plan
- $60 Upgrade Plan
- $70 Upgrade Plan
All the Simple Mobile phone upgrade plans include unlimited talk, text (domestic & international), and data (with 1GB of high-speed browsing). They also include international talk minutes to Canada (mobile phone and landline) and Mexico (landline only).
The various Simple Mobile Phone Upgrade plans are where you get discounts on a new phone. There’s a catch, though!
Simple Mobile only recognizes you as eligible for the discount on a new phone if you accumulate 18 upgrade points. How many upgrade points and the amount of discount you get varies with the upgrade plan in use. See below:
| $50 Upgrade Plan | $60 Upgrade Plan | $70 Upgrade Plan | |
| Upgrade Points given | 1 point per month | 1.5 points per month | 3 points per month |
| Duration eligible for a phone upgrade | 18 months | 12 months | 6 months |
| Upgrade Phone Discount given | $300 | $300 | $200 |
Simple Mobile Upgrade Plan at $50
The Simple Mobile Phone Upgrade Plan at $50 is the lowest tier available if you’d like to start saving on your next device. In this tier, you only get 1 point per month, which means you’ll need 18 months to collect the needed 18 points.
While 18 months (about 1 and a half years) may be a long wait period, it does have its perks. The perk here is that you get to enjoy a phone upgrade discount of up to $300.
Simple Mobile Upgrade Plan at $60
The $60 Simple Mobile Upgrade plan falls in the middle tier of this upgrading program. It is similar to the $50 plan on the amount of discount, as you also get a $300 offer when you become eligible.
However, the eligibility for the $60 upgrade plan is slightly faster. The plan offers 1.5 points per month. Thus, you’ll need 12 months to accumulate the total 18 upgrade points.
Simple Mobile Upgrade Plan at $70
The $70 Phone Upgrade Plan is the highest tier of the upgrading program from Simple Mobile. It’s the most expensive bundle, plus the priciest, plus only includes a phone upgrade discount of $200.
However, the less savings of the $70 Upgrade Plan have to do with the fact you get it early. Unlike with the $50 and $60 plans, here you get a discount for the new phone in only 6 months.
Important Note:
Simple Mobile Phone Upgrade Combo Plans
The fastest way to accumulate all 18 points for an upgrade discount is getting the highest tier Simple Mobile Upgrade plan. And that top-tier upgrade plan we’ve seen will cost you $70/ month.
If you don’t have funds to pay for the $70 upgrade plan all through, Simple Mobile does allow mixing them up. In this “Custom Upgrade plan”, whichever of the three plans you refilled most usually carries its upgrade discount amount.
For instance, let’s try a combination of the $70, $60, and $50 upgrade plan as follows:
- Refill three (3) $70 Upgrade Plan, which accumulates 9 Upgrade points
- Refill two (2) $60 Upgrade Plan, which accumulate 3 Upgrade points
- Refill six (6) $50 Upgrade Plan, which accumulates 6 Upgrade points
In this example, our “Custom” Simple Mobile Phone Upgrade plan has accumulated all the required 18 upgrading points. It took 11 months to accumulate all 18 Upgrade points. Then, we refilled the $50 Upgrade plan the most six (6) times (versus 2x $60 plan and 3x $70 plan).
So, the phone upgrade discount on our “Custom” Upgrade Plan will be $300.
Note: You also get a $300 Upgrade discount with a combination of 6x $50 plan, 4x $60 plan, and 2x $70 plan. But it will take 12 months to accumulate all the 18 points needed.
How to Get the Simple Mobile Phone Upgrade Discounts
At this point, we shouldn’t judge Simple Mobile for the weird phone upgrade program. In the regular Simple Mobile phone deals for existing customers, you usually get a $30 to $50 discount on the featured brands.
But we now see eligible customers can save up to $300 on the Simple Mobile phone upgrade program in less than a year. And that’s about ten times more savings than the regular offers with $30 discounts.
Speaking of regular, the Simple Mobile upgrade phone plans can’t be used together with the usual service packages. The two main ways you can get the Simple Mobile Upgrade Plans are:
- Purchase the Simple Mobile upgrade plan you want and add it to your stash. When your current regular phone service ends, the upgrade plan will activate automatically
- Wait for your current phone service to end. Then, add the new Simple Mobile upgrade plan of your choice for the next billing cycle.
After joining the Simple Mobile upgrade program, you can always switch between the various service plans as per your budget. Just remember combining the Upgrade Plans will have a discount of the most refilled plan.
If your budget disappoints somewhere along the year, you can go back to a cheap regular non-Upgrade plan. You are always free to switch between the various Simple Mobile plans.
When you switch to the regular phone plans, you won’t lose your current phone upgrade points. But again, the regular/ non-upgrade plans earn no Upgrade points.
Important Note:
I have seen some people claim Simple Mobile upgrade phone program performs a credit check to ensure you can afford payments.
As we already know, though, Simple Mobile is a prepaid phone service, which remains the same on the Upgrade program. Thus, you can switch between the various Simple Mobile plans with no contract or credit check.
When you decide to start paying for your upgrade plan again, you can log into your Simple Mobile account online. Then, go to the account dashboard to check your current upgrade discount points.
After getting all the 18 Upgrade points, Simple Mobile says you can redeem the discount at My Simple Phones store. The store, by Quality One Wireless, is the authorized online retailer of Simple Mobile.
Besides the partner store, you can check out the few selections on the in-house Simple Mobile phones catalog. There are not many of them, but the catalog does have some nice brands, including high-end Samsung phones and iPhones.
Moreover, the in-house Simple Mobile retail department has cheaper phones than the partner shore. And for that, the $300 or $200 upgrade discount may give you a better new device.
What’s the Best Simple Mobile Upgrade Phone I Can Get?
Simple Mobile doesn’t have a lot of phones to choose from in its (in-house) retail store. The partner online retailer also doesn’t have an extensive catalog to brag about.
However, I’ve been able to gather about a dozen phones from both stores you can consider for your next upgrade discount. They include:
| Current Buying Price | Where to Shop | |
| Apple iPhone 13 5G-enabled iOS | $630 | Simple Mobile Shop |
| Samsung Galaxy S22+ with 5G | $850 | Simple Mobile Partner Store |
| Samsung Galaxy A25 5G Android | $350 | Simple Mobile Partner Store |
| Google Pixel 6 5G-Enabled Phone | $350 | Simple Mobile Partner Store |
| Apple iPhone 12 iOS with 5G | $400 | Simple Mobile Shop |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 20 5G-Capable Phone | $1,000 | Simple Mobile Shop |
| Samsung Galaxy A54 5G-Enabled Android | $280 | Simple Mobile Shop |
| Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G (2023 Edition) | $300 | Simple Mobile Partner Store |
| Apple iPhone 11 4G LTE Smartphone | $250 | Simple Mobile Shop |
| Google Pixel 7 Android with 5G | $450 | Simple Mobile Partner Store |
| OnePlus Nord N30 5G-Enabled Smartphone | $300 | Simple Mobile Partner Store |
| Motorola G Power 5G (2023 Edition) | $350 | Simple Mobile Partner Store |
| Google Pixel 7 Pro Smartphone with 5G | $600 | Simple Mobile Partner Store |
| OnePlus Nord 20 5G-Capable Android Smartphone | $320 | Simple Mobile Partner Store |
| Motorola One Ace 5G & LTE Smartphone | $350 | Simple Mobile Partner Store |
| Samsung Galaxy S23 FE Android with 5G | $600 | Simple Mobile Partner Store |
Is the Simple Mobile Upgrade Phone Discount Worth it?
The Simple Mobile Phone Upgrade program isn’t the best, for sure. However, it’s a nice program when you want to save more on the already cheap Simple Mobile phones. After collecting all the eighteen (18) upgrade points, we’ve seen you can get a discount of up to $300.
The $70 Simple Mobile Upgrade plan is the fastest way to accumulate the 18 points required to get a discount on a new phone. But it happens to have the least Upgrade discount- $200. It’s still a nice deal, albeit $300 will give you a much better upgrade phone.
All that said, the cheapest Simple Mobile plan is $25/ month. The plan includes unlimited talk and text, international calling and roaming, plus 3GB of high-speed data.
If on the $25 plan for six months, you can save a total of $270 for the $45 you’d save instead of paying the $70 upgrade plan. And that’s seventy bucks more than the $70 Upgrade plan would initially give you.
Common Related Questions:
How Can I Upgrade My Phone On Simple Mobile?
The process to upgrade your phone on Simple Mobile requires purchasing an Upgrade Plan. Then, wait to accumulate all the 18 upgrade points needed to get a discount on the new phone.
What’s The Best Simple Mobile Phone Deals For Existing Customers?
The best Simple Mobile phone deal for existing customers currently has only $30 off. But you can join the Simple Mobile upgrade program, in which you can redeem $200 or $300 on your desired phone.
Does Simple Mobile Give Away A Free Phone?
Simple Mobile has no free phone deals for new or existing customers. However, you can get the Simple Mobile phone upgrade plan for a $200 or $300 discount. And that’s enough to cover the full cost of some entry-level or mid-range phones.