T-Mobile announced today that it’s offering its most popular phones for $0 down on Black Friday weekend this year. New and existing customers of the Bellevue-based carrier will be able to grab the 16 GB models of the iPhone 5S, 5C, Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and the Samsung Galaxy S4 without paying a cent in the store from Friday until Sunday. If it’s not possible for someone to get into a T-Mobile retail outlet, the company will also be offering the same deal online on Cyber Monday.
The company, which recently placed second among major carriers in Consumer Reports’s annual cell provider survey, has been trying to woo users with a variety of “Uncarrier” moves. It is clearly hoping that offering steep discounts will help lure customers on this holiday weekend.
Instead of buying a locked phone at a subsidized price and then incorporating the price of the phone into their rate plans, T-Mobile subscribers purchase an unlocked phone, and can either pay for it all up front, or put some money down and get charged the remainder of the price in installments.
In the case of this weekend’s offer, users aren’t actually getting a discount overall, since the company just increased the installment payments needed to pay off the phone, but it is a way to defer payment if customers don’t want to have to cover the down payment.
