T-Mobile officially started carrying the iPhone last month, offering it to their customers for $99 up front and $20 equal monthly payments over 24 months. The launch was done after T-Mobile had announced its carrier free plans, thus allowing customers to essentially walk away with a 16GB iPhone 5 by simply putting up $99 up front. It wasn’t exactly clarified then that the $99 price was actually promotional, the carrier has now raised it to $149 while the $20 monthly payments for two years remain in place.
T-Mobile claims that it is offering the most affordable up front price for a new iPhone, and this base price increase does not put those claims in trouble. Prices for 32GB and 64GB iPhone 5 models were also increased, down payment for which now comes to $249 and $249 respectively. Monthly payments for higher storage capacity models are the same. T-Mobile also has an iPhone Guaranteed Trade-In Offer in which it accepts iPhone 4S or iPhone 4 devices from qualified customers and in return gives them a new iPhone 5 for no up front cost, though the $20 monthly payments have to be made like the normal plan.