With the recent furor over the Touch Pro2‘s rumored pricing, we thought this would be a good time to bring up something that may have long been forgotten by many of you since we first provided the details back in November. Officially announced by T-Mobile in February of this year, the Equipment Installment Plan (EIP) pretty much allows you to lower the amount you pay for your phone upfront and spread it out in 3 other out-of-store payments with no interest charges or extra fees whatsoever.
While the price each person pays in store vs the other three payments will be absolutely different for everyone, here is a [admittedly confusing at first glance] summary from our first article on the EIP:
Either the difference between your credit limit and the purchase price of the phone is charged
to your first billin store -OR- the total purchase price divided by four monthly payments is chargedto your first billin store, whichever is GREATER. The other three monthly payments would equal the remaining balance divided by three and would all be the same.
In a [hopefully clearer] summary [of our summary] your credit history will be looked at, but only to determine how much “credit” they can extend to you. That credit will be the amount you can walk out of the store without paying. Make sense? You pay more up front if your purchase divided by four is the greater amount, irregardless of amount of credit extended.
Oh yes, you can also add extra accessories on to your total for split payments, and whatever else you want to get in store.