Holiday Deals for Carriers: Beware of the fine print on free tablets or smartwatches

As the holidays approach, retailers are starting to offer their latest device deals and pitch them as the perfect gift. Carriers in particular have started dangling free or heavily discounted Apple Watches, iPads, Galaxy Watches and Galaxy Tabs if you upgrade your device.

As you might have guessed, there’s plenty of fine print to look out for with these particular “deals.”

Take AT&T. On its website, the carrier touts how you can “learn how to get” an iPhone 16 Pro or Galaxy S24 Plus from us with a trade-in. Not only can you upgrade your phone, but adding an Apple or Samsung smartwatch and tablet costs just 99 cents per month for each device.

At first glance that seems mighty tempting, but if you look at the fine print, it turns out you have to buy the devices on 36-month installment plans, pay the taxes (which are at full retail price), and a $35 activation/upgrade fee and also need to add service for the watches ($11 per month) and tablets ($21 per month).

As with phone upgrades, the carrier is willing to discount the device to keep you on their plans. That is why the savings are paid out every month as invoice credit, instead of one large discount in advance.

So while you may get a discount on the purchase of the watch and tablet up front, you’ll easily be paying an extra $32 per month for the next three years (or $1,152 over 36 months). As with the phone installment plans, if you decide to cancel the watch/tablet lines after a few months, you risk losing the funds and having to pay out the balance owed on the devices.

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Verizon isn’t much better. The website touts a very similar deal. While it will get users an Apple Watch Series 10 (AT&T offers an Apple Watch SE) or Galaxy Watch 7 (AT&T’s offering is for the Watch FE), there are similar wrinkles to be aware of.

You’ll again be hit with taxes and activation fees (the latter is a one-time $35 fee, which may be waived through Verizon’s online chat and customer support) and you’ll have to commit to the carrier for 36 months. Likewise, you’ll need to add a line for the watches ($15 per month) and tablets (Verizon’s tablet prices start at $20 per month for 15GB of data, $30 per month for 30GB of data and access to the fastest 5G network).

Oh, and you also need to have the carrier’s most expensive Unlimited Ultimate plan to get the full discount on the phone, watch, and tablet. While this plan also includes a 50% discount on two connected devices (making the watch line $7.50 per month and the tablet line $10 or $15 per month), Unlimited Ultimate is the most expensive plan Verizon offers.

For most people looking for a Verizon plan, I actually recommend the company’s cheapest offering, known as Unlimited Welcome.

As with AT&T’s deal, if you decide to change any of your plans and have to pay the balance of what’s owed on the devices, you risk losing the discount.

T-Mobile recently started claiming that adding a watch, tablet, or even laptop line to accounts will cost as little as $5 per month, per device. But that’s with the carrier’s most expensive Go5G Next plan, which we also don’t recommend for most people. T-Mobile also still requires that all phone lines on an account be on the same plan, meaning if you want to move one line and have several, you’ll have to move them all.

As with Verizon, I actually recommend T-Mobile’s cheapest plan for most people, known as “Essentials.”

Adding a wearable to other T-Mobile plans starts at about $12 per month, while adding a tablet starts at $20 per month for 50 GB of data (100 GB of data would be $40 per month). These options include auto-pay discounts and having a voice line with T-Mobile.

Unless you really like or need your tablet or phone connected to a cellular network, you’re probably better off buying a mobile smartwatch or tablet yourself and then adding and removing it from your cell phone plan as you need it.