“i dropped my phone, cracked the corner of it”. I don’t see why someone else is supposed to solve your problem for you.

Ummmm you are acting like somehow the phone was previously free. It never was free. You paid for it with exorbitantly high phone bills! The “free” phone you got might have cost you $1000 in reality.

Totally disagree. It is good for the consumer! You can shop around for any GSM phone you like, get a great price on it, and enjoy the monthly savings on your bill. Consumers have been saving money this way on prepaid plans for years. The wireless carriers were getting screwed by buying up large quantities of phones…

Somebody taught you what to do with 60% of your money. What did they say to do with the other 40%?

I agree with Gray Adder. It is not cheating. Someone has designed the system with certain rules. Knowing the rules and using them to your advantage is not cheating at all. It is just good planning.

As it pertains to college (and financing it) I wish would have known a lot more about how these things worked when I was 18. I would have: