If you have bad credit, you know how frustrating it can be to get something as simple as a cell phone. You may have been left wondering who is the best and easiest bad credit cell phone provider.
Did you know that if you want a real cell phone account and not a pre-paid account that iPhones are apparently the best and easiest cell phones for people with bad credit?
Shocking?
How can that be?
This post is less about credit restoration and more about living with bad credit while you are restoring it and feeling like a normal human being. With bad credit, many cell phone providers want credit checks and extensive security deposits IF they will even let you have service and sell you a phone. This can be a very humiliating and painful experience. What brought this to my attention was a guest post on my iPhone website. It caused me to dig a little deeper into the experiences people with bad credit had getting Apple’s latest piece of electronic nirvana.
I have had an iPhone for years and love it but hadn’t really thought through the challenges some people may face in getting a cell phone. So, I queried some of our subscribers and what I found out was that if you have bad credit, an iPhone is apparently the easiest phone to get if you want a normal, non-pre-paid account. Additionally, AT&T appears to be the best service provider for bad credit cell phones.
Here’s why:
Our research resulted in the findings that people with bad credit who went through the conventional process of applying with the cell phone carrier, whether it was AT&T, Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile, all experienced similar issues with substantial deposit requirements IF they could even get approved for service. That being said, those who went through Apple’s website to order their new iPhone and setup an appointment to pick it up at an Apple Store were able to purchase the phone AND get service with AT&T without a deposit of any kind.
How to get a cell phone with bad credit?
Well, apparently, and this makes a ton of sense, Apple isn’t in the cellular service business, per se (though they do generate revenue from subsidies and cell service). They are in the selling iPhones business and their main goal is to, you guessed it, sell iPhones. When you want to sell iPhones, you cannot let a pesky thing like a deposit to AT&T get in the way. So, subscribers who were denied or required to post large deposits when going directly through AT&T had no problem going directly to Apple’s website, ordering their iPhone, scheduling a pickup time at their local Apple Store and receiving Ritz-Carlton level service without being charged an additional deposit or experiencing any hassles based on their credit. Wow! Knowledge truly is power.
Upon further inquiry, we also discovered that customer satisfaction upon our survey participants was higher with AT&T than Verizon or any other carrier. When we asked why, an interesting phenomenon was uncovered. Apparently, AT&T treated people with exceptional customer service……even when they were late on a bill. Many survey participants went so far as to say that when they knew they were going to run late on paying the bill, they were able to simply call AT&T customer service and ask for an extension of time to pay the bill (everywhere from a few days to a month) during which period the service would not be disconnected. That is powerful, helpful and what I consider concern for an ongoing customer relationship. Most companies want to kick you while you are down, disconnect you and then have their collection department harass you to within an inch of your sanity.
So, if you want a real cell phone account and the best smartphone on the planet (the iPhone), you may want to follow this procedure as well. From personal experience, I can tell you that you won’t be disappointed with an iPhone and personally, I have always received excellent customer service from AT&T going back as far as 20 years ago. Somehow, they get it and seem to appreciate their customers.
Who is your provider and what has your experience been?
Leave me a comment in the comment box below.
By the way, if you haven’t already, now is a great time to enroll in Credit Repair College. We are updating the curriculum as we speak! We will be covering everything from dealing with student loan default to how to get poor credit auto loans! And, of course, we will walk you step through how to create a comprehensive credit restoration plan. Dealing with debt collections and don’t know where to turn? We can help! I will even show you the exact strategies I have used to clean up my credit! Enroll Today!
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