The crack across the back glass is no big deal, it seems to be on the inner layer, because you can’t even feel it on the surface. The problem is the crack along the edge of the screen. The one piece is slightly chipped, so I knew that if I let that go for too long, I’d lose the entire screen. Both vanity (I don't leave my phones cracked for months on end, okay?) and a desire to not have the screen be rendered useless at a moment’s notice led me into AT&T to find out my options. Part of me was ready to upgrade, part of me just wanted to stick with what I have, which meant I could either pay off the current phone so I’d be upgrade eligible, or file an insurance claim and get a replacement S6 with a $150 deductible.
Well… since I’m only a year into this plan, I still owed about $530 on my phone. In short, it would cost me nearly $600 to upgrade. The guy took a look at the other lines on my account, (I’m such a good daughter, paying for my parents' phones), and their payoff was only $300. So now I can upgrade for about $350.
I’ve recently paid off a credit card, and I knew I could easily manage to pay it off again very quickly with a $350 balance. That's not bad, considering what I've paid for phones in the past. The card was in my hand. I was gonna do it.
Then I changed my mind.
Pay $150 for a replacement S6, a phone I know and am comfortable with.
Pay $350 for a new S7, a little bigger and a little different. Adjustment period.
$200 difference.
I did the fiscally responsible, mature, delayed gratification thing.
I put my credit card away, went home and filed my claim.
Two glorious things happened.
One, because I haven’t filed a claim in over 12 months, my deductible was only $99.
Second, at the confirmation page I see:
"We are replacing your Galaxy S6 Edge 64GB with a Silver Galaxy S7 Edge 32GB."
So…
I’m basically upgrading my phone anyway…
For only $99.
The 32 gig is a bit of a bummer, but, not only do I only have 28 gigs on my current phone so I’m not that worried about space, but the S7 brought back the expandable memory, and I have a 128 gig mini SD that I had in the S5.
I did the right thing, and for once I got rewarded for it.