The day after October 31^st officially marks the beginning of the holiday season for many, starting with retailers rolling out as many sales ads as they possibly can. It’s difficult not to be tempted, with all of the savings you can acquire during this season, to go out and impulse purchase everything you ever wanted. But there is one thing many people wait for this time of year for, and that’s making sure they time their upgrades to roll around the holidays.

It’s difficult for me, personally, to work my upgrade around the holidays for two reasons. Reason number one, and most importantly, I’m the most impatient person I know. When my upgrade is available, I want the best phone they have right then and there. Unless I know a really awesome phone will be released sometime in the near future, I don’t wait to upgrade my device.

Reason number two is practically unavoidable when it comes to contract carriers – moved upgrade dates. Every once in a while a carrier has some revolutionary money-saving idea for their business that will ultimately just make a lot of customers angry, because the idea results in them moving your upgrade date up. This doesn’t happen too often, but it will every once in a while and it does nothing but cause backlash (no matter what time of year it is) because someone, somewhere, is not going to get what they wanted when they were told they could do so.

Regardless of my personal issues with waiting until the holidays, and as long as some bizarre contract change doesn't occur, I believe that if you can or have the option to upgrade during this time of the year that it would be a good idea to take advantage of the huge savings you could be racking up.

I do know a lot of people who will save their upgrades and will only upgrade once every 2 or 3 years, just to ensure they get the best holiday sales deals on the phones. It’s already only barely one week post-Halloween and you see sale ads for the Galaxy S III and other popular devices from this year. If you’re purchasing for a family, you can also expect to see a lot of “BOGO” offers from manufacturers and companies. Aside from Apple devices, in most places you can expect to be somesort of a discount roll out for almost every phone. 

Aside from the devices themselves, a lot of companies also like to bundle phones with discounted accessory sales. If you’ve ever had a smartphone before, or even just a regular phone, you probably already know that one of the most important things to have on these devices is a protective cover – and what’s better than getting one or two at discounted prices? Nothing! Well, okay, maybe a few things, but still. Honestly, accessory sales alone can make great stocking stuffers, because just about everybody has a phone these days.

Hopefully you can take advantage of these great sales for your upgrade. Without an upgrade, it’s rare that you’ll see a good sale for a full-priced device, but every once in a while one will swing by us (Like the Galaxy S III sale a few weeks ago). Do you wait around the holidays to use your upgrade? Are you like me and just use your upgrade whenever you can? Let me know what your upgrade routine is in the comments!

Image via KnowYourMobile