Thinking about picking up an iPhone 5? If you're looking to upgrade to the bigger-screened iPhone from an iPhone 4 or 4S, you may want to mosey on down to your local Best Buy. The retailer has announced that it's kicking off a special trade-in offer today that'll give consumers a $150 Best Buy gift card in exchange for a working iPhone 4 or 4S. That gift card can then be put toward a 16GB iPhone 5, which is available for $149.99 with a two-year commitment. The promotion is available in Best Buy stores and will run from June 21 through June 29.
As with almost any promo, there's a bit of fine print to be aware of with Best Buy's offer. The retailer says that the deal excludes T-Mobile, so interested consumers will need to sign up with AT&T, Sprint or Verizon. Customers that do decide to trade in their iPhone 4 or 4S will receive a minimum credit of $150, but Best Buy will add more to a gift card if it determines that a trade-in is worth more than $150.
This is actually the second time that Best Buy has held this promo, originally running it for a single day on June 1. The retailer told USA Today that that was the single-biggest day that its trade-in program has seen in its four-year existence, so it's no surprise to see that Best Buy is bringing it back and running it for an extended period of time.
Some may think that it's crazy to buy an iPhone 5 just months before the iPhone 5S is expected to debut. However, the iPhone 5S is rumored to be a somewhat modest update with a few upgraded internals, and so consumers that don't feel like waiting may not miss out on much if they just want a new phone now.
There's also the fact that folks could possibly get more for their used iPhones by selling them through Craigslist or eBay. Doing so can take quite a bit more time and effort than trading a device in to Best Buy, though, and for some the convenience of just going to a store and handing them an old phone will outweigh the extra cash that they may have gotten otherwise. What do you usually do with your old mobile hardware when the time to upgrade comes?
