Cricket’s new phone payment plans are here, but you’ll want to be careful. They’ve rolled out a simplified application to offer financing or leasing, and checking your options won’t hit your credit score.
Cricket just rolled out new phone financing plans
Just in time for the holiday shopping scramble, Cricket Wireless has launched a new system to make buying a pricey smartphone a bit more manageable. They’ve introduced “Phone Payment Plan options” that boil down to one simple, digital application.Instead of you trying to figure out which financing path to take, Cricket’s new application automatically directs customers to the best plan for them. The big plus here is that you can check your eligibility and see what you qualify for without getting a hard inquiry on your credit report, which is a nice touch. According to a new report, this move is aimed at budget-minded shoppers, especially Gen Z, who are more likely to use pay-over-time methods.
The new payment options
Once you apply, you’ll be funneled into one of two different paths:
Bread Pay: This is traditional financing. Eligible customers could get $0 down and 0% APR for 24 months. However, based on creditworthiness, that rate could be as high as 14.99% APR.
Progressive Leasing: This is a 12-month lease-to-own option. This isn’t a loan; you’re leasing the device with the option to buy it at the end.
The new phone payment plan options put the customer in control. We’re delivering on our promise to make technology more accessible.
— Shailendra Gujarati, chief marketing officer at Cricket Wireless
Why this move actually matters in the prepaid world
Cricket phone payment plan options. | Image credit — Cricket
This is all about prepaid catching up and blurring the lines. For years, the big perk of prepaid was no contracts, but the downside was you usually had to buy your phone outright. Meanwhile, postpaid carriers like AT&T (Cricket’s parent company) and Verizon use “free” or cheap monthly-payment phones as the main hook to lock you into 3-year plans.Cricket’s big rival, Metro by T-Mobile, already has its own device financing and leasing partnerships. This new, simplified system from Cricket is a direct competitive response. It’s an attempt to give prepaid customers that “postpaid” experience of getting a shiny new flagship phone for a low (or $0) down payment, which helps Cricket keep customers from jumping to a competitor.
Read the fine print before you sign
Honestly, this is a bit of a mixed bag. The “no hard credit check” to see your options is genuinely great. That part is smart and very customer-friendly.But you have to be really careful about which plan you get. The Bread Pay 0% APR deal is solid. But if you get the 14.99% APR offer, that’s a high interest rate for a phone. The option that really makes me nervous, though, is Progressive Leasing. Lease-to-own services are notoriously expensive. By the time you’ve made all 12 payments and paid the buyout fee, you’ll almost certainly have paid far more than the phone was ever worth.
So, would I use it? I’d avoid the leasing option at all costs. But if you need a new phone and can qualify for the 0% APR financing, it’s a reasonable deal. For everyone else, saving up and buying unlocked is still the best way to go.
Apple Watch Series 9 (45mm)
£189 50
£206
£17 off (8%)
The Apple Watch Series 9 is powered by the same processor as the newest Series 11 and, by extension, supports all the new features introduced with watchOS 26. Last chance to get a Product RED Apple Watch, as Apple has stopped making those for the time being!
