AT&T's unlock policy

AT&T's lock policy has been this way for as long as AT&T has been around. Verizon recently went back to a 60-day lock policy to reduce the amount of fraud and theft. AT&T maintains the policy due to fraud and theft.

Phones can be paid off and unlocked at any time

Phone's participating in the trade-in deal can wait until credits begin, then pay off and unlock the phone without losing credits.

Please know that you must do this on your own, and that you must still maintain service and all other conditions for the promotion. Pay off yourself in your online account. Do not suspend the phone line. Do not upgrade or cancel the phone line or change it to a non-voice line All of these would void the promotion.

Phone's purchased directly from Apple are unlocked, unless you choose AT&T financing

I'm participating in the trade-in deal and have made about 5 payments so far. Say I have about 30 payments left at $4 a month (after trade-in credit), can I pay $120 and have my phone unlocked. The operator didn't give me this option. 

If you’re participating in the monthly trade in credit over 36 months , and have only paid 5 or 6 months, I guarantee that it will cost a lot more than $120 to pay off your phone and unlock it.  You may only effectively be paying $4 a month because that’s the difference between your monthly installment and the monthly credit, but those credits only are paid out over the 36 months.  Not as a lump sum that reduces the total balance due on the phone.  If you have 30 monthly payments left, you’ll need to pay 30 times the monthly installment on your bill to pay off the phone.  In other words, if your monthly phone installment is $34 and you are getting a $30 monthly credit, you’ll have to pay $1020 (30 months x $34/month) to pay off your phone to be able to unlock it.  Depending on what you do, you may be able to keep getting the $30 credit on your bill, but that’s going to be paid out over the remaining 30 months.  To do that you’ll have to keep the line, as well as keep the minimum required unlimited plan the whole time.

That's what I thought! Thanks everyone for clarifying. 

I haven't had to deal with this policy in over 6 years with other carriers. Waiting 60 days at Verizon is different from 3 years at AT&T. My bad for not doing my own research beforehand, but I'll be switching over to another carrier once my phone plan is paid off. I don't think this would matter as much to people who don't travel much, but it means that I need to have an extra phone for another SIM card or pay the $10 per day fee to use my phone overseas. I'm always trading in my old phone to upgrade so I never have an extra phone. 

Hello @naomitan.

As the ACE mentioned, If you’re participating in the monthly trade in credit over 36 months, and have only paid 5 or 6 months, I guarantee that it will cost a lot more than $120 to pay off your phone and unlock it. In other words, if your monthly phone installment is $34, and you are getting a $30 monthly credit, you’ll have to pay $1020 (30 months x $34/month) to pay off your phone to be able to unlock it.

Yes, AT&T is using the policy because if they don't the amount of fraud and theft increases.

You can also refer to: ⁠AT&T Device unlock for additional information.

We hope this helps, feel free to reach back out to us with additional questions. 

Thank you for reaching out to the AT&T Community Forums!

MatG, AT&T Community Specialist

Phone's participating in the trade-in deal can wait until credits begin, then pay off and unlock the phone without losing credits.

Just a little review and a logic test here. If the credits are given one a month for 36 months and you can pay off the phone without losing those credits, it should follow in your logical thought process that they are *not* going to be applied to the cost of the phone when you pay it off.  

The goal of all three major providers that offer these deals is to keep you for the full term, not so much to offer you a deal on the phone