This post was submitted by reader J, then organized and edited by the blog author cloud with some additional details.The referral codes listed in this post belong to the submitting reader. Readers are welcome to contact the author in the WeChat group to submit their own posts.
【2021.11.3】The current Terms say there is a maximum of 5 referrals per month. Based on comments, with self-referral you may not even see the points post.
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Introduction
This post explains how to buy an iPhone SE through Total Wireless and then trade it in for a gift card. Note that the iPhone SE you receive here is not brand new; it is reconditioned. However, based on data points, it can still be used for trade-in to get a $170 Apple gift card. You could also consider trading it in at Best Buy for a Best Buy gift card, but for simplicity this article uses the Apple gift card as the example.
The steps below require a shopping portal. The highest rate right now is TopCashback, offering 12% cash back (up to 6 phones). If you do not already have an account, you can register in advance here:
1. Phone purchase steps:
1. Get the 25% off first-order discount code. You can open the Total Wireless website in incognito mode (https://www.totalwireless.com/), and a pop-up should appear automatically.
After entering your email, you can receive a code. You can also find the place to get the coupon in the lower-right corner of the webpage.
2. Click through from the shopping portal to the Total Wireless website. Click shop->phones to open the phone purchase page. In the search box on that page, search for “SE” to quickly find New iPhone SE 64GB Black（Reconditioned）. Important: if you plan to trade it in, choose the cheaper Reconditioned version.
3. After adding it to your cart, buy the $25 plan. On the checkout page, the "subtotal" is $154.99. In “enter promo code here,” apply the 25% discount code from step 1, and you will get a discount of $32.50. After the discount, the price is $122.49+tax.
2. Activation and rewards steps
1. After receiving the phone, use the serial number on the box to register and activate it.
You will then choose whether to use your own number or a new number. The SIM card is already inserted in the phone you received. If you choose a new number, you only need to enter your ZIP code.
Remember to choose create account, and also remember the security pin you enter, since you may later port this number out.
After completing the above steps, turn on the phone and make a test call. If the call goes through, activation is successful.
2. After activation is complete, you can click join rewards. Joining comes with 225 bonus points automatically.
After successfully joining rewards, you can enter any one of the referral codes below to get 5000/8000 points.
- Author's referral: mqli-e2e6、rvhq-62c8
- Submitting reader's referral: vkuh-c6af
If you cannot find where to enter a referral code, go to the bottom of “my dashboard” and find "enter code" there. That is where you can enter the referral code shown above, as illustrated below.
Total Wireless referral rules are: when you successfully refer 1 person, you get 5,000 points and the other person gets 5,000 points; for 2-4 people, you get 9,000 points and the other person gets 6,000 points; for 5 or more people, you get 12,000 points and the other person gets 8,000 points.
3. Use rewards to buy more SE phones:
1. Following the same method as above, buy two more SE phones (the second and third phones). The only difference is that in Section 2, Step 3, you should use the referral code from the account for your first SE phone (in other words, refer yourself; note that commenters have reported a risk that points from self-referral may be voided). This way, the points in the first phone account would be 225+8,000+5,000+9,000=22,225. Of these, 22,000 points will be pending for 30 days, and when the points post, the number on the first account needs to remain active. Since the already-posted, non-pending points are not enough to redeem one month of plan service, you would need to buy another month of plan service for $25. Also, if you port out the number on the referred account, it does not affect the referring account's ability to receive points.
2. Total Wireless rewards can be redeemed either for plan service or for a discount code toward buying a phone. Here we only redeem a discount code: use 20,000 points for a $300 discount code.
3. Use the discount code redeemed in the previous step to directly buy two more SE phones (the fourth and fifth phones). You can also combine it with other phones, but not with accessories. You only need to pay for the extra 25*2 in plan charges. This discount code cannot be combined with the original 25% off discount.
4. Get Apple gift cards via Trade-In:
After each phone arrives and is activated, it can be traded in. You can take the SE directly to an Apple Store, or mail it in through the website (or trade it in at Best Buy for a Best Buy gift card). At the moment, Best Buy offers a $180 Best Buy gift card, while Apple offers a $170 Apple gift card. If you want an Apple gift card, the easiest way is to trade it in in person at the Apple Store, where they directly give you a $170 gift card.
Total cost:
The calculations below do not include the 12% from TCB; if you include it, the effective discount becomes even better.
- If you only do one SE, your cost is $122.49. That means you pay $122.49 for one reconditioned iPhone SE plus the corresponding Total Wireless points. If you trade it in, you get a 170 Apple gift card, which is equivalent to paying about 72% of face value.
- If you complete the full process above, the total cost is $122.49*3 for buying 3 SE phones, plus $25 to keep the first account active for the second month, plus $50 for the fourth and fifth SE plan charges, for a total of $ 442.47. That means $442.47 for five reconditioned iPhone SE phones, or an average of $88.56 each. Trading in all 5 SE phones gets you $170*5 = $850 in Apple gift cards. That is basically like buying Apple gift cards at about half price (442.47/850=0.52).