Carrier Holiday Deals: Beware of the Fine Print on Free Tablets or Smartwatches

As the holiday season nears, retailers are beginning to up their latest device offers and pitch them as the perfect gifts. Carriers in particular have begun dangling free or heavily discounted Apple Watches, iPads, Galaxy Watches and Galaxy Tabs if you upgrade your device. 

Well, as you might've guessed, there is plenty of fine print to be aware of with these particular "deals."

Take AT&T. On its website, the carrier touts how you can "learn how to get" an iPhone 16 Pro or Galaxy S24 Plus "on us" with a trade-in. Not only can you upgrade your phone, but adding an Apple or Samsung smartwatch and tablet is just 99 cents per month for each device. 

On the surface that seems mighty tempting, but looking at the fine print shows that you need to buy the devices on 36-month installment plans, pay the taxes (which are at the full retail pricing) and $35 activation/upgrade fees and also add service for the watches ($11 per month) and tablets ($21 per month). 

AT&T is similarly offering free watches and tablets, alongside some fine print. 

Like with phone upgrades, the carrier is willing to discount the device to keep you on its plans. It's why the savings are dished out as bill credits every month as opposed to one heavy discount upfront. 

So while you may be getting an upfront discount on buying the watch and tablet, you quickly will be on the hook for an extra $32 per month for the next three years (or $1,152 across 36 months). As with its phone installment plans, if you decide to cancel the watch/tablet lines after a few months, you risk losing the credits and would need to pay out the balance owed on the devices. 

Read more: Our picks for the best phone plans

Verizon isn't any better. Its website touts a very similar deal. While it will be giving users an Apple Watch Series 10 (AT&T is offering an Apple Watch SE) or Galaxy Watch 7 (AT&T's offer is for the Watch FE), there are similar wrinkles to be aware of here. 

You will once again be on the hook for taxes and activation fees (the latter is a one-time $35 charge that you may be able to get waived with Verizon's online chat and customer support) and need to commit to the carrier for 36 months. You similarly will need to add a line for the watches ($15 per month) and tablets (Verizon's tablet pricing starts at $20 per month for 15GB of data, $30 per month for 30GB of data and access to its fastest 5G network).

Oh, and you also need to be on the carrier's priciest Unlimited Ultimate plan to get the full discount on the phone, watch and tablet. While this plan also includes a 50% discount on two connected devices (making the watch line $7.50 per month and the tablet line either $10 or $15 per month), Unlimited Ultimate is the most expensive plan Verizon offers.

For most people looking for a Verizon plan, I actually recommend the company's cheapest offering known as Unlimited Welcome.  

Similar to AT&T's deal, if you decide to change any of your plans, you risk losing the discount and having to pay off the balance of what is owed on the devices. 

T-Mobile has recently begun touting that adding a watch, tablet or even laptop line to accounts is as low as $5 per month, per device. But that is with the carrier's priciest Go5G Next plan, which we similarly don't recommend for most people. T-Mobile also still requires all phone lines on an account to be the same plan, which means if you want to move one line and have multiple you will need to move them all. 

Like with Verizon, for most people, I actually recommend T-Mobile's cheapest plan known as "Essentials."

Adding a wearable to other T-Mobile plans starts at around $12 per month while adding a tablet starts at $20 per month for 50GB of data (100GB of data would be $40 per month). These options include discounts for autopay and having a voice line with T-Mobile. 

Unless you really like or need to have your tablet or phone connected to a cellular network, you probably are better off buying a cellular smartwatch or tablet on your own and then adding and dropping it from your cell phone plan as you need it.