The new iPhone SE can be yours for $184 (Update: Back in stock) – CNET

Interested in the new iPhone SE? Apple’s latest is now on sale everywhere starting at $399. Before you pay full price, however, check this out: For a limited time, and while supplies last, Visible will sell you the iPhone SE for $384 and then give you a $200 Mastercard credit, bringing your net price down to $184. That makes this the best deal I’ve seen, and by a wide margin. 

Update, May 12: After selling out of its initial batch of inventory, the carrier now has all colors and configurations back in stock.

Visible runs on Verizon’s network and offers just one mobile plan: unlimited everything for $40 a month. There’s no contract on that, though you do have to subscribe for at least two months in order to qualify for the credit.  

That credit comes in the form of a Prepaid Mastercard Virtual Account, which is basically an electronic debit card you can use for online purchases. You can’t use it to buy, say, food at the grocery store or gas at a gas station, but otherwise it’s as good as cash.

Read more: Visible has the best iPhone XR deal anywhere

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One other thing to note: While Visible’s $40 plan is already pretty competitive, the carrier’s Party Pay option drops the per-person rate to just $25 when you sign up with three others. Any three others; friends, family members, people you met on Zoom and so forth. It’s like a family plan, but with a very broad definition of “family.”

Meanwhile, if you decide after two months that you want out, you can take the iPhone SE elsewhere. I’ve been assured, repeatedly, that the phones are sold unlocked.

So although you have to pay $384 up front, you get $200 of it back after two months. You’re not roped into any kind of extended lease or contract, and you can actually use the phone for as little as $25 per month.

If there’s something not to like here, I haven’t found it.

Your thoughts?

Read more: iPhone SE review

Originally published last month. Updated to reflect replenished inventory.

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