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How to Maximize Buying the iPhone 16

Whether you buy one outright or through a phone plan, here are ways for you to maximize your rewards on your iPhone 16 purchase.

Written by Vittorio Salac

On September 10, 2024

Read time 21 mins

Slated to debut on September 20, 2024, the release of the iPhone 16 is almost upon us here in Canada. The new iteration of the iPhone comes in four variants: the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max, with prices ranging from $1,129–2,349 (all figures in CAD).

If you have plans to get one, you’ve got an opportunity to earn some great rewards by using the right credit card, plus depending on which card you use, you may also be able to get some insurance coverage for your iPhone for free.

In this article, let’s take a look at how you can leverage your credit cards to maximize your rewards and maybe get some insurance benefits for your iPhone 16 purchase.

Buying an iPhone 16 Outright

Rather than queuing outside an Apple Store, the easiest way to buy an iPhone is of course online. Plus, by buying online, you can use an online shopping portal to accrue more rewards in addition to those that you’ll earn with your credit card.

Among the shopping portals you can use for buying an iPhone through Apple.com are the following:

By routing your online order through the Aeroplan eStore, for example, you earn an extra 1 Aeroplan point per dollar spent. You can also sometimes get bonus points when using your Aeroplan co-branded card to pay, and you can enjoy the portal’s occasional bonus points events.

Ideally, you can time your purchase for a bonus event that offers 10x Aeroplan points.

However, keep in mind that Apple.com has a list of product exclusions for online shopping portals that changes often, so before making your purchase, make sure to check the portal of your choosing to see if it currently lists the new iPhone as an exclusion. The famous shopping portal Rakuten, for example, often excludes iPhones from its cash back earning.

Again, the rewards you’ll earn through the online shopping portals are on top of what you’ll earn with your credit card; therefore, you should also strategize which card you’ll use for the purchase so that you can maximize the rewards you get.

Since the iPhone is a relatively large purchase, it could be quite useful in helping you meet a large minimum spending requirement for a credit card welcome bonus.

If you’re in the market for a new credit card, you can get a run down of the welcome bonuses you can work on in our post on the best credit card offers for the month.

You could also strategize by choosing a card that lets you earn the best rewards. Generally speaking, electronics earn a card’s base-rate rewards (like most other retail categories); thus, you should choose a card that has a good baseline earning rate for general purchases.

For example, the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card earns 1.25 Aeroplan points per dollar spent on retail purchases. Alternatively, consider the Business Platinum Card from American Express, which earns 1.25 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent, or the RBC® Avion Visa Infinite Privilege†, which earns 1.25 Avion points per dollar spent.

Another possibility you might be entertaining is buying an iPhone abroad. Indeed, iPhone pricing varies by country, and owing to exchange rates, competition, and other factors, countries like Japan and South Korea often sell them for cheaper.

iPhone pricing varies by country

Buying in the US, meanwhile, lets you take advantage of a lower sales tax than most jurisdictions in Canada.

Regardless of which foreign country you choose to buy in, you must use a card that doesn’t levy the usual 2.5% foreign transaction fee to truly realize your savings.

Two cards that offer no foreign transaction fees are the Scotiabank Passport® Visa Infinite* Card and the Scotiabank Gold American Express® Card – both of which earn 1 Scene+ point per dollar spent on general purchases, which is on top of the savings you’ll enjoy from not paying the foreign transaction fee.

Plus, both cards typically offer a welcome bonus with a low minimum spending requirement of around $1,000, so by buying the iPhone abroad with either card, you’ll already have earned a tidy sum of Scene+ points that you can use to offset your travel expenses.

Buying an iPhone 16 as Part of a Phone Plan

Canadian carriers will all soon offer iPhone plans in lockstep fashion. In terms of offers for the general public, they’ll try to match what each other carrier is doing; however, if you’ve already been with a carrier for a long time, you might qualify for a retention offer that you can leverage around the new iPhone.

The best way to go about setting up a good phone plan for the iPhone 16 is to ask your current provider for the best deal they can provide you, and then ask the competing providers what they can offer, citing what was offered by your current provider.

An iPhone plan, like other phone plans, is structured such that the rebated cost of the phone is broken down into monthly installments which you pay alongside the monthly service cost.

Since your payments will be billed monthly, you won’t have a lump-sum charge to your credit card, so the purchase won’t go far to satisfy a minimum spending requirement for a welcome bonus. However, since your telecom plan is charged as monthly recurring payments, there still are ways to continuously earn valuable rewards.

Several Canadian credit cards offer elevated earning rates on recurring bill payments, such as your phone bill, so there are ways to turn this monthly expense into some decent rewards.

We’ve written a guide to the best credit cards for recurring bill payments, and you can check it out to find the best option for you. For this article, we’ll look at a couple cards from this list that would be good choices to use when buying an iPhone as part of a phone plan.

The first one is a very on-brand choice: the no-fee Rogers Red World Elite® Mastercard®. This card earns 2% cash back on all purchases, including recurring bill payments, if you’re a Rogers, Fido, or Shaw customer.

As a cardholder, you can also purchase a new phone with a 0% interest rate through the Equal Payment Plan.

What’s more, you’ll receive 50% more value if you apply your accumulated cash back to Rogers, Fido, or Shaw purchases, which includes monthly bills. This means if you’ve already accumulated $70 in cash back and you apply it to your iPhone bill, you’ll get a $105 credit on your statement.

Another card worth considering is the Scotia Momentum® Visa Infinite* Card, which provides 4% cash back on all recurring bill payments.

The card also typically comes with a welcome bonus of an elevated cash back rate, often 10% cash back up to a certain dollar amount. By using this card, the cash back you earn could then be used to help you with your monthly payments.

Additionally and importantly, this card comes with valuable mobile device insurance that can help you not only have some peace of mind but also save some money, as we’ll detail below.

Credit Card Insurance Benefits Applicable to a New iPhone

Using the right credit card to buy your new iPhone not only lets you earn rewards and savings, but you could also enjoy free insurance coverage that can provide some peace of mind.

Given its hefty price tag, make sure your iPhone is insured

There are three relevant insurance benefits that may come with your credit card: purchase security, extended protection/warranty, and mobile device insurance.

Purchase Security Insurance

Typical credit card purchase security insurance wording is as follows:

Purchase security coverage automatically, and without registration, protects most new insured items purchased anywhere in the world for 90 days from the date of purchase in the event of loss, theft, or damage in excess of other insurance, provided the full purchase price is charged to the account.

If an insured item is lost, stolen or damaged, you will be reimbursed the lesser of the repair or replacement cost, not exceeding the original purchase price charged to the account.

The detail that needs to be emphasized from the above is that you must charge the entire lump-sum cost of the phone to the card in order to receive purchase security coverage. Thus, this benefit won’t apply if you buy the iPhone as part of a phone plan since you’ll be breaking its cost into monthly installments rather than paying for it all at once.

That said, there are cards that do provide this coverage even when you’ve only paid a portion of the iPhone with the card. One such card is the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard® – though if the phone gets lost or stolen, you’ll only be reimbursed for the portion paid for with the card.

Purchase security insurance is a feature of most credit cards, even lower-tier cards; however, policies vary by maximum liability limit, so in choosing which card to use for your iPhone, make sure to read the details of its insurance policy.

Extended Warranty

Extended warranty benefits usually read as follows:

Extended warranty coverage provides the cardmember with double the period of repair services otherwise provided by the original manufacturer’s warranty, to a maximum of 1 additional year, on most insured items purchased anywhere in the world when the full purchase price is charged to the account.

Extended warranty benefits are limited to the lesser of the repair cost and the original purchase price charged to the account.

iPhones come with a one-year limited warranty from Apple, and your card’s extended warranty benefit will double that.

However, Apple’s limited warranty only covers inherent defects with the product and not accidental damage, such as cracked screens. Therefore, you might also need extended warranty protection, such as AppleCare+ or a similar service offered by your mobile provider.

Alternatively, you can use a credit card with tailored mobile device protection, which we’ll detail in the section below.

Coupled with purchase protection, extended warranty is a feature of most credit cards, including lower-tier cards.

But bear in mind that the card must be in good standing to continuously qualify for this coverage, so make sure you’re charging your iPhone to a card you intend to keep until the extended warranty expires and be sure to pay your monthly statements on time.

Mobile Device Insurance

As the name suggests, mobile device insurance is coverage tailored for mobile phones. Usual policies read as follows:

If a mobile device is lost, stolen or suffers a mechanical breakdown or accidental damage, the insurer will reimburse you the lesser of its repair or replacement cost, not exceeding the depreciated value of your mobile device at date of loss, less the deductible, to a maximum of $1,000.

Typically, to qualify for this insurance you must either charge the full amount of the phone or your monthly plan payments to the card.

As stated above, this insurance covers mechanical breakdown or accidental damage, such as water damage, so this is more comparable to an extended warranty like AppleCare+. This benefit therefore saves you some money if you refuse other extended warranty plans.

However, the duration of coverage varies by credit card, so before choosing a credit card to use, read your cards’ insurance policies to understand what is and isn’t covered, and for how long.

Mobile device insurance is a niche benefit being offered only by a subset of cards, with a few standout cards being the Scotia Momentum® Visa Infinite* Card, American Express Cobalt Card, the RBC® Avion Visa Infinite†, and the Air France KLM Flying Blue World Elite Mastercard®.

Conclusion

Buying an iPhone 16 presents an opportunity for you to earn valuable rewards – whether you buy the phone outright or as part of a phone plan. Either way, you’ll earn miles, points, or cash back on the charges made to your card.

With the right credit card, you’ll also get access to relevant insurance benefits, giving you peace of mind and potentially saving you some money as well.

Now, the key to all this is to choose the right card for the purchase. You can explore the benefits available in your current credit card portfolio, or you can apply for a new card from the ones we’ve recommended above to earn a juicy welcome bonus as well.

Enjoy your iPhone 16!

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