Samsung’s New Galaxy Club is the Weirdest Upgrade Program
As a part of the Galaxy S25 launch, Samsung is opening up a new program that will help you upgrade each year to the next top Galaxy phone or pay off any remaining installment payments you might have. It’s called the “New Galaxy Club” and it is very different from the rental program Samsung hinted … Continued Read the original post: Samsung’s New Galaxy Club is the Weirdest Upgrade Program
As a part of the Galaxy S25 launch, Samsung is opening up a new program that will help you upgrade each year to the next top Galaxy phone or pay off any remaining installment payments you might have. It’s called the “New Galaxy Club” and it is very different from the rental program Samsung hinted at a few weeks ago. Instead of being a rental program, it’s a monthly fee subscription program whose target audience I cannot figure out. Let’s walk through it.
In Samsung’s announcement for the New Galaxy Club, here’s how they describe it:
With the Galaxy S25 series, we’re introducing the New Galaxy Club early upgrade program. Enroll for $8.33 per month for Galaxy S25 Ultra and S25+, or $6.20 per month for Galaxy S25, and you’ll get the chance to upgrade to the latest Galaxy device any time after 12 months. Samsung will pay your remaining installments or offer a 50% MSRP trade-in credit towards your next upgrade. New Galaxy Club members also receive one year of Samsung Care+ (without Theft and Loss) benefits on us.
OK, so reading that, the New Galaxy Club really is a monthly subscription program that adds benefits (?) to your Galaxy S25 purchase and should help you upgrade within 12 months whether you’ve paid off your phone or not.
The breakdown of the program is as follows:
- Cost scenarios: On Samsung’s New Galaxy Club page, they list two scenarios, one where you pay for your Galaxy S25 Ultra in full upfront next to another where you finance and pay for it over 24 months. In the first situation, you’d pay $1,299 today, plus $8.33/mo going forward to be a part of the club. In the monthly payment situation, you pay $54.17/mo for the phone plus the $8.33/mo to be in the club.
- Free Samsung Care+: Samsung says that they’ll toss in 12 months of Samsung Care+ as a part of being a member. This would normally cost you $13/mo, so you are saving $5 each month on that cost.
- Trade-in or balance paid: And then in 12 months, they’ll give you $650 (or 50%) off whatever the new Galaxy is by handing them your Galaxy S25 Ultra if you paid for it in full. If you went the monthly payment route, they’ll simply pay off the remaining balance on your device.
So I don’t see how anyone would pay full price for the Galaxy S25 Ultra, plus a monthly New Galaxy Club fee and then only take $650 in 12 months to use towards the next Galaxy phone. If you have a Galaxy S24 Ultra (a phone that is only a year old) and trade it towards a Galaxy S25 Ultra today, they’d give you $900. Unless Samsung plans to dramatically change trade-in pricing for those going from the S25 to the Galaxy S26, this would be a foolish decision to make and you would potentially leave hundreds of dollars on the table, all while paying them for a Club membership ($100 for a year) without any real benefits.
The only way it might make sense is with the 24-month financing. In that scenario, you would pay $750 over the first 12 months (device payment + Club membership) and then Samsung would wipe away the remaining $650 you owe on the device as you turn in the S25 Ultra. But even here, you just paid out $750 and Samsung is only wiping away your balance, leaving you with no phone to trade-in for an upgrade to get a discount. In order to get a new phone, you would then just finance another new phone at a monthly price and with the Club membership.
I guess this makes sense if you are the type to want to keep a monthly device payment for life because you like to upgrade frequently? What am I missing here, guys?
Read the original post: Samsung’s New Galaxy Club is the Weirdest Upgrade Program
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