Apple has been going quite aggressively in the Indian market off late to promote the sales of its devices. The latest device to be bestowed upon with an aggressive offer is the iPhone 5C (16GB) under which Apple is offering a minimum buyback of Rs 7,500 for your old smartphone. The scheme reads as “All leading smartphones qualify for this offer”  and for further details you need to get in touch with your Apple reseller.

Its effect price as a result comes down to Rs 34,400 which can be paid in 9 EMIs of Rs 4,050 using Axis, Citibank, HDFC, HSBC, ICICI, InusInd and Kotak Credit Card. You will become eligible for a cashback of Rs 2,100 if you use these, thus bringing down the effective price to Rs 32,300. If you use a Standard Chartered credit card, you will get an additional cashback of Rs 2,100 which would further decrease the effective price to Rs 30,200. But we are expecting some cash handling charges as well to offset this discount.

The offer is valid from 1st to 30th May. Now this was what Apple states and here’s our take on the offer.

You can anyhow get the iPhone 5C in market for around Rs 35,000 so how about you save your money by buying it from other online stores. So you can sell off your old smartphone in the market and use that money to lower the effective price of the device. You’ll end up paying a certain amount as interest and fees which Apple is offering as cashback but it isn’t really a cashback. You wouldn’t have to pay that amount if you bought it in one go altogether.

So the effective price instead remains Rs 34,400 from Apple. The Standard Chartered customers are the only ones who gain from the additional cashback. In our opinion, it makes more sense to buy the device through other online stores and sell your old device in the market, rather than to fall for this offer. We are pretty sure you’ll end up saving a lot more than what Apple claims.