I fully admit that I got all caught up in the hype. I was all set to go, stand in line mind you, and buy an iPhone almost forgetting how much I actually dislike AT&T. The allure of the pre-paid phone plan broke down my defenses and got the better of me.

Here I was thinking that I could go out and buy an iPhone without having to sign up a contract to what I consider to be the one of, if not the, worst wireless carriers in the United States, buy using the iPhone pre-paid option that we talked about a month or so ago, however, low and behold, AT&T finds a way to disappoint yet again.

You wouldn’t believe what you have to do in order to utilize the iPhone pre-paid option…

That’s right… You have to fail a frigging credit check.

It would be one thing if AT&T were subsidizing the price of the phone banking on consumers signing up to long term contracts to recover their costs. AT&T, however, is making anywhere from 4% to 8% margin, by some analyst reports, on each iPhone sold.

AT&T is basically saying that if you credit sucks, we will let you buy an iPhone outright and pay for your service month to month up front. If, however, your credit is good, we are still going to make you buy your iPhone outright up front, and, were going to make you sign a service contract on our crappy, slow ass network.

Looks like my Friday has just cleared up…

[Via BGR]