But when I went to the Apple Store app it told me that (duh) my iPhone 12 is paid off. If I want to get one of the iPhone 14 and "continue" with the Upgrade Program, what's the simplest way to do that? I plan on pre-setting up the purchase later today when the ability to do so goes live.

You can of course pay the remaining 12 months in a single payment if you really wanted to. Either way, you need to completely pay off the loan you received when starting the upgrade program. You need to complete 24 months of payments to own the phone outright.

You are leasing a phone and the purpose of the program was for an early upgrade, or to keep the phone and pay it monthly. If you no longer what the device, you can check to see if you can turn it in, but I'm just saying that my particular interpretation of the terms is that you have to pay it off.

Try this: 👉 Sign in to your Apple ID account page and edit your Apple ID details. https://appleid.apple.com. On the Sidebar click Payment methods -> then tap Payments Methods and tap Manage payment method. Or -> Change, add or remove Apple ID payment methods.

Cancel upgraded iCloud storage by downgrading to the free 5GB plan. See instructions in the following Apple article: Downgrade or cancel your iCloud+ plan - Apple Support. The cancellation takes effect when your current monthly billing period ends.