Unpaid phone

Hi I have been with AT&T for a few years m. We have two phones and they were supposed to give us 1000 each for our trade ins but I have already paid over 2000 in payments on my phone and they are still saying I owe 1000. Can I start with cricket if I still owe them money?? I am so sick of paying. 280 a month for two phones and we don’t do anything special just text and talk and surf the web. Thanks for any help.