Reply With QuoteYou're footing the bill so buy a different phone, there are great phones out there at a third of the price.
Bizarre really
Buy 64gb phone for £620
Buy sim only deal on o2 from e2save at £12.50 a month. Buys you unltd mins, text and 5gb of 4g data. Total over 24m £920
Or buy same tariff on a monthly plan from carphonewarehouse at £50 upfront and £53 per month. Total of £1322 over 24m
£400 over two years is a significant saving. Why would you do the latter when the former is available? Is it just cos there is no front loading of a £620 purchase in the latter?
Surely if you want an iPhone you can afford £620 upfront. Especially if it saves you £400 over two years?
Genuine questions. Mrs Snowdon wants an iPhone 6 that I have the pleasure of paying for so I'm looking for best price options..
You're footing the bill so buy a different phone, there are great phones out there at a third of the price.
never been on a contract in my life, PAYG and then sim only deals, in the early years my friends used to think I was stupid, flashing there 'free' upgrades around, now its the opposite, with people coming to the realisarion that they are in fact paying for a phone on a high interest loan,Originally Posted by Snowdon
I always said if you didn't have the money upfront, you could put it on a 0% credit card and pay it off in 12 months.
If my wife wanted an iPhone, she would get an iPhone, and I don't, believe it or not, have much time for Apple.
Best wishes,
Bob
Eg; I was sim only for pretty much unlimited everything on voda.
£20 a month
Then at end of contract...
Negotiated a brand new 5s for just an extra £10 a month
24 x £10 was £240 last time I looked
I couldn't have bought one for less than £500 and they are now £320 or so
This is down to loyalty and negotiation
Let the 6 hype die down and you'll grt s great deal poss from your longest provider?
Chopping and changing doesn't always work
Also look at buying somebody's unopend upgrade and save money too
On a forum like this that makes as much sense as "Why pay X for Y when you can get a casio that does pretty much the same thing for £150 and keeps better time" - people want they want and I don't see the point in trying to tell them differently.
Yeah ok fair point.
24 x 10 is 240, but the amount you paid over two years was £720.
I've done pretty much exactly this.
Bought direct from Apple, £620 and purchased a payg sim paying £10 a month. Had been on my existing contract with O2 for 12 years for which loyalty doesn't mean a thing these days.
I bought my 5 from Apple and have been paying £10 per month to Vodafone on a rolling 1 month contract. Come the time I might get a lets say 64gb 6 for £619, that's £619 + (10x 24) £240 = £859. £859/24 = @ £36 per month. So if Vodafone will do me a deal at £36 I'll take the effectively interest free credit, otherwise I'll just pull out for the phone and stay on my rolling £10 per month. Of course I'll also have whatever I sell my 5 for to go in the pot.
F.T.F.A.
I like to bet that if you didn't take the phone you could have reduced the contract by £10 so really you are paying £20 x 24 months.
To be honest I don't think financial logic necessarily applies in many cases... More often than not its a case of X wants a new phone and can "afford" a high direct debit per month but couldn't afford the hundreds of pounds upfront.
Not my logic but probably he reality of how people perceive what they can afford.
You see you have been far too sensible about this.
The vast majority of the unwashed just want it and don't really care what it costs them. £50+ a month seems much more affordable than £620. Much like car finance (or any finance) it costs more but you can have it now.
I assume this is what apple and all the others rely on.
I can get by on PAYG for £15 per month on o2. I don't need to pay any more than that, my friends can't understand it.
It's all about the upfront cost of the handset. If you are able and willing to buy the handset outright then do so, if not, then you are effectively paying for the phone on credit which is always going to be more expensive. Why would the phone companies offer interest free credit if there was a credit market to make money?
As with all things it's the first step that's expensive, I have a monthly contract (albeit heavily discounted thanks to a friend who works for EE), I sold one of our old Iphone 5's for more than the cost of both of my 6's (one 64gb and one 128gb). I have one of the contracts where employee wife (and daughter) share my data. Contract is tax deductible so after discount and tax it stands me about £40.00 per month, cost of new phones was deductible too so - cheap as chips for me :-).
Yep. Most people haven't got £600 on the hip. Those who have the cash to buy outright will nearly always get a better deal than those who haven't and can only pay by instalments.
As a general principle, it's more expensive to be poor than to be rich. It's the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.
So if no iPhone was taken, contract would have been £10 per month? And then presumably, £0 the year after and -£10 the year after?
You sold an iPhone 5 for more than the cost (to you) of your 64gb and 128gb iPhone 6 phones. Sounds terrific!
Does everything you touch turn to gold?
^
Yes; Can you not feel the pain he's in?
No generally quite the opposite :-), especially when it comes to watches.
However, in this instance it simply works well for me due to the 40% discount on line rental and the discount applied to the phone by virtue of being in the top contract offered. The real silly bit is the 128gb cost me £50, the 64gb £200. The tax breaks just sweeten it further - albeit off of next years bill.
I haven't bothered with a contract for my iPhones for a while now. They've moved the goal-posts by increasing the monthly fee, lengthening term, and reducing data allowances.
Ironically, when O2 initially had the exclusive for the iPhone, it was the easiest way of getting the phone, contracts were shorter, cheaper, and sim-only deals were less generous. Now we're talking £50pm over 2 years! Also, if you pass the end point of the contract and don't change ASAP, you're really overpaying.
I don't use much data, so it makes far more sense to get a £10pm sim-only deal, and pay for the phone outright.
For along time now I've just worked on the SIM free model. My contract with Orange covers me for calls, data and texts, so whenever I've fancied a new phone (typically every few years) I've just gone out and seen what was out there that took my fancy.
For 10yrs+ I was a diehard Blackberry fan, last tried the Z10 which was terrible. Out of frustration I then tried my wife's old iPhone 4S and then never really looked back, that was about ten months ago and the point at which I've dropped it and broken it I'll replace with something else.
Last edited by RichUK; 30th September 2014 at 12:38.
I did exactly this purchased two iphones for a total of £1398 and two sim only unlimited contracts from 3, as I ski twice a year in France for £23 a month. However my current provider O2 retention rententaion team came back and offered me the same phone for free and only £10 more then I pay now with double everything that I have now and 4 months free line rental. So the cost to me over 2 years is £312 per lphone so quite a big difference. A lot cheaper then my £1398 so 3 let me cancel my contracts and apple got there 2 unopened phones back.
It all depends on what your provider is willing to do. Mine are genarlly really good but agin I have no problem in spending the money outright.
and i thought this thread was going to say an anyone who paid £600 for a phone must be completely and utterly nuts!
My company pay so for me it makes no difference, the kids get my hand me downs for free on sim only deals.
I did the maths and after being on contract for 10 years, decided to buy my handset outright. Despite a saving of circa £300 over 2 years, most friends struggle with the concept of paying for a handset. As someone said previously, the majority of folk are happy to pay £50 per month.
Er
I pay £20 a month for sim only regardless.
Going to £30 a month was an extra £10
Therefor the phone only "cost" £240
Then sold my 4s so phone actually comes to free.
W t f?
Showing how much to buy an iPhone iutright is not a true isn't comparison if you are loading it witha sim price as well.
- - - Updated - - -
Er
I pay £20 a month for sim only regardless.
Going to £30 a month was an extra £10
Therefor the phone only "cost" £240
Then sold my 4s so phone actually comes to free.
W t f?
Showing how much to buy an iPhone iutright is not a true isn't comparison if you are loading it witha sim price as well.
Interesting. I just calculated the total cost of my 64gb 6 Plus over two years- purchased through CW and on the same O2 plan that's used in the OP's example. There is an additional cost but it's actually only £132, and that doesn't take account the cost of money (£699) had I purchased the phone outright. Not so bad, then; slightly more expensive with a much lower initial outlay.
Sales people must love you.
Key point, Rob. A big chunk of the monthly payment relates to the cost of the handset. Network providers are now making that breakdown available to customers, but they should also be obliged to reduce the payments by whatever element relates to the handset charge at the end of the term. To my knowledge, they're not.
In the early years you could get 12 month contracts that made getting a contract a no brainer compared to buying sim free. I remember selling my Sony Ericsson S700i (I think) for £150 on eBay after 12 months. My contract was only £20 a month, meaning the phone had only cost me £60 for the whole year.
Now with 24 month contracts it makes more sense to buy sim free and go with someone like giffgaff.
I've had a look at that deal on e2save and (unless I'm mistaken) I see that it requires you to send them your phone bill every two months, upon receipt of which they'll send you a cheque for the discount.
(i.e. £25 p/m phone bill * 2 months = £50; meaning you'll receive a cheque for £12-50 * 2 months = £25; so that your total outlay is indeed £12-50 p/m).
Whilst I respect £12-50 per month is a reasonable saving and sending off a phone bill and then banking a cheque every couple of months isn't a massive chore, it is still an inconvenience and not quite the same as simply paying £12-50 per month direct debit.
This time-cost should be factored in when comparing the deal against other (superficially higher) direct debit tariffs.
I have been "SIM only" for many years and buy a handset through work when I need a new one. I think at one time the handsets were heavily subsidised as they got a big kick-back from the networks for signing people up but now a phone is "essential" that isn't the case.
Deffo. I can't be doing with those sort of deals.
At around the price point mentioned though, giffgaff do a rolling 1-month nano sim with 500min, unlimited text and 3gb data for £12.00/m, or 3 do a 4g unlimited/unlimited for 15 quid.
I fancy the big 6 with the 128GB but at that price I am damned if I will buy it! I will just have to put up with my 5 which is hardly a hardship, hey ho!
I have stopped doing the monthly contracts with phone. It was working out too profitable for the Air time provider. Now I just buy whatever phone I want when I want and my contract has pretty much unlimited everything and costs £20 per month.
I'm lucky in that I have a sim only One Plan rolling contract from 3 at £15 per month. It gives me unlimited data and more texts and talk time than I'll ever use. I kept my 5 for 2 years and now have a 6 Plus I bought at full price. I sold my 5 to help offset the cost. If I was on contract with 3 it would cost me £100+ more over 2 years.
Agreed about cash back being a palava. I have the same deal as the one I cited in my OP but without cash back
I guess the conclusion is that some people are offered better deals cos of loyalty or special promotions. But those deals are definitely not available to everyone
The deals I cited in my OP are available to anyone.
Anyhow. Interesting discussion
Thank you folks!
Would you mind stating the total cost per phone including airtime over 24m. Seems like you're another person who got a much better deal than is available to general folk
I always been on sim on deals last 10 years.
I always just buy the phone out right which currently is samsung s5 mini pretty much same spec as iphone 6 but £300 sim free.
Virgin sim only runs on EE unlimited data, calls , texts £16.50 a month 30 day rolling it was £15 last year. They won't get me off this deal lol
Two years ago, I bought an iPhone 4s 16gb in vgc and stuck a giffgaff sim in it. £12 a month and whilst I use the unlimited data, I only went over my goodybag limit once. So that's £288 plus the cost of the phone, far cheaper than what the contracts were asking.
I think it's the luck of the draw wrt getting a good retention deal from your current provider i.e. if they're currently running a "keep them whatever" policy, you'll either get a great deal on a new phone, or a very good tariff (or both). After that, you're then actually still often better to keep the sim-only contract going and buying a new phone for cash, but regardless, you'll certainly be far better off than any of the expensive headline deals. However, this isn't always the case - a few years ago we had 3 iphone contracts with O2, and when I rang up for PAC codes, they didn't seem at all interested in keeping us (and I didn't go in demanding the earth).
I suspect the networks don't really like too many people on super-duper generous retention deals, but if you happen to be on one, you'd be mad to change it - so at least they've got you long-term.
Exactly this I was on o2 and the last time they removed my unlimited data of my own number and left it on all other 7 numbers, I was unhappy and they literally happily let me go. However I came back to them from voadfone as they were just a pain in the rear end and never did get visual voicemail as promised. This time complete difference, I simply told them that I had already got my phones and new contracts and just needed my pac code. i and made up my mind and nothing they had on offer appealed to me as I did not want to pay £43+ vat on lease or any other line rental that high to get a phone. I went through to a senior retention chap after an hour and a half of waiting who actually asked me why I was leaving I explained and he said it was mad to be losing good customer over this. They literally have bent over backwards, I was quite flabber ghasted that I rang back to check all was in order as I have had fruitless promises from them in the past and indeed it was. I am paying £37 mounds a month now which includes unlimited everything and Microsoft office 365 monthly subscription included as well as a good international data and call package, which is better then 3 networks, as it covers more countries that I actually visit.
All in all I am a happy customer and have no complaints. However next year if it does go ridiculous as this year the contact prices seem to have, I would happily go sim only and buy the handsets outright.
Not necessarily... I did some work with a company a few years back that provided the analytics software for a couple of the mobile phone companies and they explained how your previous expenditure, usage, frequency of upgrades plus all the available personal data etc etc went into creating a score for you as a customer... the higher the score the more 'generous' the customer retention rep was allowed to be when negotiating your renewal, should you phone up to query it.
If you're on a really generous deal then you've probably earned it!
I always buy my phones outright, most recently iPhones. You always get shafted on a contract, especially for 24months.
Not necessarily.
For example, say you want to be on O2 and that you require unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 5GB data per month (i.e. opening post).
O2 do a sim-only deal which would provide the above for £25 (focusing on direct debit deals and ignoring any cashback deals which require more “legwork”)
Over 24 months that is £600.
Now say you want an iPhone 6 128GB. That would be £699.
So the total over 24 months would be £1,299.
Carphone Warehouse currently offer the iPhone 6 128GB on deals including the following:
* Unlimited calls & texts / 5GB / £139.99 upfront / £48 p/m = £140 + 1152 = £1292
* Unlimited calls & texts / 5GB / £239.99 upfront / £43 p/m = £240 + 1032 = £1272
* Unlimited calls & texts / 5GB / £309.99 upfront / £38 p/m = £310 + 912 = £1222
So all of those deals are cheaper over 24 months than the sim-only deal plus you don’t have to pay as much upfront.
Well, bear in mind that's only for 12 months rather than 24, and you also get an automatic cash back either stuck straight on your card if you buy in store or automatically sent to you as a single cheque for the full amount (ie no legwork whatsoever).. It makes it a 12m deal for £18/m.
That skews the numbers in favour of the buy handset separately option by a good hundred quid. It's also a factory unlocked handset with support at any apple store rather than a locked handset where you have to deal with CW...
Last edited by kungfugerbil; 1st October 2014 at 21:16.
Which company / store is offering that deal / modus operandi?
Looking at the website mentioned in the op (e2save), they require you to post your phone bill to them every 2 months, whereupon a cheque is then posted to you.
Last edited by CamCG; 1st October 2014 at 22:25.
Carphone Warehouse.
Last edited by kungfugerbil; 1st October 2014 at 22:44.
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