Mobile phones are expensive, and there’s no way around that. If you want a high spec mobile phone, you have to pay for it. We’d all love that not to be the case, but because they are in such demand, there’s no way that prices are dropping anytime soon. That being said, the way you buy a mobile phone can have a big impact on the amount that phone will cost you over the couple of years that you are likely to own it. Here we have put together a bit of information for you to digest, which will hopefully help you to understand the best, and worst ways you can buy your swanky new mobile phone!
Long Term Contracts at Your Peril!
Long term contracts almost always seem like a good deal when first viewed. A free iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S4? Yes please! If it sounds too good to be true, it’s because it is. These deals indeed give you a free phone at the outset of the contract, but you are going to be paying for your phone and your calls, texts and data for the duration of the contract. What’s more, when you weigh this approach up against other options, you’ll soon discover that it’s not the cheapest way to buy.
SIM Only Deals
Buying a SIM only contract is often the best way forward. A SIM only contract is still a contract with a phone network giant, but because you’re not taking one of their phones on the deal, you obviously pay less money for the contract – a lot less. For whatever you can agree for either the year, or thirty days they ask for you to sign up for, you will get a pre determined amount of minutes, texts and data, and it’s normally for a very agreeable price. A couple of hundred minutes, a similar amount of texts and a reasonable amount of mobile data is probably not going to cost you much more than five pounds, while a twelve month contract for unlimited data, calls and texts should be attainable for around £15. This is a drop in the ocean in comparison to the many, many contracts that cost from thirty pounds upwards. If you consider this route to a mobile phone, you need to factor a few things in.
Find the Right Mobile
Firstly, you should try to find a mobile phone you like, and find out what it is going to cost you to buy it outright. This might be problematic for some people, but there are ways around that. For instance, if you want an iPhone, you can expect to pay around £500 for the privilege. Some people don’t have that sort of cash to hand, which is why they often opt for a long term contract with the phone free upfront. Sometimes a better option is actually to buy the phone with a credit card, and set up a direct debit to pay off the balance across a couple of years. Amazingly, doing this and taking up a top SIM only contract for 12 months back to back works out significantly cheaper than if you opted for the contract. Of course, if you find a mobile phone which is a little cheaper, you stand to make even greater savings.
Do Your Sums!
The important thing is to make sure you get your maths right. Let’s start with £500 for your iPhone. Add to this £15 per month for 24 months if you want to go for a SIM only deal which gives you unlimited calls, texts and data. Overall you’re looking at a cost of £860. At the moment you can pick up an iPhone 5S on a two year contract from Carphone Warehouse with 1GB of data per month, along with unlimited calls and texts for £42 per month. Over the duration this is going to cost you £1008. The difference is huge, and of course, any interest payments on a credit card can easily be absorbed in the money that you are going to save by using this approach.
SIM Only Flexibility
1 year contract SIM card tariffs also give you so much flexibility. If you know that you need all the data in the world but you don’t actually make too many calls, then you will almost certainly be able to find a SIM only package that suits your needs. What’s more it’ll cost you less too!
When you look at the market place and divide it up into these two different options, it seems to us that there should be no question of how you fund your next mobile phone. The contract is sometimes viewed as the most convenient way of getting things sorted out, but at what cost? Don’t throw away your money; just spend a few minutes doing a bit of research to help you save hundreds of pounds on your next phone!