anyone get a phone contract to sell the phone?

Soldato
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Wokingham
I got unlimited mins, texts and data from vodafone for £25 a month with the handset (S3) at no extra cost. That was when the S3 was relatively new. I think next time I will just go SIM free and buy the phone outright. However I'm still happy with the S3 but have over a year left on the contract :(
 
Soldato
Joined
15 Dec 2007
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16,566
Explain with actual figures so I understand what you mean please.

Free Phone
£30 a month contract
24 month contract

= £720 with unlimited internet, texts and calls.

£600 phone
??? calls, internet and text.

If you buy the phone outright you need to spend less than £120 over two years topping it up or on a contract to save any money. That only gives you £5 a month..
 
Caporegime
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England
Yes sometimes there are redemption deals which bring the total cost of the contract below the RRP of the phone but it's not like that kind of deal is always available on every phone. Having a look now at S4 deals and I can't see any offers which bring the 24 month contract cost down to the phone cost. I'm sure if the latest flagship Samsung or iphone was always available on such a contract for £15 p/m they would be very popular deals.

I've found it more the rule rather than the exception that 24 month redemption contracts are much better value than buying the phone directly.
 
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Soldato
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Cambridgeshire
When I got my one s I went looking around for the cheapest way to purchase it long term. Considering how much I use the internet on my mobile it was never going to cost me less than £10 per month on pay as you go/sim only. When you add the cost of the phone itself over 2 years it comes to £600 or so. Provided you use your phone a reasonable amount I can't see how a contract wont work out cheaper.

I'm on a 24 month contract at £21 a month so it was definitely cheaper for me to get a contract and I can use as much data as I want. I don't think being tied to a contract is a bad thing as it generally means you wait until your contract renewal until you buy a new phone. Who really needs a new phone every year?
 
Man of Honour
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Phones are good enough now that you don't need to spend a lot of money on them... or at least not regularly. My iPhone4 has seen me good for almost 3 years. Currently pay £10 payg.
 
Soldato
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Wales
The best way is to buy the handset outright and get a sim only deal, I hate 24 month contracts its ridiculous, its nice to be able to change phone when a new one comes out without being locked into rape by direct debit for two years!

We have American operators to blame for 24 month contracts as they were always the norm over there, long before they were here

Depends how much you care about having the latest and greatest though. Got my current phone in May last year on a 24 month contract, have no desire to get rid of it yet even if i could. Previous phone i had on a 24 month contract and then kept it rolling for another 6 after it finished. And before that it was PAYG because they were ancient times :D
 
Man of Honour
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Wiltshire
I can't fathom buying sim only these days, if you get a 24 month contract on redemption it's usually only a bit more expensive than buying the phone itself, yet you get two years of texts/calls/data. My galaxy note is only £15.xx a month after redemption, it was retailing at around the £400 mark when I got the contract.
Most are £20-25 a month so yours is fairly unique deal there. I'd prefer not to be locked into a 2 year deal and just buy the phone up front and use Giffgaff sim only (£7.50 a month - can change this if you need to use the more or less to suit).
 
Soldato
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N. Ireland
Slightly off topic but wanted to ask.

My mom is thinking of getting a contract phone atm from CPW, thinking of getting S3 mini
with the Galaxy Tab for £27/month, is it a good price?

She can only afford contracts and she doesnt care about the latest and greatest, she was originally going to get an Iphone 4s for £27/month.
 
Associate
Joined
7 Mar 2010
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946
Slightly off topic but wanted to ask.

My mom is thinking of getting a contract phone atm from CPW, thinking of getting S3 mini
with the Galaxy Tab for £27/month, is it a good price?

She can only afford contracts and she doesnt care about the latest and greatest, she was originally going to get an Iphone 4s for £27/month.

Surely just buying a sub £100 phone and getting a sim only contract would be much better for someone who can't afford much?
 
Man of Honour
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17 Oct 2002
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159,534
I can't fathom buying sim only these days, if you get a 24 month contract on redemption it's usually only a bit more expensive than buying the phone itself, yet you get two years of texts/calls/data. My galaxy note is only £15.xx a month after redemption, it was retailing at around the £400 mark when I got the contract.

I am on a SIM only deal.

I pay £12 a month for unlimited data with tethering, unlimited texts and 150 minutes (I could have paid £15 for 400 minutes but chose not to).

I then purchased my HTC One outright for £489.

Effectively '£32 a month'. Nobody offered a 'Free' HTC One with what I have for under £32 a month at the time.

This worked out cheaper than any comparable deal I could find. This is probably how I'm going to buy phones in the future, too. It's just less hassle, cheaper and more flexible.
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Jan 2003
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3,273
Location
Brighton
Slightly off topic but wanted to ask.

My mom is thinking of getting a contract phone atm from CPW, thinking of getting S3 mini
with the Galaxy Tab for £27/month, is it a good price?

She can only afford contracts and she doesnt care about the latest and greatest, she was originally going to get an Iphone 4s for £27/month.

How heavy a user is your mum? Ovivo sim only is essentially free after a £15 outlay with a monthly allowance of:

150 mins
250 texts
500MB data

Obviously that's a very light usage.
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Apr 2007
Posts
11,786
Friend of mine got a contract be because it came with a "free" Samsung tv.. I don't think he is considered the poor allowances and second rate handset..

That said I do like to have a cutting edge phone, so I'm currently stuck paying over the odds for an s3, got about a year left on the contract..
.
I think the best thing to so is buy Phones that have been out for 12 months with cash and then get a appropriate Sim only plan.
 
Soldato
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5 Jul 2005
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Brighton
You lot are nuts, i just buy phones once they aren't popular anymore. Current phone is an S2 bought 6 months or so ago for 100 quid, i just chuck the same PAYG sim in each one and spend 5 to 10 quid a month.

So over 2 years you pay £340 for an old, second hand phone. Whereas I got my dad a brand new, better phone, all his calls etc. for £10.50 a month (£252 over the contract).

Nuts.
 
Caporegime
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....
[TW]Fox;24607427 said:
I am on a SIM only deal.

I pay £12 a month for unlimited data with tethering, unlimited texts and 150 minutes (I could have paid £15 for 400 minutes but chose not to).

I then purchased my HTC One outright for £489.

Effectively '£32 a month'. Nobody offered a 'Free' HTC One with what I have for under £32 a month at the time.

This worked out cheaper than any comparable deal I could find. This is probably how I'm going to buy phones in the future, too. It's just less hassle, cheaper and more flexible.

Don't see the point in this myself really, I pay £35 a month (HTC One X, brand new at the time) and get 2000mins, unl texts, unl internet. I don't need to worry about selling either and is only £3 extra a month.

Maybe I was just lucky to get it for £35 a month...
 
Man of Honour
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17 Oct 2002
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159,534
With which network? There were cheaper SIM only deals but all where either with Three, who I didn't want, or barred tethering.
 
Soldato
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Deep North
I currently have an iPhone 4 on a 24 month contract for £30 a month which is up in October. I want to reduce this down to £12 a month on a sim-only rolling contract. Don't want another £30 deal again for a while.
 
Caporegime
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....
[TW]Fox;24607693 said:
With which network? There were cheaper SIM only deals but all where either with Three, who I didn't want, or barred tethering.

T-Mobile, only go with T-Mobile these days always been good to me and I've always found the signal to be good. That and they're data plans are awesome, which I use frequently.
 
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