iphone: what if you buy it, take it home, then fail the credit check?

welshboy

welshboy

welshboy

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what if you go buy the iphone from like cpw or apple online and take it home and you fail the credit check signing up to o2s contract, do you just take it back? just a question i thought about as i know i had trouble signing up to o2 many years ago.

edit: not sure if this was supposed to be in mobile forum or not, sorry
 
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I imagine you'll be either declined completely, or you'll be given a number to call to sort it out.
 
A friend of mine purposefully failed the credit checks for at&t in the US. He was then given the choice of having a pay as you go style contract. I think that there may end up being a similar thing in the uk.

Incidentally, i am writing this on my unlocked iphone!
:D
 
I wonder what they will do about this! I imagine they might simply insist on a significant deposit and/or a "credit limit" on your use of the phone rather than turning you down completely in most cases. If you fail unexpetedly it would be unreasonable for them not to refund the cost of the phone (and in fact probably illegal) - but equally they won't want to take them back once they've been opened.

I don't understand why Apple have come up with such a strange way of buying a phone - it's certainly going to confuse people.
 
<F0rb> said:
But this is the way they do it in america though normally, isn't it ?
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No, it's not, and there was a big who-ha about it when they launched.

It was pretty quickly discovered that if you fail the credit check they give you the option of a pre-pay tariff. The "method" was to simply enter your social security number as 000000000, which would automatically fail the check.

With any luck, O2 will give the same choice.
 
blairw said:
the phone will more than likly be based on taking a credit check in store, then recieving the handset upon completion :)
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That's not how it was done in the US.

If you buy it in the Carphone Warehouse/02/Apple then you have a right to take it home without a credit check as you have to choose your tariff manually.
 
So I could go into a store, buy the iphone without signing up to a contract, unlock it and use my current sim? How much are they? £250ish?
If thats right I might buy one. But am currently in a contract so signing up to a new o2 is out of the question.
 
Yes, you buy the iPhone like you do an iPod; Once you hand the money over you walk out.

They are retailing in the UK for £269, and yes, you could unlock it to use with your own phone but beware that the new firmware updates are likely to relock the phone.

Check Engadget for the breaking 1.1.1 firmware news :)
 
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