Puchasing an iphone without the contract

danuk · 13 February 2008 at 8:03PM

so do i have to buy an iphone at £269 and take out a 18 month contract on top? Can you not take out say a 02 £35 a month for 18 months contract and get a free iphone or does the iphone not come free with any contract? just think buying a phone and also paying a stupidly high monthly contract is a bit OTT...

Anyone ?

scorpio13 · 13 February 2008 at 11:02PM

I found this out after purchasing my iphone from ebay.

Normally, when you buy an iphone for £269 from carphonewarehouse for instance (you cannot get it free) - you are obligated to sign up with 02 for 18 months in order to activate (i.e USE) your phone.

But you can get the phone (unofficially) unlocked in order to put any sim card in.
This normally costs around £30-£35 (which is what i'm going to do).

I actually phoned 02 today & as i've recently upgraded they said i would have to take out a seperate 18 month contract just to use the iphone!:eek:

So i'm getting mine unlocked, so i can use my existing sim card without worrying about paying for another 18 month contract.

p.s To the person who asked why i bought off Ebay........basically, because i got it cheap.;)

SenorGroucho · 14 February 2008 at 12:11AM

You can buy an iphone at the O2 shop for £269 and walk out the door no questions asked and no contract signed. If you want to have the official O2 contract for iphone its £35 a month for 18 months on top of the cost of the phone and you activate the phone online through itunes.
You can also unlock it yourself if you are that way inclined or pay someone else to do it...then use any sim you like.
However once unlocked if you update it through itunes to a later firmware then it will most likely relock the iphone to O2.

goldeneye243 · 2 March 2008 at 5:27PM

SenorGroucho wrote: »

You can buy an iphone at the O2 shop for £269 and walk out the door no questions asked and no contract signed. If you want to have the official O2 contract for iphone its £35 a month for 18 months on top of the cost of the phone and you activate the phone online through itunes.
You can also unlock it yourself if you are that way inclined or pay someone else to do it...then use any sim you like.
However once unlocked if you update it through itunes to a later firmware then it will most likely relock the iphone to O2.

Have many people done this? I am looking for an ipohne and was going to buy one from ebay but would prefer one from carphone warehouse...especially as it is only £329 for the 16gb!

SparciaM · 3 March 2008 at 5:08PM

I bought my iPhone from the Apple store, unlocked it and now using my oringinally Orange SIM and contract.

You need iTunes to activate the contract, so whereever you buy it from you can walk out without signing anything.

If they say that you need to sign up, say that the phone is a gift for a friend and they'll be activating and signing up via iTunes. If they still give you hassle, just walk out.

You can buy any iPhone from any store without a contract! If not, speak with management.

Now as well you can unlock an iPhone in less than 5 mins to use any SIM on any network.

Exhortation · 2 November 2010 at 8:52AM

Spam reported.

Puchasing an iphone without the contract

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free