Cheapest iPhone discussion

swadbus

billykeats wrote: »

Where is this offer as I can only see the £15 a month micro-SIM for the iphone 4? There is a SIM 300 - 12 month on their website but is seems to be a normal SIM card and not the micro SIM

I've just had a look on the three website myself and can't find it now... maybe it's been removed (it is a flaming good deal!)... but it was definitely there, exactly as the current £15 tariff, but on a 12 month contract for only £10.

Try going into a three shop and negotiating for it saying you saw it online on their website. you might hit lucky like i did and get £15 cashback too! It costs nothing to be cheeky, and if it saves you a few quid it's well worth it.

Stuart.

decsdad

sianf wrote: »

I'm nearly ready to click the buy button on 3, but just wanted to run this through with some of you money saving experts....

I've decided I want an iphone, having used some quite basic phones over the past couple of years but paying only £10-£15/month on 30 day contracts, I figured I deserve one now! I don't really want to be paying too much per month, but also can't afford too much in the initial outlay.

So... having read the iphone guide on here I decided to go for the Three deal, it's actually 'The One Plan' which is 2000 mins 5000 txts and All-you-can-eat Data. For the 16gb iphone 4 it's £69 upfront and £35p/m for 24 months... So 35 x 24 + 69 = £909 for the length of contract which on the face of it looks bad compared to the other deals BUT I thought that you can't really compare that to the Tesco 12 month contract as after the 12 months end you still need to pay something for line rental data usage etc. So, I figured the cheapest way of still using your phone after the end of the Tesco contact would be to get a 30 day contact with data included, which at the moment is £20/pm. So 20 x 12 = 240 so add that on to the Tesco cost of £642 you get £882. Now I don't feel so bad about the £909 Three deal, not only that, but I've got more texts, minutes and data than I could ever possibly use and better network coverage in my area.

I was convinced enough to click the buy button, when I thought about cashback. I found on quidco that you get £106 cashback for buying a 'The One Plan' from Three, however the 16gb iphone 4 is not available to buy online. The 32gb IS available to buy online.... this is the same monthly cost but £159 up front. With the cashback it works out as 35 x 24 + 159 -106 = 893 and to make it comparable to the 12 month Tesco deal I took off the cost of a 12 month contract (240) making it the equivilant of £653 in the first year.

Right, (and thank you if you've manage to read through this far) I am getting a 32gb iphone 4 for only £11 more than the cheapst 16gb deal AND with many many more minutes, texts and data.

I am going to bed as my head now hurts, but can someone please tell me if I'm completely wrong about this as I'm going to click the buy button in the morning!!

Cheers

Sian

Thats the deal I went for, with the cashback too, tracked.

Go for it.

billykeats

swadbus wrote: »

I've just had a look on the three website myself and can't find it now... maybe it's been removed (it is a flaming good deal!)... but it was definitely there, exactly as the current £15 tariff, but on a 12 month contract for only £10.

Try going into a three shop and negotiating for it saying you saw it online on their website. you might hit lucky like i did and get £15 cashback too! It costs nothing to be cheeky, and if it saves you a few quid it's well worth it.

Stuart.

http://www.three.co.uk/Pay_Monthly/SIM_Only/Choose_your_SIM

This is the only SIM only plans I can see and the 12 month SIM 300 is the tariff youa re on about but I am guessing I will need to get a micro SIM cutter in order for this to fit in the iphone 4

d123

billykeats wrote: »

I am guessing I will need to get a micro SIM cutter in order for this to fit in the iphone 4

Its very easy to cut a normal sim down with scissors, I've done 5 or 6 now with no problems. There are a huge number of how to guides and templates on the net.

I also noticed my local phone shop was advertising that they will cut your sim down for £1, so if you really don't want to do a DIY job, try your local unlocking shop before spending money on a sim cutter.

eternalvictor

Well I am finally due an upgrade so can finally get rid of the HTC Hero, great phone but is now running very slowly when compared to the girlfriends HTC Desire.
I have decided I am going to just go for it and get the iPhone 4 now and just need to decide my best bet for getting one.
I've never been a fan of paying for a mobile as if I'm paying a load of money each month for the contract I don't really want to pay for the phone. I have checked my upgrade page on Orange and can see that their deal for the iPhone 4 16gb is £69 for the phone, 500mb internet. unlimited texts and 600 minutes for £35.75/month.
I have also been looking at the Three deal which is also £69 for the phone, 2000 minutes, 5000 texts and unlimited internet on the one plan for £35/month.
I was hoping that as the deal from Three was offering a lot more for the same monthly price then Orange may want to offer me something to prevent me leaving them after being with them about 8 years or so.
Apparently it seems that they are not that bothered about keeping me and made no effort to offer me anything to stop me going to Three. This may be because I am only just entering the last three months of my contract so I may wait until I am in the last month and see if Orange change their mind and decide they want to try and keep me, otherwise I think I may well go with the Three deal as I like the unlimited internet.
Has anyone had any luck with Orange in getting a better deal on retentions or is the deal above likely to be the best I am going to get from them?

Robert_27

hey I am little bit confused between two mobiles, HTC Touch pro2 or iphone 4, Its my younger brothers birthday and he is just in first year of computer engineering. Should I buy HTC or iphone 4 or have to wait for coming soon phones like iPhone 5 or other good android phones?.

eternalvictor

Well it all depends on how soon you want to get him the phone. If you want it soon then I would say that if you are going to choose between HTC and Apple then you have the iPhone 4, HTC Desire, HTC Desire HD, or could even go for the Google Nexus S.
A lot depends on how much you want to pay for the phone, if you want to pay for it at all, and also how much you want to spend on a contract.
I am looking to get the iPhone and the £35/month contract still means I have to spend about a minimum of £69 for the phone, whereas if I wanted to go for the Desire HD then I could quite easily get this for free.
If you are happy to wait for a few months until at least June then obviously the iPhone 5 should come in to the mix, albeit at a considerably higher price than the £69 for the iPhone 4 at the moment. You'll also have the HTC Desire S, HTC Desire HD 2, Motorola Atrix, Samsung Galaxy S2 and numerous others.
Pretty much all comes down to how much you want to pay for the phone and how much you are prepared to pay for the monthly contract really.
Having said that though I am looking to get the iPhone 4 as I'm in the last few months of my contract and am hoping that as the release of the iPhone 5 gets nearer then the contracts for the iPhone 4 may get a bit better.

sowellred

Just got off the phone to vodafone. On the eve of getting my pac code they did a deal as I told them I was leaving for the £40 per month 750 mins tesco deal for the 32GB iphone 4 on a 12 month contract.

They have offered;

iphone 4 32GB
£40 per month
Unlimited texts
900 mins
750 MB download plus BT openzone 1GB
12 months contract
unlimited vodafone calls
handset cost of £299

I really wanted to stay with vodafone as their customer care has been first class for the 7 years I've been with them. Also, the whole family has the family and friends deal which would mean I would cost other family members money transferring to a different provider. I've been waiting for vodafone to do the 12 Month contract since before xmas and am happy with the deal I got.

I was looking at the Galaxy tab earlier today but the call from vodafone sealed the deal - my nine year old daughter has an itouch and I can do face time with her - great.

henzerani

Can I just add something. All the advice says go for the shortest contract as it will be the cheapest. But at the moment the cheapest Sim only deal seems to be £15 a month so when you come off your contract that will be your cost. Which means that you have to factor that in when you work out the cost. So iIve done it over the 2 year period of the longest contracts and the 24 month deals seem to be the best if you intend to keep your phone for that period without upgrading. Am I missing something or has this been said already?

And beware 3mobile. I live on the edge of the New Forest where reception is famously poor. I had Virgin before and it was okay round the edges of the NF. When I first got my 3 phone I had no reception at home at all. I complained and the phone signal got better, but only upstairs. The 3G is still poor. Of course at home I can use wifi, but I have Virgin internet so that isn't very reliable and it would be nice to have the iphone as a back up. Strangely enough I'm working in the middle of the Forest at the moment and the reception is superb. So it's really important for you to check reception before you buy, and don't rely on their maps. Those are an aspiration rather than an accurate guide.

LooneR

salthegal wrote: »

That is a cheap way of doing it if you/re a very light user as that tariff only includes 100mins and 100 texts and I think the fact you have to put £500 up front puts a lot of peeps off. Also I dont know how you go about unlocking the mobile at the end of the term if you havent bought it with a contract? So it might be stuck on tmobile. On my iphone after 18months the network sent me an unlock code.

Ive been monitoring the iphone deals for a while now, not really seeing any reductions in price. As Im a big texter and fairly moderate user Im still tempted by the vodafone 2 yr deals over the rest.
£30 a month vodafone deal for 2 years, 300 texts, unlimited texts and internet. With cashback it works out £824 for the phone (unlocked at end) and 2 years of use. :huh:

I still havent decided either especially now Im seeing some really tempting Android deals for a fraction (3rd) of the cost with phones which are supposed to be as good or better than the iphone. Though Im familiar with iphones so dunno if its worth changing. Decisions decisions.:o

I'm a light user of texts and minutes as well but I do love using the internet. As this will be my first fully capable internet phone I can't easily gauge how much my usage will be (I guess T-mobile and 3 don't have a tool where you can track that for the SIM only deal, do they?). But this seems like a really cheap way to do it. Especially 3's 12 month £10 contract where you get 300 mins and 1GB of data - that's quite amazing really. I am even considering waiting for the 5 now and buying that instead of being tied to contract.

I am not even sure if I'll be in the UK in 24 months' time so 18 is the maximum I'm willing to go. Even if I stay I'd to change at some point as mobile phone developments seem to be happening on a 6-month basis nowadays.

One question I have is whether Apple still offer discounts to students and if I can get one with the iPhone. Probably not, I presume.I was also looking at second-hand iphone 4s. They are 50-70 pounds and there seem to be some really reliable companies on ebay plus you have paypal as well. Then again, I am also looking at new Android phones (HTC and Motorola Atrix) and wondering if the iPhone is really worth. OH, the pain :P.