If I sell a contract phone = cheaper than Sim only?

rudeboymcc

Hi. Just did some rough calculatons. I'm on vodafone and was going to get the sim only deal for £15, with 300minutses and unlimited txtx.

then i saw the SE xperia X1. for £25/ p for 600 minus and unlimited txts (used to be £35).

say i get thsi plan, and sell the phone on ebay for £360, that gives me £20 a month off, which is only £5, for 600 minutes and unlimited txts.

Being a pessimist however, say it only sells for £280, that gives £15 a month off, so is only £10 for 600 mins and unlimited txt.


bargain? This does not include of course, the fact that i can reduce the contract after 9 months to an even cheaper one if i wanted to. ANd is a lot easier than the cashbacak, as the only organised thing i need to do is sell the phone.

Have i missed something?

Buzby

Yes. If your eBay sale goes sour and the anticipated financial boost does not take place. This is a risk for you to decide whether it is worth it, some would argue it isn't!

rudeboymcc

With mobile phones the expected price doesn't change much (especially for brand new phones). The prices i quoted were from ebay auctions that had been completed.

Other than problems with actually selling the phone, any other issues I should be wary of?

THe other benefit over sim only contracts is that vodafone sees you as a contract customer, and so will give an even better deal the next year round :-).

Anyone else tried this?

fitshase

I do this all of the time with my 3 contract. I have a sim free phone bought of eBay which does what I need (i.e., makes calls, texts, etc). Every time I get a new contract upgrade phone from 3, it goes straight on eBay.

Last one was a Nokia N95 which went for about £350 as it was near to Christmas.

For me, I don't sell them to reduce the monthly cost - I just sell them because I like the phone I have and I don't need an all singing all dancing phone which surfs the web, has wi-fi, plays music, etc., etc. I just want a phone.

Crazy_Jamie

rudeboymcc wrote: »

Other than problems with actually selling the phone, any other issues I should be wary of?

Nothing that springs to mind. The main issue is the element of risk.

Anyone else tried this?

I haven't personally, but I know people who have. Results have been mixed. I know one friend did end up being better off by flogging the phone with a contract, whereas another misjudged the price he would get and ultimately the phone then dropped in price further when he was stubborn and refused to make a loss. In the end he made a bigger loss through not accepting a smaller loss earlier on. But those are the risks you accept.

KettleFish_2

Are you sure that you are taking into account the fact that the phone isn't free with contracts under £40/mo? With the £25/mo deal, you have to pay £391.49 ONTOP of the monthly contract.

Crazy_Jamie

KettleFish wrote: »

Are you sure that you are taking into account the fact that the phone isn't free with contracts under £40/mo? With the £25/mo deal, you have to pay £391.49 ONTOP of the monthly contract.

Personally I had assumed that the OP has been offered a deal whereby it would be free. Obviously if he is expected to pay more than the second hand price he won't make any saving.

rudeboymcc

lol ! that's that plan out the window then - i thought i was browsing free cointracts only :-( thought it was too good to be true

rudeboymcc

Actually scrap that last comment, I got the idea when looking at a Nokia 5800 which Vodafone do for free with £25/.month contracts.

this ends up at £10 for 200m unlimited txtx a month. so it is still possible, just not with phones that aren't free.

Astec

It can be done, but you have to get the right phone at the right price.

I upgraded on o2 for £20/month, ie £360/18 months. Sold my BlackBberry 8900 for £260 cash, so I'm effectively paying £5.56/month and getting £50+ of service (broadband and a few other bits).

I'd only suggest doing it if you have the money to play with incase it doesn't work out. I'd have been delighted with £20/month for what I'm getting without a phone, so looked at the bundle of cash as an extra.

If you rely on it as part of the deal and it doesn't work out you could get stuck!