Free laptop deals? Refurbs?

Fruitloops

I've read about phone companies offering free laptops if take out a 24 month broadband contract or something similar.

I desperately need a laptop for work but there's no way I can afford to buy one straight out.

I'm wondering whether to try to find a good deal with one of the phone companies, although I still can't afford much or to look for a really cheap used/refurb laptop. I just don't know where to look. Been googling this but I feel a bit lost. Can someone advise please?

Knub

If you had to or could put money towards a laptop now, what would be the very maximum you would be willing to spend?

There are some very reasonable deals with most vendors these days...what would you use the laptop for mostly?

Fruitloops

Knub wrote: »

If you had to or could put money towards a laptop now, what would be the very maximum you would be willing to spend?

There are some very reasonable deals with most vendors these days...what would you use the laptop for mostly?

Thanks for your reply.

I would be using it mostly for typing and a few other office type things and email too. As for the money issue, I honestly don't think I could afford even the cheapest laptop unless I found a used one for about £50 but then I would need the internet access anyway.

Fruitloops

Actually I could manage without the internet access for a while.

Knub

£50 isn't really a great deal to be working with

Sounds like your best bet would be to go on some well known online auction sites such as Ebay and see if you can pick up something that has a few years on it but will still do the job.

For basic internet use/browsing and running office applications you shouldn't need anything more than a laptop that can run Windows XP.

Minimum spec ~ 1.0ghz CPU (Pentium 4 for example)
512Mb RAM
50Gb + of Hard Disk space

You also might need to consider getting the software too though, unless that is owned/provided by yourself already? You might need to check what comes with the laptop in terms of: Windows, Office, etc.

As for the deals with mobile providers, you could do that but I would be weary of any contracts, payments and all that jazz. The laptop they will be offereing probably wont be that bad and do the job and more than likely be better than what you can get for £50.

Personally if it were me I'd wait until I could afford maybe a bit more and just buy my own no-strings from a well known computer distributor.

If you are really desperate I would probably consider signing up with broadband and taking one of the laptop offers but again, be careful what you signup for.

isofa

Buy it on a credit card and pay off monthly, nothing is free in this world, if you get a "free laptop" the a broadband deal, you are paying for it over the 24 month contract - just a marketing scam.

Good Dell deals here: www.dmxdimension.co.uk

Other than that have a look on eBay...

asininity

If you need one for work maybe your employer should provide you with one, dont be out of pocket doing them a favour.

Go with the refurbs and dont buy from phone companies, you'll end up paying monthly for a rubbish internet connection that would eventually cost you a lot more that the rubbish laptop you'd have. And thats not even mentioning the extortionate charges added on for going over your monthly allowance.

Credit card interest free pay off monthly.

Fruitloops

Thanks for all your replies, advice and suggestions, they're all really helpful :beer:

I'm now looking on ebay and hopefully I'll find something on here, although I'm always a bit wary of ebay sellers, but at the same time I think the majority are probably completely genuine. I just don't want to get scammed. Is there anything I should avoid on ebay when looking for laptops? Or is it pretty straight forward?

Sorry about all the questions

Marty_J

Keep an eye on Freecycle. If you're only going to be using it for office type tasks, your requirements spec-wise aren't exactly huge, and you may find something that someone just wants rid of.

As for eBay, avoid things that look too good to be true. I have a friend who bought an Apple MacBook Pro (rrp £1,949) which had a buy it now price of £199. Thankfully, I managed to impress upon him how incredibly dim he was being before he sent the money.

Fruitloops

Thanks for the advice and I'll check out freecycle too!