Cheap iphone 4 idea??

330d

Right, i think i have got an idea on how to get a iphone 4 relatively cheaper than buying it on a contract. Like i say, its only an idea at the moment and the idea might actually be flawed, but here it is anyway.

Purchase a iphone 4 16gb from ebay for around £370. I have checked completed listings and for this price you can get an iphone that is a few days/weeks old or there are even some sealed ones.

But pay for it on a interest free credit card. You can get up to 12 months interest free cards on purchases.

By doing some research, the minimum monthly payments are around 2-3%. So in this case thats around £8-11 a month depending on the credit card.

Get a sim only contract. I have just got the t-mobile sim only for £7.50 which gives 600mins, unlimited txt and 3gb data.

So this gives you a monthly cost of under £18 a month.

So after 12 months, the balance outstanding will be around £250, but i reckon i can sell it for this much or more at that time.

So to conclude, works out at less than £18 a month, no upfront cost and only a 1 yr contract.


I know this sounds long winded, but once setup its very straight forward. And you can set a direct debit for the minimum monthly payments so you dont miss any payments. And to me it seems better than getting stuck in a 24 month contract which costs around £1000.


What are your views?

Jon_01

Sounds possible.

I'd make sure you do your research on the seller if you're going the Ebay route though. They're are phone being sold that are either blacklisted or become blacklisted after the sale as the seller reports it lost/stolen to get another one.

Make sure they have lots of good feedback and have been trading for a while and should be reasonably safe. . .

redux

Jon_01 wrote: »

Make sure they have lots of good feedback and have been trading for a while and should be reasonably safe. . .

And check what the feedback is for, what sort of typical items are involved.

Some people seem to buy up loads of 1p items, such as referred SIM cards, just to collect feedback points

330d

Fully agree with you there Jon, i would no way buy from a seller with a small feedback. I have bought a few phones over the last few years from ebay and they have all been fine. So fingers crossed, no issues again.

330d

But other than being wary of the seller, any other flaws/problems in the idea?

Jon_01

The only slight issue I can see is that the 4 takes a micro sim and some of the networks won't supply them outside their own iPhone contracts, so you might have to cut the sim down to size yourself. But apart from that, sounds like a plan

eslick

apple are doing 6 months 0% at the moment on iphone 3 and 4 more expensive than ebay but you might get a better phone. as mentioned only problem might be the micro sim

330d

Cheers, good point raised but can easily get around it by purchasing a microsim cutter if t-mobile dont give me a micro sim.

So the search begins for an iphone.

Also found a 13 month interest free credit card from tesco on purchases.

Fat_Cat

I've got the tmobile deal and am looking at getting either an iphone 4 or htc desire HD. Annoyingly there is only about a £30 difference on buying them sim free (£469 at play.com for the htc compared to £499 at Apple).

The lady I spoke to at t mobile said I could change my sim card any time for a micro sim if I phone up and tell them so that would not seem to be a problem.

Just not sure how an ebay phone would be regarding my mobile insurance with my bank account if there were any problems later on. £499 seems a lot to spend on a phone! (even if it does look very nice!)

330d

To be honest, this iphone 4 idea is not for its for my brother. I currently have a Desire which im more than happy with and i prefer it to the iphone 4. In regards to the Desire HD, the spec looks really good apart from the size. In a review, the desire beat the iphone 4 so the Desire HD must be awesome, http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/htc-desire-vs-iphone-4-vs-samsung-galaxy-s-702739?artc_pg=1

In regards to the mobile phone insurance, mine is covered under my home insurance as long i have got proof of purchasing it. So a paypal receipt is more than good enough,

lozzaman

I also have a Desire - fantastic phone, but my word is it data hungry! Probably as I'm watching YouTube (HD mode selected) a lot and have a 3GB FUP so..
As others have said, just be wary of the seller. The vast majority are honest but there are plenty of insurance fraud phones out there which will become blacklisted.

The other thing is with the iPhone4 as a sell on I don't see the need to? I could have ended up with 2 years free contract effectively if I sold my Desire on straight away so I could see the point in that, but since there are no bargains to be had on iPhone4 - wouldn't it be cheaper for the seller to have reverted to SIM only?

The phones I've sold in the past I've obtained from the network retention teams with the idea of selling them on, as an alternative to taking a discount on my line rental. The one year with o2 I actually made about a £40 profit, after all eBay fees on what should have been a £35/month tariff