Search for cheap iPhone 4Ss not working..??

Nine_Lives

Have just gotten back from our hols & i was all set to put in the purchase for a new cheap iPhone 4S having decided on this -vs- the i5 & SGS3

I'd been using my phone to browse while away & had followed off of this link: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/cheap-iphone

Criteria being:

* don't mind if the contract is up to 24 months as i plan on keeping it 2 yrs
* It'll be with o2
* iPhone 4S in black, 16GB
* minimum of 300 texts per month & 500mb data per month. Anything else (such as ANY minutes) is a bonus.

So the link above gives off another link for an all-in £565 over 24 months. SOLD i thought!
Follow the link now & there's nothing.

Click the compare by tarriffs link & there seems to be absolutely nothing much below £750 over the course of 24 months, which is a good bit of a difference from £565!!

Actually, looking into it, it'd be cheaper buying the phone PAYG direct from o2 @ £479.99 & then running my £10pm top ups for 24 months which puts me at £720.

The cheap tarriff link doesn't seem to be doing too well for me since i've come back, yet it was showing some promising results when i was browsing on my phone the past few days (mainly around Monday, Tuesday).
Has everything just shut down as they've all been snapped up?


EDIT: The cheapest i've found it dial-a-phone ... The exact same deal i looked up the other day which was £565, except instead of the phone being £49, it's now £149, so all in the grand total would be £665.
* Is there anything cheaper out there that i can't find?
* Are dial-a-phone a reputable company? Have never had any experience of them.

pimento

I've used Dial a Phone. They're alright. Go through Quidco and there will probably be some cashback. I got £70 when I signed up.

http://www.quidco.com/dialaphone/?ac

Nine_Lives

I'd actually forgotten about Quidco.

Just had a look & Quidco seem to be offering £50 for the iPhone 4S that i would be getting

Yet TopCashBack seem to be offering £70.70 http://www.topcashback.co.uk/dial-a-phone/ assuming the £70.70 would pay out for an iPhone 4S (as they seem to give less T&C details than Quidco).

Having said that, i've had more trouble getting money from TCB than Quidco.

gjchester

K_P83 wrote: »

Has everything just shut down as they've all been snapped up?

Could be a couple of things.

If you searched before the iphone 5 was released then it may have been people offering deals to try and hook people before the 5 came out, lets face it, many people will look at the 4 / 4s as a lower model now and buy a 5. Yes it's more but if you are spending it as just a tenner more a month it's not so noticable unless you add it all up. Phone companies know this too and would want to reduce inventory of iphone 4 while they can hence the deals.

Another matter is sales tagets, if the phone company need to hit a sales target they may look to cut the cost of some deals to hit that quota, remember September is the 9th month could be monthly and quarterly targets combining there.

Have you thought of sim free phone and Sim only contract? We use a £10 a month Tesco deal (Tesco piggy back on 02), 150 minutes, 5000 texts and 1gb data, as my wife and I have them on my account we get a family perk of an extra 150 minutes each making it 300 minutes, 5000 texts and 1gb for £10 each. Thats on a 1 month tarrif so if something better comes along we can eaily move too.

For the contract money you are looking at you could get a iPhone 5 for £529 from Apple (with a bit of a wait) and it's £649 for the first year and £769 for the two years, or stay with the 4S for £449 for the phone and £569 for 12 months / £679 for 2 years, or drop to the 4 for £319 /£439/£559 for the same term.

pimento

I couldn't get TopCashBack to work with Dial a Phone at the time.

Nine_Lives

Thanks gjchester -

Regarding Tesco mobile, i've seen them listed but i was put off for the simple fact that they're Tesco. It's not snobbery, but i couldn't imagine that their signal would be much cop. I then discovered they're linked somehow with o2. I don't know whether this means they get the exact same signal strength as o2 or not though.

Regarding the iPhone 5 - i find that it's just extra cost simply to keep up with the Jonses. Yes overall it's better than the 4S & apparently it's double the speed, but when you look up the comparison tests, it's not THAT much faster than the 4S. We're not talking about Ferrari's vs Fiat Uno's here. It's essentially just like the 4S so i'd be happy saving the £100.
As for the iPhone 4, that'd be a flat no. I was going to get one when they came out but held off to discover the bugs - & when the signal drop issue came out & some said it existed but others said it was rubbish, i tried it out for myself & the signal DID drop. I tried it on ALL of the phones on display in the o2 store, where you get a full o2 signal & every single one dropped. Did the same when the 4S came out & it didn't happen.

gjchester

K_P83 wrote: »

Thanks gjchester -

Regarding Tesco mobile, i've seen them listed but i was put off for the simple fact that they're Tesco. It's not snobbery, but i couldn't imagine that their signal would be much cop. I then discovered they're linked somehow with o2. I don't know whether this means they get the exact same signal strength as o2 or not though.

Kinda is snobbery to write them off without research on the basis of the brand name

As far as I know it's the same signal as o2 everywhere, I 've had no more issues than any other network, works most places all have some coverage blackspots here and there.

K_P83 wrote: »

Regarding the iPhone 5 - i find that it's just extra cost simply to keep up with the Jonses. Yes overall it's better than the 4S & apparently it's double the speed, but when you look up the comparison tests, it's not THAT much faster than the 4S. We're not talking about Ferrari's vs Fiat Uno's here. It's essentially just like the 4S so i'd be happy saving the £100.

The aim was more to show the costs, you said about a 4s on PAYG for £720 over 2 years, its only an extra £40 or so for the 5 on the Tesco deal, and the 5 will have a better resale value in 2 years and be current for longer. I suspect the 4S will be discontinued in 2 years time whereas the 5 will have the usual 3 years in it.

Nine_Lives

Have you physically compared your Tesco mobile against someone who has an o2 phone to see whether your signal is the exact same out of interest?

jayme1

K_P83 wrote: »

Have you physically compared your Tesco mobile against someone who has an o2 phone to see whether your signal is the exact same out of interest?

It would be futile to compare the networks side by side, Tesco Mobile is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that runs on O2s network, this means that anywhere you can get an O2 signal you can get a signal on Tesco Mobile, GiffGaff is the exact same they run on O2 as an MVNO just like Tesco Mobile.