Phone contract prices (EE)



Just renewed sim only with EE yesterday. Sim only, unlimited data because I clobber it, unthrottled speeds and my Xbox ultimate subscription paid each month for £30.

I’ll stick with my iPhone 13 for a bit but the lightning port could be on the way out.
 
FoldingStars said:
Even the iPhone 13 which is over 2 years old now its cheaper to go on a contract. I always thought it would be cheaper to get sim only and buy the handset but seems nowadays its not, unless you are just after a basic phone or one thats 3+ years old which will be 7+ by the time you are upto 4 years with it. Basically its a joke how expensive they have become but they know they can charge it because its become pretty much a necessity for most.
Click to expand...

That was not really the point I was trying to make.

Contract phones might work out cheaper (I don't know) but the key thing is to avoid using the vehicle of monthly payments to try and justify buying an expensive model. Picking a phone and buying outright tends to remove this temptation.

Yes phone are a necessity. Expensive phones are not.
 
I’m with EE. Pay £24pm interest free for the phone and £14pm for 150gb. Renewal is in 5 months and I’ll go back to sim only at a tenner.
 
SGF said:
24 month contract ended and due a phone upgrade and can’t believe how much they are charging for a phone now. I’m not bothered about the latest model or owt so used to be able to pick up a couple of year old iPhone for £20 up front or something and then get a contract for around £30 a month.

Now they are looking for £700+ for the phone (iPhone 13) and that can be paid monthly and on top of your contract.

Since when has all this changed the robbing bastards?
Click to expand...
I came out of my 24 month contact with EE last year, will be the last time I get a phone included. Was paying £46 a month, sod that. With ID mobile now, sim only for £8, 30GB a month, calls free and your data can be used in Europe as well.
 
Boz33 said:
Giffgaff and keep your phone or just buy one outright …and use giffgaff as your provider. Boggles me people pay 50 quid plus for 24 months for a phone
Click to expand...
Last time I got a new phone EE matched the Giffgaff and buy outright price anyway (I was already on SIM only). If you know what phone you want it's always worth trying to haggle.
 
FoldingStars said:
Its actually cheaper going on a contract, Iphone 13 on a 24 month contract via 3 with 300Gb a month all in is £705, you can go with ID mobiles and its £671 all in, going with giffgaff and buying the phone is £629 plus a sim only say £10 thats £869 all in. I'm in the same position of needing a new phone as my 6 year old one has apps fried into the screen but it seems cheaper to go on a contract now. Unless I've totally missed something.
Click to expand...
The point is if you buy your own phone outright it lasts a lot longer than a 24 month contract.

Say you keep it for five years, then sim only at £10 a month is cheaper than getting a new £30 a month contract every 24 months.
 
UpTheDuff said:
The point is if you buy your own phone outright it lasts a lot longer than a 24 month contract.

Say you keep it for five years, then sim only at £10 a month is cheaper than getting a new £30 a month contract every 24 months.
Click to expand...
Yeah so after 24 months you go sim only, it's still cheaper to go on a contract for the first 24 months, you don't need to hand the phone back, it's yours then you go on sim only till it breaks.

Unless you're just needing a basic phone for £200 it's cheaper to go 'contract' for the iPhone 13 and newer and newer Samsung versions.

After the 24 months you'll be the the same position either route.
 
TexasMackem said:
I worked at EE up until about 10 years ago. I remember the Samsung reps bringing their new phone to show us. Galaxy S4 or S5 I think. They were demonstrating the fantastic new innovative features; screen navigation with head movements and the ability to play a single song on multiple devices - utterly f***ing pointless.

It was apparent to me that technology had pretty much reached a plateau at that point, so I stopped paying over the odds for phones. Couldn't understand the way adults went on over the latest iPhones.

I even had an old wifey going berserk because the iphone couldn't turn her lights on or run her a bath without a sophisticated smart home set up, like some video she watched.

Sim only and purchase a mid range android phone.
Click to expand...
Agree with that. I'm sure in the early days of smart phones there'll have been some pretty mint innovations that would make it worthwhile getting the latest. Now I find them all much of a muchness. I needed a new phone over christmas and, having always had iphones or Samsung galaxy, I ended up paying £160 for some pretty cheap Motorola. I'm sure there's faster phones out there, and ones that do more stuff, but it's got 5g and it's quick enough for websites, watching videos, takes decent enough pictures etc. Think I'll keep doing that and stay on a cheap sim rather than going for contracts again. I'm sure a new Samsung would be better, but they're £1000+ which I just find mental for a phone
 
Guinness Guzzler said:
Agree with that. I'm sure in the early days of smart phones there'll have been some pretty mint innovations that would make it worthwhile getting the latest. Now I find them all much of a muchness. I needed a new phone over christmas and, having always had iphones or Samsung galaxy, I ended up paying £160 for some pretty cheap Motorola. I'm sure there's faster phones out there, and ones that do more stuff, but it's got 5g and it's quick enough for websites, watching videos, takes decent enough pictures etc. Think I'll keep doing that and stay on a cheap sim rather than going for contracts again. I'm sure a new Samsung would be better, but they're £1000+ which I just find mental for a phone
Click to expand...
Ditched the premium Samsung before Christmas when I smashed S20 on the bathroom floor (fell out of pocket after having a shit 🤣 ). Got an A53 for just over £200 and really dont notice much difference with the exception of camera. As you say improvements are more likely to not be noticeable when using them and the selling points are just gimmicks

Edit: Also Samsung don't roll out Android updates to phones over 3 years old now so my "premium model" was stuck on Android 13
 
Last edited:
That iPhone 14 price is for the 128gb model. That'll fill up quite quickly.

My SIM only contract has been free for the last few months. It did used to be £10 but now £7 but it's often free because I use an app called airtime rewards. You get cashback for spending in certain places and when it accumulates you just redeem whatever you want against your phone bill.
 
Got my daughter a IPhone 14 on an unlimited data contract for christmas, £28 per month off one of the third party sites. no farting about.
 
Pay O2 £20 a month for three separate contracts which all have 40gb of data and unlimited minutes and texts.

Data is doubled as have virgin broadband and two of the three you get 20% off via multisave

Would never get a phone from a network again to be honest.

Also if you get Airtime Rewards app and link your cards etc. you can usually get at least £10 a month without even trying that you can redeem straight off your bill
 
pavarotti1980 said:
Ditched the premium Samsung before Christmas when I smashed S20 on the bathroom floor (fell out of pocket after having a shit 🤣 ). Got an A53 for just over £200 and really dont notice much difference with the exception of camera. As you say improvements are more likely to not be noticeable when using them and the selling points are just gimmicks

Edit: Also Samsung don't roll out Android updates to phones over 3 years old now so my "premium model" was stuck on Android 13
Click to expand...
Big thing for me is that the A series doesn't have wireless charging. The charging ports always go on Samsungs.
 

Back
Top