Buying iphones - anyone experienced in getting the best deals?

ToneControl

I am committed to buying 2 iphones for my daughters - £500 each (as a bribe for studying)
I advised them to wait until the v7 is released, since I assume the 6s they want will be available with more memory than  at present for £500

As I understand, if I buy them  from anywhere other than an Apple store, they will lock to the network of the first SIM card inserted.
Giffgaff is £40 cheaper than apple

I have read that "three" do not lock phones
so my  theory is to  buy from giffgaff, insert a three SIM, fire them up, make a call, then  use  whatever SIM card the kids want  to use - some PAYG I assume

Does this all sound like the best plan?

boogieman

Why not buy secondhand? If my daughter is anything to go by, it'll get smashed or lost within a year anyway. I got myself an immaculate s/h 64gig i6 for £320 recently. A 16 gig version would probably be cheaper. Then get it jail broken or just stick with the original provider. 

Winny_Pooh

New hardware is always cheaper on contract, i doubt they will want secondhand. And yes wait until the new models are released and the 6S will drop by more than a tenner monthly.  

sw67

Networks have not been very competitive in the last few years. I have been getting better monthly payments by going sim only and buying iphones from apple over 24 months

Danny1969

It's dearer to get the phone on contract in my experience, if you add up the monthly over the minimum contract term it's generally a lot more than buying the phone even when you factor in call time and data usage

I've generally always gone 2nd hand as the iPhone is the cheapest and easiest phone to fix in terms of screen \ lightning port \ speaker \ mic \ camera damage.

grungebob

Ive bought all mine from a chap on eBay. Brand new just no retail packaging. When given the serial numbers to Apple they confirm brand new. Never had an issue with them. I'm on my 4th version now. 

Tuscan777

grungebob said:

Ive bought all mine from a chap on eBay. Brand new just no retail packaging. When given the serial numbers to Apple they confirm brand new. Never had an issue with them. I'm on my 4th version now. 

Names, we need names! Suddenly I fancy upgrading my ancient iPhone 4....

grungebob

Well it was m.ruk2008 seller id but I've just checked their stock and it looks like it's all now fashion stuff instead? Looking at feedback they stopped selling phones 6 months ago. 

fob

I remember when I was studying for my exams at school, a lad in my year was told by his (rich) parents that for every A he would get £100, every B £80 etc which seemed like an unthinkable amount at the time. I went home and told my dad about it. I knew he would never go for that sort of thing but, just to wind him up a little, pretended that I thought it was a perfectly legitimate way to incentivise me. To my shock he said that he liked the idea in principle and that if I wanted we could do the same and offered his hand to shake as if we were making an informal business agreement. I should have known better but was perhaps blinded by greed and what seemed like a rare opportunity. As we shook hands I heard: 'For every A we're even, for every B you owe me £20...' I tried to pull my hand away but he had a firm grip and a wicked smile. I miss him.  

I believe if your daughters are students then you can get a discount from Apple themselves, 5% - 10% from memory. You may have to talk to someone in a store though as I think their website only list laptops and desktops as part of the scheme.

mynamesnotbob

If you buy a phone from Giff Gaff, they are locked to the network you first fire them up on. So get a Giff Gaff phone, stick a 3 sim in and start up, it is locked to 3. Same for phones from John Lewis, Carphone etc.

The sim does not do the lock, it's the phone. 

It seems the only true unlocked and stay unlocked phones are from apple. Depends how important changing networks is, and if you want to sell on easily. You can always unlock later, but it's a hassle.

BigMonka

ToneControl said:

I have read that "three" do not lock phones
so my  theory is to  buy from giffgaff, insert a three SIM, fire them up, make a call, then  use  whatever SIM card the kids want  to use - some PAYG I assume

Does this all sound like the best plan?

I've never heard of the locking being about the first sim - they've always arrived locked to a network as far as I know.

If they can't get a student discount from Apple then consider getting a sim-free one from John Lewis as they give a 2year guarantee rather than the standard 1year one from apple.

Jalapeno

sw67 said:

Networks have not been very competitive in the last few years. I have been getting better monthly payments by going sim only and buying iphones from apple over 24 months

Yep, me too.

lloyd

I've just dumped my contract for a sim only and now paying just £10 a month for more than enough minutes and texts and data, I don't want or need a new iPhone-a 5s and it does everything I need with plenty of apps, photos etc-though I do pay 79p a month for extra storage. 

I wont go contract again, seems daft, I'll be buying a phone off apple or eBay when the newer models offer stuff I want, the only thing I can see that the 6 does that the 5 doesn't is the movement on the still pictures, I can live without that.

exocet

BigMonka said:

ToneControl said:

I have read that "three" do not lock phones
so my  theory is to  buy from giffgaff, insert a three SIM, fire them up, make a call, then  use  whatever SIM card the kids want  to use - some PAYG I assume

Does this all sound like the best plan?

I've never heard of the locking being about the first sim - they've always arrived locked to a network as far as I know.

If they can't get a student discount from Apple then consider getting a sim-free one from John Lewis as they give a 2year guarantee rather than the standard 1year one from apple.

I got a brand new unlocked iPhone 5 from Apple...or rather I bought one from a mate who had been given it by Apple under the battery replacement warranty.

He was on O2, I put a Virgin Mobile SIM in, no problem.

I've since had 3 and now EE via BT - no problems with any of them.

oaf

fob said:

  I should have known better but was perhaps blinded by greed...

Nice post, especially that part

Alnico

My windows phone went haywire this month so two weeks ago i took my old tablet (Unused since i stopped driving trucks) and a few old samsung handsets that we had in a drawer to Game. I got Almost £100 trade in value against an immaculate condition iPhone 4s 16GB which was £120.
So £20 cash for a new phone and it's brilliant, works great and looks very smart. Not the latest but still a decent capable phone, albeit restricted to 3g but that's not something i will depend on with it anyway.
All i know is i got all the massive features of an iPhone for buttons (Pun?).

Game give a 12 month warranty against it breaking down internally, as long as it's not obviously been damaged by the customer, they will replace it like for like at any store in the UK with the receipt.

I didn't look at the others but all their prices seemed very reasonable on iPhones.

Best of luck.

grungebob

The main difference between the 5&6 is the ability to use Apple Pay, I think the 5s can as that has a fingerprint scanner. It's more useful than you think and technically safer than just using your banks contactless technology. 

lloyd

grungebob said:

The main difference between the 5&6 is the ability to use Apple Pay, I think the 5s can as that has a fingerprint scanner. It's more useful than you think and technically safer than just using your banks contactless technology. 

I'd not bother with that though to be honest, happy enough with te card contactless and its security.

But yeah, little things like the thumbprint scanner make things easier without you realising it, not just for unlocking the phone but straight into a lot of apps without needing to log in (1st world problems hey).

When the next model does something really useful like that I'll upgrade-my iPad is an older model-got it cheap brand new and doesn't have that feature, which grinds sometimes.

robinbowes

I just got a 6S 128GB for my daughter from O2 on their Refresh programme. 

Here's what I did:

Bought the 128gb 6s with some expensive tariff (£15/m phone, £30/m airtime). It was £70 up-front. 

When it arrived, I phoned up and paid off the whole phone plan (24x£15 = £360) and cancelled the airtime. 

I then requested o2 unlock the phone, which they do for free. 

Outcome: "as-new"  128GB iPhone 6S for £430.

R.

ToneControl

robinbowes said:

I just got a 6S 128GB for my daughter from O2 on their Refresh programme. 

Here's what I did:

Bought the 128gb 6s with some expensive tariff (£15/m phone, £30/m airtime). It was £70 up-front. 

When it arrived, I phoned up and paid off the whole phone plan (24x£15 = £360) and cancelled the airtime. 

I then requested o2 unlock the phone, which they do for free. 

Outcome: "as-new"  128GB iPhone 6S for £430.

R.

I looked at their site,  not sure how it works
do you have to already have an O2 phone?

TimmyO

If you can afford the cash outlay I'd buy direct from Apple. 2 reasons:
1. If any hardware issues after the first year they will honour the UK consumer law stuff on expected lifespans - harder to get that outcome if you didn't buy direct from them
2. They come unlocked - more flexibility for choosing a deal now and better for resale later