Times are hard, how do you buy your next smartphone?

Times are hard, how do you buy your next smartphone?Money. It’s increasingly hard to come by. The recent Budget yet again showed that the country is really stretched. But, in the middle of it all, we’re still finding ways of affording phones that cost around £500. It is, if we’re honest, a lot of cash. If you get a phone through a contract then you’ll usually sign up to a two year deal.

Things are changing, but slowly.

The standard two year contract is what a lot of people still go for. I think this is mainly because it’s easy. You shop around, you get the phone you want, then it’s a little drip-drip-drip charge each month for 24 months. People also tend to go for this deal because the phone is “free” on a lot of deals. It’s not of course, and although most people realise this it’s chopping the cost down into comfortable chunks is what most people prefer.

It is, however, a loan if you think about it. Let’s look at the average £36 per month deal. It works out at £864 of the two years. Based on these rough sums, and the phone being £500, there’s £364 for the network, or about £15.17 per month.

Times are hard, how do you buy your next smartphone?

That, to be honest, is actually a pretty good deal, but people are seeing new phones appearing almost monthly and there’s an increasing “want” for those flashy new handsets. For those, there’s now a definite increase in Pas As you Go and Pay Monthly offers. People get the phone they want, they sign up to a monthly contract, and get a good deal on a rolling monthly plan. You can also port your number too. Still, you have to buy that expensive handset, and that’s always a bit of a problem. To raise cash you could always sell your existing phone on eBay but, as we’ve mentioned recently, the fees can be pretty hefty when you get the final listing fee. Especially if your phone sells for several hundred pounds. You can perhaps try mobile phone recycling and get cash that way, but you will have to ensure that your existing handset is in good condition.

Another way is to try a finance deal. Although this instantly scares people it’s not really much different to entering into a contract. There’s good kit for under £40 per month at Expansys and you only only tie yourself into a 10 month agreement. When you add a Pay Monthly plan (for let’s say another £10) you can see that the initial few months are going to be expensive, but after month 10 you’re going to be paying a lot less than other people with similar handsets on contracts.

Comments (6)

  1. phil
  2. Bob
  3. Martin
  4. Bobby
  5. Snitch