Contract or SIM-only?

[thatsagoodcuppa]

I'm mulling over getting an iPhone 13 Mini. I've been on SIM-only plans for years. I found a deal with iD Mobile for an iPhone 13 Mini on contract:



It looks like the contract works out cheaper because the phone and minutes/texts/data are included for £719 total cost over the term.

Otherwise the phone is £779 to buy from Apple. With a SIM-only contract of £10/month over 24 months (totalling £240), the total cost (phone + minutes/data/texts) comes to £1,019, so £300 more expensive than the contract option.

Not quite sure what to do. The contract works out cheaper but I'd be tied in for 2 years.

[Yabu]

£719 + 20% vat?

Don’t know where you found that offer but I can’t see that on their website at the moment

Edited by Yabu on Saturday 1st January 01:52

[thatsagoodcuppa]

Found the offer at MSE. Available at CPW.

Edited by thatsagoodcuppa on Saturday 1st January 02:55

[hyphen]

Looks a decent deal op, has been covered on hotuk, so read through comments there https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/iphone-13-mini-25...

Also go via Topcashback/quidco for some more money back e.g. https://www.topcashback.co.uk/carphone-warehouse/

Don't worry about it being a 2 year contract, time flies. It's 5g and 100gb which is more than enough unless you are always travelling. You can always sell the phone and use that to pay off contract if do need to leave. And 14 days return so you can test network (uses 3).

Edited by hyphen on Saturday 1st January 09:01

[Blockbuster]

Take the contract as it can’t be beaten.

In the event that you want out of it in under 2 years, pay the early termination fees and you’ve still saved money over buying the phone outright.

[colin79666]

Do you need the 256GB model? They upped the base spec to 128GB rather than 64GB with the 12. £100 saving if you don’t.

Seems a good deal, just a bit unfortunate that it is ID mobile who have a pretty bad reputation, as do the carrier Three who provide the network behind it. That said if you get a decent signal and speeds where you need it then it could work out fine for you.

[audi321]

The only counter argument is that the contract will likely go up by a % over the 2 years, whereas buying the phone outright wouldn't suffer this (although the sim only would go up too, but not as much).

Take the contract - much easier option. Used to be cheaper to buy the phone outright and go sim only, but it appears Apple now give the networks bigger discounts than they used to.

[Kudos]

I’ve found mobiles.co.uk have had some cracking deals recently

[thatsagoodcuppa]

Cheers for the replies. Funnily enough, I found out that my mum and step-dad are with iD Mobile - I'll ask them how they rate them.

[cobra kid]

thatsagoodcuppa said:

Cheers for the replies. Funnily enough, I found out that my mum and step-dad are with iD Mobile - I'll ask them how they rate them.

3 out of 4 of us in our house are with them. One on a 2 year contract, me and my lad on 30 day sim only. Been spot on so far. I'm tempted to stay and upgrade.

[hyphen]

thatsagoodcuppa said:

Cheers for the replies. Funnily enough, I found out that my mum and step-dad are with iD Mobile - I'll ask them how they rate them.

It's a 14 day cancellation. So stop fannying about, order it and cancel it if sucks

Just don't port your existing number untill you are sure you are keeping it.

[thatsagoodcuppa]

hyphen said:

It's a 14 day cancellation. So stop fannying about, order it and cancel it if sucks

Haha. Yes, boss That made me chuckle.

[okenemem]

thatsagoodcuppa said:

Haha. Yes, boss That made me chuckle.

lol

[hyphen]

thatsagoodcuppa said:

Haha. Yes, boss That made me chuckle.

Remember that deals may be for a limited duration, and if you take too long they may pull it.

[anonymous-user]

Just bear in mind that ID mobile piggyback off the Three network which may or may not be completely terrible in your area. Personally I find it has by far the worst coverage of all the network providers.

[RammyMP]

With Three you sometimes get a good signal but no data. I was on Oxford Street in London with full bars but no data. Quite irritating!

Also if you use the phone a lot during the day don’t get a mini, the battery is st!

[hyphen]

RammyMP said:

With Three you sometimes get a good signal but no data. I was on Oxford Street in London with full bars but no data. Quite irritating!

Also if you use the phone a lot during the day don’t get a mini, the battery is st!

4g or 5g? As I gather three's 4g wasn't the best but they are throwing money into rolling out 5g.

[RammyMP]

hyphen said:

4g or 5g? As I gather three's 4g wasn't the best but they are throwing money into rolling out 5g.

Generally it’s 4g. I changed to EE in the end as I’d had enough!